Online advertising is interesting only to experts in online advertising. Fewer and fewer people are actually clicking on the banner ads which often deface otherwise reasonably attractive web real estate.
Today’s invention is a way to increase the attention paid to such ads.
When someone clicks on an ad, the coordinates within the banner are sent by the browser to the ad server. This determines whether the click has occurred at a number of ‘lucky locations.’ When the browser opens the new page, it announces that a prize has been won (or not). This might take the form of redeemable coupons, vouchers, micropayments or discounts for products on the site of interest.
Obviously, the lucky coordinates would need to be automatically changed, from moment to moment, to stop either manual or automated searching for some fixed hotspot.
All of this leads to more enthusiastic, participative clicking-through and might be employed to help overcome the fierce resistance to ads in games which is now being shown.
