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Effectiveness of online banner advertising

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Stanley Johnson runs a creative consultancy in Melbourne helping clients and agencies take advantage of the opportunities presented by new and emerging media.

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Stanley Johnson explores the use of online banner advertising and its effectiveness as an advertising medium.

There’s been much chatter around the blogosphere of late about that most humble of advertising formats, the banner ad. The debate began heating up after respected London ad creative Rob Messeter wrote a thought provoking post entitled ‘Digital and the Emperor’s new clothes’ for the British advertising blog Scamp.

Shooting straight from the hip, Messeter opened his piece with, “I know it's the future and everything, and everyone seems to be wetting themselves with excitement over it (particularly marketing people), but is it me or is most online advertising really pony?”
The thing is, he wasn’t just having a go at the ridiculous flashing banners and annoying pop-up ads that we all despise. He was questioning the quality of thinking in online advertising as a whole.

Can’t say as I blame him to be honest. I mean, when was the last time you were sharing a drink with friends and one of you asked, “Did you see that great banner ad on such and such a website the other day?” Probably never, I’d imagine.

Personally I think banners are one of the great missed opportunities of the advertising world. You hardly ever see a truly great one. When I posed the question why this was on my blog Brand DNA recently, the first answer I received was this:
“The reason there are no great banner ads is because it's a crap little medium and consumers hate them, and rightly so. The creative opportunity is very, very limited. That's why anyone with talent wants nothing to do with them.”

The person behind that rant preferred to remain anonymous. Rob Messeter, however, was more than happy to go on the record with his thoughts.

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3 Comments

David Gillespie
  • Wrote on 24 Apr, at 04:53PM
The last paragraph nailed it. Traditional media has been built on a model of interruption. Thankfully online gives me the option to circumvent ads and select the sources I get my information from.

The trick is going to be measuring CPM buys as brand awareness (the same way we treat a billboard), and we'll move to CPC and CPA models wherein clients only pay for genuine leads. The catch here is advertising needs to be served where it is wanted, and when it is warranted information it is welcome with open arms.

When it's a Carlton Draught ad and my fridge is stocked with James Squire however, we all lose (except for James, naturally).
RussellEasther
  • Wrote on 8 May, at 12:20PM
There is certainly a time and place for banner ads, or what the industry names display advertising. There are many strengths and weaknesses of the humble banner and unfortunately the bad apples, or bad creative, ruin it for the rest of the industry. In my travels, Ive seen the very best and very worst of display advertising. For the very worst, check our Saabs latest campaign with the yellow girl spinning - sorry no link - but for the best check www.bannerblog.com.au.
On targeting, wouldnt it be great if you could targeted newly engaged women on social networking sites if you were selling bridal dresses. Well, now you can on Facebook. Ultra tight targeting at its best. If only the credit card world could target like that......
Peter Applebaum
  • Wrote on 16 May, at 05:24PM
The web has been commercialised for 13 or so years and still the question of banner ad effectiveness creates endless hand wringing. Haing worked in the interactive space for almost that long - and in BTL marketing for years prior to that - I see it like this: banner / button advertising is old world thinking plonked into a new platform that demands new world thinking. In all likelihood, the paltry response to banners is probably similar to that of TV advertising; the difference is that while we can quantify banner clicks we cant do anything like that with TV advertising. It all comes back to the consumers were trying to influence online: theyre doing things differently than they were even 5 years ago. Marketers are not replicating that behaviour. Consumers are using the internet to develop deeper relationships with other like minded people. Marketers are interrupting that process - like offline advertising. This is why online advertisers put up with 0.25% CTRs. Whats needed are strategies that are in tune with todays consumers, not pony tailed Creative Directors circa 1974.

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