Online ads are making their way onto unexpected digital platforms such as game consoles and digital books, with the possibility of changing the way these products are sponsored and consumed.

One example is Microsoft, which is selling interactive ads on the home screen of its Xbox 360 gaming console for the first time (via the Australian).

The ads, which can either open up to full-screen video or link to a destination page, are structured around a daily rate rather than on a cost-per-click basis, according to Microsoft advertising managing director Liam Walsh. The experience and format is similar to Apple's iAd in that consumers can stay inside the ad and experience a full-screen video message. "It's a very immersive and integrated experience," he says (via the Australian). "Agency creatives love it because it's not just an ad."

The New Online Book Model

Another new venue for online ads may be digital books, according to an editorial in the Wall Street Journal (via MediaBuyerPlanner). If this does come to pass, the economics behind digital book publishing will become almost unrecognizable. The issue of hardcover vs. paperback books will give way to ad-supported or ad-free books. Publishers will begin to evaluate books based not on how many are actually sold, but on how many are read - meaning an unread book will become less profitable to a publisher. And writers and agents will have to negotiate whole new arrangements with publishers.