Lara Croft wreaks havoc
on gamer websites

To drum up interest in video game Tomb Raider: Underworld, Eyeblaster, IGN Entertainment and SF-based agency JVST launched an HD-quality video takeover campaign across select websites.

From a banner near the bottom of a webpage, Lara Croft appears, holding onto a rope that appears connected to a ring inside a leaderboard.

When a user pulls the ring, the entire webpage appears to collapse, making way for a promotional Tomb Raider video in HD. Viewers are also invited to download a game demo.

View the work on IGN's Xbox 360 site. The campaign will run from now until the end of December.

Toting it as a "first-of-its-kind" takeover across IGN's network of gaming sites, Executive CD/Partner James Song of JVST said, "Metrics for this campaign have already exceeded industry standards."

Eyeblaster is being used both to serve creative and measure the return on investment.

In late September, Eyeblaster launched Channel Connect for Search, which enables marketers to track users that are exposed to, or that interact with, display ads — even if they don't convert right then. Last year, it also released the names for a number of video game titles available for in-game ad placement.

A recent neuroscience survey conducted by Google and MediaVest found that overlay ads — which typically play over streaming video content — tend to be more compelling and engaging to users, particularly when paired with associated banners. Findings seemed to imply users prefer an immersive experience — like the Tomb Raider site takeovers — to banners alone, or pre- and post-rolls.