Startup peddles interactive web ads

Personiva is helping advertisers get personal with potential customers.

The San Francisco startup’s technology creates interactive Internet ads in which viewers become the stars. Then the ersatz models can email the videos to friends, creating a word-of-mouth marketing campaign.

http://www.Personiva.com , which advises companies on how to tailor existing ad campaigns and then builds them, landed Hewlett-Packard as its first client.

If the 3-year-old software firm can continue to keep its offerings fresh as copycat ads pop up online, it may have a healthy future ahead.

"If something gets successful, there are always a lot of ‘me too’ companies out there," said Personiva CEO and co-founder Yogesh Sharma, noting that many brand sites already add interactive components to stay current without having an idea of what works with consumers. "Why scroll around a chewing gum web site and watch people chew gum?"

San Francisco Business Times
by Adrienne Sanders

Full Story: http://www.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/stories/2006/09/04/story12.html?i=54908&b=1157342400^1339619