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COMMENTARY | Noah Brier

More Creative Banner Ads

November 20, 2008 | RSS | EMAIL | PRINT | 7 COMMENTS

I've been thinking quite a bit lately about advertising on the internet. More specifically about how the economic downturn could signal a breaking point for banner advertising. So we know about banner blindness and dismal clickthrough/interaction rates, yet people keep buying up the stuff. Mainly it's because it's the closest thing the web has to do with scale. There are no other good ways to get your message in front of a lot of people (whether or not they look at it) that doesn't take a lot more work (like PR/outreach).

With that said, I had another thought the other day: Maybe the answer is that advertisers need more variations on their creative. What I mean is, I think part of the banner blindness problem (and this is all speculation without any data behind it so take it with a grain of salt) is that we're all trained to recognize when something doesn't belong and, in the case of the web, to ignore it. Banners tend to be a different color, font and they move all around, add in the fact that they sit along the edges and they're just too easy to quickly spot and dismiss. But once in awhile someone like Apple comes along and does some fancy custom unit where they pay attention to everything including getting the NYTimes.com typeface right. That kind of stuff must make more of an impact than your run of the mill banner, no matter how cool it might be. Right?

Of course, doing a whole bunch of custom units that match to both the look/feel of the site and the audiences mindset is a whole lot more expensive from a creative development perspective. But isn't that kind of targeting what the web does best? If advertisers are so desperate for people to pay attention, maybe they should try a little harder.

Tags: advertising, marketing


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COMMENTS

1Angela Connor

What I would like to see, Noah is greater attention paid to advertising to smaller groups. Smaller, targeted groups who will more than likely want to hear your message and get exposed to your ads. As an online community manager who sees these clusters of folks daily, and places a lot of value on their time, I believe that the advertisers who recognize these opportunities and try to capitalize on them will be pleasantly surprised. Come on, can we at least experiment with this model?

November 20, 2008

2Noah Brier

Hey Angela, I think you're not alone (and know I agree). The biggest problem with small communities for advertisers right now is that it's hard to find the scale you're looking for. Communities need special attention and time and banner ads are easy and quick. It's a sad fact, but it's true.

November 20, 2008

3Matt

So apparently a company had that idea--create banners ads that match the design of this site on which they reside. It's called Dapper Mashup Ads. I believe they just hit the market.

ps. Loved the link on Banner Blindness--will definitely share with co-workers

November 21, 2008

4Seni Thomasq

It also an issue of targeting. There is 0 point is ultra granular targeting if you are blasting the same message out to all the segments.

Creative scalability is of paramount importance moving forward. Checkout ADISN and Tumri, two companies that offer really kickass dynamic creative units that change on the fly based on the color the page they are on, optimization to specific segments, etc.

November 21, 2008

5Reegan

It's a philosophy change that needs to occur. I think this idea that the web can automate so many things is at the root of the 'banner blindness' problem. It takes the onus off of ads being truly creative. The apple ads are great because there is a brilliant execution and idea behind them, there is value to watch it... I think more brands can take advantage if they put the necessary resources behind them... they don't need to necessarily be mimicking the site or changed on the fly depending on the background of the webpage. But they do need to have more to offer than a CTA and a limited time offer. People will pay attention if you give them a reason.

November 24, 2008

6Bob

I would agree with Reegan in regards to a change of philosophy that needs to occur. In my opinion, today's ads need to not only be creative, solve a problem and target the right people, but they must also contribute to the overall experience of the product and the website (for both the advertiser and the publisher). That experience must continue on to the advertisers' landing page, through their checkout process and through the life cycle of the product and brand. Apple does a great job of this and it shows.

I'd be interested in knowing what other companies you think do a good job of creating an entire experience around their product and advertisements?

Good work,
Bob

www.onehalfamazing.com

November 25, 2008

7Noah Brier

Hey Bob, I'm really bad at that question. I don't really know about other companies that create the whole experience as I don't spend a lot of time paying attention to that kind of stuff (to be honest the Apple example comes from me noticing the ads ... which is rare). I can't really think of anything else off the top of my head. My apologies.

November 29, 2008