This post isn’t quite a view on a report or some opinion elsewhere. Rather, it is a question on a view that I have heard quite often at a many of the events I have been able to attend with regards to online advertising. I don’t know if I had shared this with you on WATBlog earlier, but some while back I had come across the first banner ad on the web. It was by AOL and it went live on October 25th, 1994.
First Banner Ad
And ever since then banner advertising has been part of web culture. It’s been a long 14 years, and a lot of people have spoken quite a lot of things about banner ads on the Internet. To my mind, it fits perfectly to the cliched description – love it or hate it you just can’t ignore it (don’t tell me about pop up blockers or adblockers now). The fact is digital media wouldn’t be the same without banner ads.
If for any reason banners aren’t working on the web in a certain ad campaign it’s not because they are banners, but because of the content on those banners. Bad copies, pathetic creative execution and a genuinely nonsensical ad campaigns don’t work on any media, and on the web they can even create a backlash for the brand. For years, marketers have tried to catch the attention in the wrong ways.
It started with flashy gifs to stand out from content, it then moved on to flash which required you to download flash to view the ad, and when they realized many users are lost in the chaos of the internet and don’t know where and what to click, they created pop ups, pop unders and adware. While these options continue to kill brand and online advertising it is sad to see digital marketers continue to use them. In an era where conversations and culture are taking precedence these click generating move just doesn’t make the cut. If anything it just shouts out loud the short sightedness of marketers regarding a medium they clearly don’t understand.
When I say banners are just beginning however, it is exactly the point above that substantiates it. Conversations and culture are taking prominence in today’s marketing needs for brands and businesses. So while this might take place on the new genre of digital media like social networking and blogging, they are still just platforms. The important aspect is to get people on to these platform from where they can engage. And this is where banners come in. An effective banner ad in this regard would work like a trailer to what people can expect on the site or a network community once the user is taken there. And as creative people working on banner copies this is something we will need to understand and work on.
This would mean changing the approach that we took while designing banners. They won’t just be 729×90 leaderboards anymore, they will be a 729×90 part of your site that you leave behind on other websites from where you can engage your audience. This is the changing face of banner ads, this is the changing face of advertising.
No they are not the beginning. They are near their peak. They need to be innovated beyond measuring the eye balls and automatic programs clicking them and generating false revenue