Ads that work

We are constantly spammed and shown a multitude of ads as we move from page to page on the Web. Yet, I don't recall the last time I clicked on any of these.

This past Friday I was reading a story on MSNBC about Google and Yahoo. I have been doing some research on regards to both of these two search engines powerhouses. I read of yahoo buying a new service and was interested on reading about these as it rivaled Google's new Calendar service.

When looking into Yahoo's Upcoming.org service, I landed on Yahoo.com to be mesmerize by an ad about Saturn's new car (see image on the left) and found myself for the first time clicking on an ad. I don't know whether it was because I'm a car fanatic or because of the way the flash ad loaded and showcased the vehicle, but I like to think it was the latter.

The design of this car is magnificent and rivals many of its competitors, but with a much lower and attractive price. Though not a big fan of Saturn or American cars in general, I hope the car does well, in the hopes to see some of its competitors lower their prices.

The bottom line is that with a really attractive ad you can achieve a lot. I further investigated Yahoo as it provided something I never noticed before but apparently has been there for a while, that is, Yahoo allows you to rate the ads you see. This is a phenomenal feature as it not only provides some ROI for the investor, but further gives Web designers feedback they don't often receive.