COCA-COLA's European division signed on today as high-quality Web-based TV provider Joost's first widget advertiser. Coke Bubbles will allow Joost users to send IM/e-mail hybrid "bubbles" with comments about the show to their friends.
Widget advertising is hardly new--Google has been testing Gadget ads since the spring--that Coca-Cola signed on with brand-spanking new Joost is definitely worth noting.
Advertising in the WidgetAge will be a new and scary frontier--it's been over a decade and advertisers still haven't mastered the art of the pop-up or banner ad. There are dozens of ways to drive users from a widget to a Web site--videos, RSS feeds, games. The challenge of the Widget ad will be creating user-friendly and interactive content that will get WidgGeeks to post them on their profiles and blogs, to pass them on to their friends, or to add them to their dashboards.
The rise of widget based advertising will be like a return to the days of word-of-mouth advertising--advertising by word-of-mouse, if you will. New media like Joost requires a new type of advertising (though Joost scored major campaigns in more traditional video form even before the software launched). Coke Bubbles isn't really about Coke, it's about a new way of dishing on your favorite show or actor; Coke just happened to brand it. The challenge of advertising in the Widget age will not be branding or marketing your product, it will be doing that on an application that is fun and exciting and relevant to the place you want your Widget hosted.
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