Yahoo has a new ad format, which “brings images to life”. it’s called Yahoo Motion Ads, which is fitting:

Yahoo is selling the format as a way to help brands “tell more engaging stories”. You have to admit, that grilled cheese is a lot more engaging with the steam rising from the cheese. You can almost smell it.

Obviously Kraft is the launch advertiser. Kraft Cheese Senior Associate Brand Manager Brian Gelb had this to say: “Kraft Cheese is proud to partner with Yahoo on the brand new Kraft Singles Motion Ad. We are always looking for opportunities to engage our consumers in unique and innovative ways that deliver our news – Kraft Singles are now made with no artificial preservatives. Yahoo brought forward a great executional idea and we are excited to be the first brand to launch it.”

“We believe that when you combine beautiful images with elegant animation, it creates a very powerful form of brand storytelling,” Yahoo says in a blog post. “And when brands have a flexible canvas to design beautiful ads, we see experiences that engage our readers more and ultimately drive higher results for advertisers.”

Ads using Motion ads will make use of high-quality brand images and subtle animation. Subtle is nice. It’s not overpowering, but makes for a more compelling ad than something super-flashy and distracting. This grabs the user’s attention without screaming at them.

The ads are available for Yahoo’s Billboard Ad on its homepage, its vertical category homepages and the Yahoo login page, as shown above.

Businesses interested in taking advantage of Motion Ads are told to contact their Yahoo account manager.

Image via Yahoo