mario garcia
Experimenting with ads If there is one area where the Internet has left a mark on print, it is advertising. The limited size of the screen affords designers and editors a small canvas for editorial and advertising elements. This cozy cohabitating has produced adventurous ad placements, which are giving rise to experimentation in publications, such as:
Wraparound: Some newspapers allow advertisers to buy a four-page wrap around, especially when a new product is introduced into the market. Some, like Colombia's highly respected leading daily El Tiempo, of Bogota, carried a L’Oreal shampoo ad around its first section, with no major disruption or complaints from readers. Unusual Shapes: Ads are no longer limited to rectangles at the bottom of the page. When Compaq computers introduced a new line of products in Denmark, the largest circulation daily, JyllandsPosten, accommodated ads for the computer maker in circular or triangular shapes, with news items surrounding the ads. Silent Ads: Perhaps the most innovative, these ads appear in the midst of navigational devices, such as indexes or promo boxes. In this type of ad, the only message is a brand: Visa, MasterCard, and Nike. Seen mostly in German or Scandinavian newspapers right now, these will soon be extremely popular everywhere.
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And so, in today's newspaper, all kinds of experimenting with ad positioning is key. Some ads appear at the top of the page, and not at the bottom; and, yes, the editorial content is placed directly under the large ad at the top (keep the depth as shallow as possible, please); other adds appear as islands, especially in the middle of large masses of text, as in stock listings or sports results. We have only seen the beginning of experiments with ad positioning. The staircasing of ads may finally be a thing of the past. That is good news for designers, editors, and definitely readers. 
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mario garcia
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pure design
Ads coming of age: The greatest experimentation with advertising positioning is taking place in Denmark. When we worked with the Jyllands-Posten team in Copenhagen, it was refreshing to be able to use advertising away from the basement of the page and to use other unusual placements, as these three examples show. This is the future, the eventual integration of advertising and editorial content. Savvy readers know the difference between the two.
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