SAN FRANCISCO: SF Interactive (SFI), a pioneering interactive marketing agency, has announced the launch of its proprietary Ad3 ("Ad Cube") platform. The new ad unit acts as a multi-dimensional, interactive advertising and branding environment that allows online viewers to interact with strategic marketing content in uniquely engaging and fully-measurable ways.

An official release informs that the Ad3 unit houses video, sound, 3D animation, and text-based documents and content -- stimulating longer viewer interaction and stronger branding implications.

The Ad3 unit meets all standard IAB size requirements and provides a much more robust marketing vehicle because of the quantity and quality of the rich media it contains. It acts as a mini-website, with content accessed through simple, point and click user interfaces that keep viewers on-site longer, instead of redirecting them to other sites via click-throughs typically associated with banner ads, pop-ups and interstitials.

SFI's President Bruce Carlisle was quoted as saying: "Marketers have been searching for a multi-purpose branding vehicle that extends, re-purposes and integrates rich media content developed for their marketing, advertising, sales and business development programmes. The Ad3 is a revolutionary new advertising platform that allows advertisers to enhance brands, generate leads, and measure viewer actions with precise Return on Investment (ROI) tracking tools."

SFI states that it has already deployed the Ad3 for several clients including Cisco, VeriSign and Quantum. It is in active pursuit of contracting with leading online publishers to have them adopt the technology platform and offer it to all advertisers as a new ad unit format.

VeriSign says that it learnt a lot from its first Ad3 execution. Now the company is enhancing it with a downloadable white paper and an interactive FAQ (frequently asked questions) to provide online viewers with deeper product knowledge right at the point of interaction.

With only a 25 KB footprint, high-speed serving solution, and full tracking and measurement capabilities provided by third-party BlueStreak, the Ad3 allows publishers to accept advertising with up to 50 megabytes of information content. In some tests of the Ad3, interactivity has exceeded publisher norms by as much as 400 per cent.

SF Interactive constantly innovates in the rapidly evolving art and science of online marketing. The agency offers a broad-based, fully integrated practice focusing on interactive marketing and media strategy, online media services, direct email, data analytics and Web development.