Gadget ads, which are built on an open platform, can incorporate real-time data feeds, images, video and other features in a single creative ad unit.
Google said the new ads are designed to act more like content than a typical ad, competing alongside text, image and video ads for placement. The ads support both cost-per-click and cost-per-impression pricing models and offer contextual, site, geographic and demographic targeting options.
In other Google news, the company has hired Andy Berndt, co-president of Ogilvy & Mather’s Ogilvy New York, to become managing director of the newly created Google Creative Lab.
Berndt will be joining Google later this year, the company said, and will report to David Lawee, Google's VP-marketing.
According to a company spokesperson, Google Creative Lab will develop creative for Google's own products and services for the business and consumer markets. It will also work on a “creative-to-creative level” with agencies around Google’s advertising platforms and products.
—Carol Krol
