John Sculley and Eyal Gever hope that advertisers and consumers take a shine to their Gizmoz.

It's become a cliche to cite declining clickthrough rates as the primary impetus for online advertisers to seek better "beyond the banner" marketing schemes. If Internet startup Gizmoz has a say in the burgeoning viral marketing category, the company's eponymous multimedia product will help both content creators and advertisers more effectively deliver their wares and messages to users.

Gizmoz, which is based in Tel Aviv, Israel and New York, creates small, 13 kilobyte Java applets that function as "containers" for content, video, advertising and hyperlinks. The free-standing, collectible containers, called Gizmoz, can be "played" on a user's desktop using the Java virtual machine application tied to most Web browsers. Gizmoz have the additional benefit of one-click email capabilities, realizing its viral marketing potential.

After launching a Gizmoz, which can be e-mailed to friends and associates as an attachment, users can choose the links and content they want to see. Gizmoz are free to users, but advertisers and content creators pay a licensing fee for use of the Gizmoz creator. The best part for Gizmoz clients? All user traffic goes through one server, namely Gizmoz', letting advertisers know exactly how many people viewed the available content and what they looked at. And, since e-commerce hooks can be built into the Gizmoz, advertisers can see an instant payoff on their investment. Of course, advertisers pay for the traffic that comes through the Gizmoz server.

Eyal Gever, Gizmoz' chief executive officer and founder, and former Apple Computers chief John Sculley, the company's chairman, were recently in New York for the Streaming Media East 2000 trade show. The two sat down to discuss how Gizmoz fits into the viral marketing landscape.

IQ: When did you become aware of viral marketing and what do you think of it?