Skype Announces ‘Conversation Ads’ For Skype-To-Skype Calling

Skype on Wednesday announced a new ad platform that will display when users are taking advantage of the company’s Skype-t0-Skype audio calls for the Windows platform. Known as “Conversation Ads” Skype says the new ad platform will engage customers in “meaningful conversations about brands in a highly engaging environment.”

In order to target ads for the right users Skype will use non-personally identifiable demographic information such as location, gender and age. If users choose to opt out of the targeted ads platform they will still be party to non-targeted ads when using Skype’s free audio calling feature.

In order to keep Skype running at maximum optimization Skype has introduced a Creative Acceptance Policy which states that advertisements cannot expand beyond a 300×250 pixel rectangle and can not be any larger than 40k in size. Skype has agreed to accept only certain types of file types including GIFs, Flash files and JPEGs.

To further the company’s plans for optimal performance ads will be limited to no longer than 30-seconds for animations and will only be able to loop three times while being displayed.

Skype has also prohibited the use of cursor animation, strobing effects or the use of Windows or Skype product mimicry that has not been previously approved by Skype administrators.

The Skype Conversation Ads platform was first announced in September, just ahead of Microsoft’s massive acquisition of the social messaging service. The announcement also comes on the same day when Microsoft filed a patent that will create ad-placement based on the Kinect’s ability to monitor user moods.