So much for whitespace: AdCamo launches background ad network

Louis Dorman just launched AdCamo, a new advertising medium. AdCamo spots run on the backgrounds and surrounding space on Web pages and software applications. So instead of seeing all that lovely whitespace around your favorite blog content, you'll see your blog hovering over a giant, tiled ad.

It's brilliant. Also, it's terrible.

Why it's brilliant

Before.

Advertisers will love it. This kind of in-your-face branding is very powerful, and advertisers will pay for it. Compared with standard text ads, and even banner ads, these background advertisements simply cannot be ignored.

Until now, only big sites, like CNET, could engage with their advertising customers to secure these kinds of deals. When they did, they were lucrative.

Dorman says his technology, which pulls ads from his network in real time to publish them on his customers' sites, is protected by global patents. His unclickable background ads are served simultaneously with with standard banner ads, so the viewer can take action if they want. AdCamo has technology that measures the time between the background ad loading and any click activity on the ad's banner. The company reports this to advertisers so they can tweak their campaigns to get viewers more involved.

Implementation for publishers should be easy. A modification of a CSS style sheet should enable AdCamo campaigns to show up. Publishers will be able to select from specific campaigns or chose rotations in their category.

AdCamo is a technology company; the ads themselves will be sold by STG Media.

Why it's awful

After.

Advertisers, as I just said, will probably love this concept. Some long-tail blog publishers might like the extra money, too. But users and readers will pay a price. These background ads can really junk up a Web page and can confuse the reader about which parts of the site are content, and which are advertiser-provided. Dorman says he will be hands-on with the advertising campaigns to make sure the visuals aren't too assaultive. However, I do not think that it will be possible to keep crap off of this network.

Let me be clear about this. While I am a big fan of clean design, my objection is not about preserving some anachronistic principle on what blogs should and should not look like. It's about readability and clarity. There's a place for advertising--even creative ads that steal your attention--and I don't feel that place is in the "useless space" (as Dorman calls it) on a Web template that some designer has carefully laid out to maximize readability and user comfort.

Dorman and I talked frankly about his company. I found him to be thoughtful, future-oriented, and in possession of good business smarts. That doesn't change my opinion on this product. I only hope the AdCamo campaigns pay publishers enough to compensate them for the attention they lose from their readers.

[jared0001]

There are much stronger players in the market, with deep advertiser relationships and more sophisticated technology. Also, the backgrounds on AdCamo's site look like they came from MacPaint and the "K.I.S.S Method" reference in ?About Us" makes me wonder if this is a class project. Louis should spiff up the site and use it to get a mid level job at a large ad network.

[Lousidormanisachump]

Yes, Louis Dorman holds a certification from Art Institute. He paid lawyers thousand's of dollars for this patent and that he would be a "millionaire" from this idea. I believe he is known as a fraud in the body building world, Google him...
Yes, he should use it to get a job which pays for an accredited degree.

[rlcato]

This would be good for a pr0n site. They like that sort of thing.

[Lousidormanisachump]

The examples on the website are of a 5th grade level. The idea is weak at best

[emptyspaceads]

For a slightly different take on the AdCamo check out http://www.emptyspaceads.com. Our idea is that your site's empty space isn't providing you any value beyond simple aesthetics. Firstly, the ads only appear when when your user's mouse is in the empty space of your site, and they only appear within your site's empty space. So for some users, they'll never see the ads.

You can create your own ads, or serve ads from 3rd party ad networks (currently ShoppingAds only). Creating your own ads allows you to drive users to content on your website or blog that you monetize well (a CafePress store for example), or behavior you'd like to encourage (like more RSS subscribers). See our blog for an example (http://blog.emptyspaceads.com).

David Parkinson
emptyspaceads founder