- Mike Shields, Mediaweek

NEW YORK David Payne wants to radically alter what online ads look like and how they get sold. And he's recruiting some of Web publishing's heavy hitters to help in his cause: the creation of a new standard video ad unit for the Internet that can be sold much like TV.

This summer Payne's company, ShortTail Media, will initiate a beta test of what it's calling the Digital 30 (D30), a full-page, deliberately intrusive placement built to showcase traditional 15- and 30-second TV spots. But unlike most Web video ads, the D30 loads between Web pages much like an interstitial.

Payne, the former head of CNN.com and currently CEO of ShortTail, spent last week meeting with nearly 20 top publishers hoping to get them to commit to testing the D30. So far, Reuters has signed on, and MSNBC.com and Weather.com are said to be strongly considering joining the test.

Back in February at the Interactive Advertising Bureau's annual meeting, Payne delivered a speech urging the industry to adopt bigger, bolder creative and to be less sensitive to user experience. With D30 he is aiming to shift online advertising's fundamental currency away from banner ads sold on a bulk impressions basis to video ads which are sold based on a deliberately limited amount of inventory (he promises frequency capping so users won't become inundated).

"We've been talking about this for 10 years -- the Web is not getting its fair share of dollars [from brand advertisers]," said Payne, who likened display ads to newspaper ads. "The reason I think we need change is that brands are not treating in-page display ads as brand vehicles. But they are with video." Payne acknowledged that the D30 won't get very far unless his company gets a large number of publishers and buyers on board.

Riley McDonough, svp, gm, Americas, consumer publishing, Thomson Reuters, said that during this summer's test he would be watching to see how many users are willing to view the full commercials.

"It's not user initiated, but it's really clean and high quality," he said. "Companies have tried things like this before with mixed results. But we may be reaching a stage in the growth of our industry that for video users tolerance is higher."

Joe Fiveash, evp and gm for The Weather Channel Interactive, likes the idea that the D30 runs between pages. "The concept of divorcing the ad from content is really interesting," he said. Plus, the D30 offers "a new way to have video inventory on sites that don't have enough."

Sarah Baehr, Razorfish's national media discipline leader, who wasn't sure whether the D30 would become the industry's new go-to unit, said she admires ShortTail's willingness to shake up the status quo.

"We haven't had new ad standards [since 2002] and it's probably time to rethink things," Baehr said. "Back then, broadband was low. It was a flatter and less interactive Web. The whole environment has changed."

Baehr hoped that if adopted widely by publishers, the D30 would also inspire a creative revolution. "I hope that clients invest in creative," she said. "You don't want bigger, [lousier] creative."