At this early stage, I wonder if the poster examples - Pepsi, Intel, Six Flags - really make the most sense as "gadget oriented" or "widget oriented" players.
Also, positioning widgets/gadgets as paid ads puts a new spin on something that no doubt cropped up in the grassroots as a tactic for viral marketing. I come up with a widget that gives your website something unique & cool, like relevant content or a customizable toy of some sort... your users enjoy themselves... I get traffic and brand awareness in return.
The new math would be: I as a creator of said unit have to rely less on the compellingness of the widget/gadget to your user base, because now I'll be willing to actually pay you to put it there. Where does Google come in? Well, they have a content network, so they're facilitating the distribution of the ads, as usual.
Recall, flash and video ads were already part of the AdSense menu. So a gadget takes it up another level - offering custom functionality of some sort.
There are editorial policies governing Google Gadget Ads. These include "not exceeding 50% utilization of a user's computer" through things like "heavy animation sequences."
More to come on this.
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