Publishers are looking to create premium placements to sell to advertisers while also keeping ad clutter off their home pages
Translation: Advertisers are desperately looking for more and more annoying techniques to highjack your attention. Contrast this with The DECK advertising network (as seen here, here, and many other places).
I don't have any data on what methods generate more attention, or in the final analysis, more money. But I can tell you which method pissed me off, and which one encourages my interest. There is definitely something to be said for proven results, but I would be very afraid of any advertising strategy that was based on annoying my customers.
