24/7 Media Inc. yesterday debuted the Superstitial Network, a group of more than 40 high-traffic Web sites in the United States and Canada that are certified to receive online advertising in the form of Unicast's Superstitial rich media ads. Sites in the network include AT&T, Women's Forum and Real Cities-Knight Ridder.
The company said the sites in the network generate nearly 1 billion impressions a month and represent 32 percent of all the impressions on the 24/7 Media Network.
Developed by Unicast in 1999, the Superstitial is an ad format that is sold by more than 350 Web sites and ad networks and is used by more than 150 advertisers.
24/7 Media, which said it was one of Unicast's first ad network partners, has run a number of campaigns using the company's Superstitial ad format. It initially began offering Unicast's Superstitials in August 2000.
The company said the ad formats have been fully integrated into its network since September. Full integration means that in addition to 24/7 Media's ability to manage sales, targeting and scheduling for the Superstitial campaigns run within the 24/7 Network, it also is able to manage tracking, reporting and billing for each campaign.
24/7 Media said that campaigns using the ad format on average see a 200 percent higher response than with other ad units.
“That's why we've decided to develop a network-within-a-network for Unicast,” said Will Tifft, vice president and general manager at 24/7 Network. “It's really a subset of our existing network.”
Tifft noted that 24/7 Media is serving Superstitials to about 70 of its 350 network partners.
