iVillage to Eliminate Pop-up Advertisements

Posted on August 2, 2002

iVillage Inc., a women's media company and provider of the iVillage.com website, announced that, in response to feedback from its visitors, the Company plans to eliminate pop-up advertisements on its network of sites by the end of the third quarter of 2002. Earlier this year Google.com, a provider of search services, announced its no-pop policy in response to confusion caused by software people had inadvertently downloaded that was creating the pop-ups.

This move was based on an iVillage/Vividence survey showing that 92.5% of iVillage women found pop-up advertising to be the most frustrating feature of the Web. In addition, while research on the effectiveness of pop-up advertising shows that they can generate high brand awareness, it is not always in a positive way. iVillage studies show that, while women on the iVillage site are receptive to various forms of advertising, such an intrusive ad can actually negatively impact the advertiser.

Nancy Evans, Co-Founder and Editor-in-Chief, iVillage, said, "We have built iVillage by listening to what women want, and our move to eliminate pop-up advertising is a direct example of this. It's not news that women consume media differently than men, yet many leading websites haven't done anything to adapt to this fact. At iVillage we have based everything from our site design and functionality and now to our advertising formats on what we know women want and, more importantly, what works for them."

Vanessa Benfield, Senior Vice President, Sales, iVillage, said, "The support from our advertisers behind this decision has been overwhelming. We have been working closely with them to convert current pop-up ads into stronger, alternate formats to help yield higher results. Although our visitors tell us they don't like pop-up advertising, our research shows that women are interested in and receptive to advertising on our site as long as it is done in an appropriate way. Taking this into account, iVillage has been developing a new generation of advertising formats. These new ads deliver advertisers' messages to the consumer, in an effective, meaningful way."

iVillage said it offers innovative new ad formats instead of pop-ups. For example, in 2001 iVillage launched its Interquizzal ad model. While results are being calculated for relevant online quizzes and tools, a "processing results" window with an advertiser's message is displayed on screen. The window closes automatically when the quiz results are finalized. iVillage said a small number of pop-up type placements may continue on the site but will be primarily tied to research and in-house subscription offerings and will be minimal in number, accounting for less than one percent of all ads running on iVillage.

iVillage's media properties include iVillage.com, Women.com, Business Women's Network, Lamaze Publishing, The Newborn Channel, iVillage Solutions, Promotions.com and Astrology.com. iVillage was established in 1995 and is headquartered in New York City.