A Banner In The Works!
As print ads struggle to flap their wings and keep flying, the hardy banner ad rises up once more to soar supreme, high on the landing page!
We are all well aware that the trend for traditional media budgets to migrate to online marketing campaigns, is continuing unabated. The outcomes are more easily tracked, repeatedly delivering an improved ROI.
In 2009 alone, £3.38 billion will be spent online, more than 20% of all UK ad spending !
Print based ads are in irreversible retreat, and we are finding new ways to reach consumers. In an increasingly digital world, the internet has become the only growing market for advertising to survive and flourish.
Most business will use a number of different methods to catch their potential audience attention – from PPC campaigns to email marketing - and have come to recognise the vital importance of search engine optimisation as integral to driving traffic.
So, we come to the curious case of the irritating banner!
Most businesses have been persuaded at one time or another to have them high on their landing pages! But the sad truth is, as studies have shown, we completely ignore the banner ad!
Not surprising really, when you consider that the first generation of banner ad spawned an unbearably loud and savage creature that jumped out shrieking to poke you right between the eyes – and then wouldn’t leave you alone!
Those flashing colours kept drilling away at your retina!
It’s a no brainer really to think anyone would seriously consider making them bigger and even more intrusive!
However, that’s exactly what’s been happening and it’s everywhere now! A new kind of deadly creature – a banner ad that now takes up the entire screen! A monstrous leviathan created in the belief that if you “Make the Logo Bigger” this ultimate “In your face” banner can’t be ignored until the we click the XXL at the top.
These new banners insist that we interact with them by playing games, watching video trailers and taking online polls.
There are THREE new types of advertising banners now roaming website headers:
(i) Fixed panel – which disguises itself as being part of the page but scrolls up and down following the user.
(ii) XXL box – in which users can turn pages within the ad.
(iii) Pushdown – which opens to display a larger ad.
These large format ads seem to be more acceptable- less flashing and pulsating-and appear to work better at getting the attention of consumers. Businesses demand a return on their investment and so the fact that high traffic sites are seen to be displaying these ads seem to suggest approval and proof they work. Website design agencies get asked to create them so it’s simply a case of changing and moving with the times!
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