AOL Presses Play on AIM Video Ads

Jeff Hester
October 13, 2004

AOL has stretched the boundaries of advertising via IM yet again, in an unending attempt to monetize the enormous base of AIM users. The latest concept? 30-second live action video shorts called "AIM Buddy List Super Video."

These videos are small advertisements that appear in your AIM buddy list where a traditional rectangular ad would appear. The video by itself is not too bad, but the audio is giving users fits. Although AOL does give you a way to turn off the sound, having a 30 second audio interruption is annoying at best, and if you’re listening to music on your PC, it can be infuriating.

While the added depth of audio and video is intended to draw attention, I’m not sure advertisers will garner the kind of attention they desire. Then again, they say there’s no such thing as bad publicity.

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