MediaMind Co-founder & CEO Gal Trifon was recently interviewed by Andrew Warner, founder of Mixergy.com, where this interview originally appeared.

Gal Trifon and his MediaMind co-founders had an idea for simplifying the creation of rich media content online. They knew they had a good idea, but what they didn’t know who would pay to use it? Unlike tech companies that launched before them, Gal and his team didn’t have the luxury of focusing on their product and hoping that customers and profits would come “someday.” They launched in 1999, a tough financial environment, so profits were critical.

How did they pull the pull it off? Listen to the interview to hear the full story.

Although the 9th Annual MediaMind Rich Media Awards ceremony is already behind us, the creative lessons provided by the winners are still relevant. And in the spirit of ‘the year of review’ articles abound this time of year, we decided to take a closer look at what made these ads stand out among their peers. While reviewing creative is certainly subjective, nearly all nominees had two traits in common: highly visible ad formats and a heavy use of interactive features.

An analysis of the nominees shows that stand-out ad formats are key for making it to the final. Among the nominees, the most popular ad format was the HomePage Takeover. The benefits of Takeovers are in their ability to utilize significant online ad space that gives brands meaningful exposure to audiences and attract users’ attention. An additional benefit of HP Takeovers is their ability to extend the campaign’s reach due to their prime location.

The advantage of HP Takeover’s visibility is clear when examining the NA Judge’s Award Winner – “Rabbids Go Home” by GamesRadar. In this campaign, the entire page was optimally used for brand and game promotion by enabling the rabbids to wreak havoc over the homepage, eventually resulting in the page being flushed down the toilet. Not the most elegant of ads, but certainly a memorable one.

The second trait common to many of the awards nominees is the heavy use of interactive features.. Ads with interactive video or a game don’t just attract attention, they also keep users engaged for a relatively long time. In fact, ads with variousinteractive features have a Dwell Time that is 18% higher than ads with less interactivity.

For example, the Avatar ad, winner of the International People’s Choice Award, provided a new standard of interactivity. The movie trailer contains “hot spots” that let the user interact and delve deeper into the video, with the ability to pause and zoom in at any point in the video.

Overall, an analysis of this year’s winners indicates that combining visibility and creative features is the recipe for a winning formula. Combining these two traits in one ad may lead to extraordinary results that would be in line with trends of the 2010 winners..

See you next year on the red carpet.

Lena Berenstein, Research Analyst

Congratulations to Tonia Perretta, code Director, worldwide at Initiative in the UK for winning MediaMind’s Digital Experience Day contest!   The grand prize is 2 round the world airline tickets and Tonia has already started packing!


In response to the news of her big win, Tonia said, ““Wow! I haven’t won a contest since I was 5 years old! Thanks MediaMind for an amazing Christmas present. I really enjoyed the Digital Experience Day in London, and winning the DED contest makes it more than memorable! Bettina Sherick’s presentation from 20th Century Fox was a highlight of the day for me and there is no doubt that I will remember what SMART Advertising is all about. I’ll do my best to make it back from my travels for DED 2011.“


The DED contest challenged participants to unscramble clues scattered throughout MediaMind’s web properties – from mediamind.com to MediaMindTube to Facebook.


For those who missed this year’s Digital Experience Days, highlights are now available on Blip.TV for your viewing pleasure while Tonia is travelling the world. Thanks to all who entered!

Dean Donaldson, Global Director of Media Innovation at MediaMind, was recently interviewed at the iMedia Agency Summit in Phoenix following his spotlight presentation.

Dean discusses finding smarter ways to pull data together to provide a better understanding of what consumers are saying, how they are interacting with brands, and how these shifts should inform ongoing media strategies. Click here for the full story at iMedia or view the video right here.

Meet Conny Mirza, Director, Ad Strategy and Development at CBS Interactive. Conny discusses the innovative campaign developed for Warner Home Video to promote the release of the movie Inception on GameSpot.


What is your idea about the perfect working day?
A sunny day. A great idea for a new ad concept. Client approves ad creative on the first round. Teams collaborate and everything launches on time without a hitch.


What was the brief for the Inception campaign?
Warner Home Video was looking for high impact stunts to drive awareness of the film’s 12/7 Blu-ray/DVD release. Something that’s never been done before.


How was this particular format chosen?
Inception’s graphics of buildings bending and wrapping around themselves lent itself to the idea of using the Glider technology. Working with MediaMind to create the GameSpot site to fold in half like the buildings in Inception was an instant win with Warner Bros.

What feedback/results have you received?
GameSpot’s internal teams (Sales, Design and Rich Media) were all very happy with the results of the project. Early planning and great collaboration between GameSpot and the MediaMind team insured a successful, smooth launch. And most importantly, the ad unit performed well for our advertiser, resulting in very high engagement rates.


How did you start working in digital advertising?
I came to San Francisco in 1995 to research and write my thesis about online advertising. Back then, CNET was one of the first online publishers that really defined the business model, the first banner formats, and created what is now the most commonly used ad units: the Interactive Messaging Unit. I joined the CNET team back in 1999 as a Product Manager in the Ad Development department working closely with the design and technical teams to dream up new ad formats and manage the technical implementation.