Hi thereIf you've been keeping up with the digital marketing news lately lately, you'd know that online display advertising - mainly banner ads on web sites - are going through a bit of a rough time.
The tougher economic climate, and the increasing number of other digital marketing options, has meant a slash in online advertising budgets. The latest research shows it slowing dramatically and perhaps even going negative by the end of 2009.
While this may mean better availability in online media for our ads, it unfortunately also fuels the argument that online advertising is not reaching audiences effectively. The crises in all media, documented by Bob Garfield in his Chaos 2.0 Scenario and updated more recently in Apocalypse Now, highlights that online media cannot yet match the reach/frequency hole left by a fast-dying old media dinosaur.
Add to this the plethora of other social media options in terms of earned rather than paid media, and the growth in search marketing, and it's easy to see why online display advertising is starting to be viewed as an option rather than a requirement for 2009 campaigns.
That's not the way it should be - and agencies need to shoulder some of the blame for that. Because many the banners we're producing just aren't in the same Web 2.0 league as the rest of the work. Not even close.
Most online creative I've seen lately is at best uninspiring, and at worst intrusive and damaging to the brands. It's unfortunate that while I've been banging on lately about the incredibly high standard of digital and integrated creative work this year, looking around it's really hard to come up with banner ad campaigns locally and regionally that are something different and effective.
As Advertising Age highlighted this week in this article, most online display ads 'remain the safe haven for traditional one-way communication'. Online ads aren't taking advantage of the incredible opportunities available to them, and aren't even getting noticed, let alone starting conversations.
They have become the bland hand-luggage that accompanies other media suitcase campaigns - too easy to ignore because they lack relevance and engagement. It's as if we've accepted online advertising requires a lower standard of creativity, but somehow believe it will still perform well.
Clearly it won't, and here's my take on how we need to get online advertising back on board again: (Thanks to IDGM site for some of the quotes below)
1. Use rich media: When producing online display creative these days, we need to start utilizing rich media as our main tool. Basically that means creating far more sophisticated banners capable of housing video, games and other interactive elements. This has been talked about for several years, but mass broadband penetration is now making it an everyday reality. In response to increasing demand, ad-serving companies such as DoubleClick and Eyeblaster are focusing more and more resources on pushing the boundaries of rich media.
Check out 'Eye Blaster Creative Zone' to see what's possible. We can create ‘Social ads’ that allow users to post content to the social network of their choice. Video, branded games or other content can be pulled from ads and transfer-red to Facebook or MySpace, allowing it to spread vi rally. Other developments include ‘Talk-Back’ banners, which enable consumers to give feedback via an ad, and ‘Chat’ ads, which allow users to have questions answered via an ad in real time. What this means is that advertisers of all shapes and sizes can adapt display technology to suit exactly their own purposes.
This can even apply to conservative sectors such as financial services or airlines, where people can actually order tickets or services from within the banner. Static banner ads - broadcasting one-way messages that have little impact, relevance, and often under perform - need to be killed off.
2. Broaden our measurements: The growth of rich media and other new online display formats raises questions about the usefulness of click-throughs as a measure of the success for all campaigns. In a recent post Nicolas Zurstrassen, associate director of digital at Nike, believes that click-throughs are still important as a means of gauging interest in an ad. “However, as brands move away from a focus on destination sites and toward integrating themselves into the environments where their consumers interact, it is essential to have another level of measurement on top of the click-through. The past few years have seen the rise of this metric – engagement.”
This point is important. Traditionally, digital display campaigns sought to drive consumers away from a website and onto a brand’s site. In the case of direct response ads, this made sense, as it would be the brand’s site that would convince them to make a purchase. Brand-building campaigns were, on the other hand, limited in what they could show on a banner, and were often forced to pull readers to the brand site where they could enjoy a fuller experience.
The promise of the latest rich media formats is that brands can bring their content to consumers, rather than vice versa. David Prideaux, executive creative director at Publicis Dialog notes that “This is the big creative opportunity. There’s more content and the next creative opportunity is the ‘widgetisation’ of banners. Rich media now allows for messages to be turned into applications, so instead of having to click through to a site, the banner can deliver much more information and a far more engaging experience on its own.”
The result is that has noticed that rich media has helped campaigns buck the trend of declining clicks. “The average click-through rate is 0.2 per cent and falling. Contrast this with rich media, where you can get two to three per cent if you have a really strong execution.”
These metrics can be anything from viewing time on a video, playing time on a game banner or level of completion on an interactive order form. The key is to define what the objectives and measurement aims are up front prior to creative production - as it's an important part of the creative process.
3. Utilize better targeting: Web sites and media agencies are getting much, much better at targeting customers - not just through demographics but through profiling and behavioural targeting. Basically now we can pinpoint individuals who visit sites and track where they go to build a better idea of our target customers based on their actual behaviour.
This revolution in online advertising highlighted here, means we can reach more people on more sites and move beyond just the big portals to reach out directly to every one of our customer segments. Not only that, but it can means reduction in costs as well.
4. Throw away the matching luggage: The final point is perhaps an important one to discuss with our clients. There is a perception among some marketers and agencies that online advertising creative in an integrated campaign "should look like the rest of the campaign. For consistency, look and feel, to make sure we re-enforce the same message". Perhaps that may be true with some static online ads of the past, but we've already seen how effective these have been.
Well here's the counter-argument to that matching luggage philosophy. Customers really don't care if your ad looks the same as a TVC or print ad. The web is built on engaging people and getting them to interact with your message. Great integrated campaigns DO NOT force the online ad to look exactly the same as the print ad, because they recognise it is a different medium and customers have different requirements and expectations. Yes at the end of the day the overall message should be the same, but the execution should play to the media's strengths. And it's need to have a strong creative idea that's right for the environment.
Despite the tough times, the future for online ads can be bright, but we have a bit of catching up to do to get to the same level as other digital marketing efforts.
Hope to hear your thoughts on this.
Cheers, Rob
Feel free to add comments below, or for further questions or advice contact me at rob.h@th.arcww.com
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