Honda has conquered the Ultramercial, a form of emerging media which got me excited way back when. (Ultramercial video-on-demand is used at paid-content web sites where you can opt to view a commercial in exchange for a short-term pass to the content.) Not only is the Ultramercial doing well for Honda, but Honda is showing us how to get better performance in this medium. Although not published, we know Honda’s click through rate beat the average Ultramercial of 6.85 percent. Viewers only have to watch a 30-second ad but Honda viewers are averaging 50 seconds of clicking around all in the additional information provided at the microsite.

ClickZ: Honda Test Drives the Ultramercial, 2006-Jun-14, by Zachary Rodgers

And what are those extra 15 seconds of interaction time attributable to? Why, quality creative of course.
"We’ve been working on online marketing for Honda since the very beginning of online marketing, for 12 or 13 years," said [Edmund] Purcell [management supervisor at Honda Agency RPA.]
"We don’t just create an ad unit by slapping it together. We put in a lot of effort on these ads. We created an experience where engagement was relevant to the consumer, and it encouraged interaction. You could learn quite a lot about the product from the unit. We’re lucky in that we’re fully staffed to do this kind of thing and we take our time with it."