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Making Banner Ads Cool Again
from the is-it-possible? dept
We talk a lot about the idea that advertising is content and content is advertising, and there are always those who get confused and insist that they hate advertising... and that if they see content as advertising they won't pay attention. But explain that to the millions of folks who tune into the Super Bowl each year to watch the commercials rather than the game. If the content is good, no one cares that it's also advertising. Of course, usually when we talk about this sort of thing, we're talking about content/advertising that goes outside the usual boundaries of advertising -- since the traditional forms of advertising have been so overdone and are so painful that people instinctively ignore them.
But could the banner ad, for example, be rescued? I still remember, way back in the early days of banner ads, actually paying quite a bit of attention to an HP banner ad for the Mopier. In fact, I remember the ad so much, I still remember the name of the product it was advertising. That's because the ad itself was fun. It was a game of Pong within the ad itself, with the paddles controlled via mouseovers. That was advertising that worked... But, for the most part these days, banner ads are either boring or intrusive. Yet, sometimes, people still do creative things. Mike (different one, obviously) pointed me to an award-winning banner ad from Pringles, which is quite silly, but fun to click, because it tells a story (and does so amusingly) and you want to find out how it ends. I don't know if the initial call to action is enough to get people to dive in, but if advertisers actually put more thought into making their ads interesting and fun, perhaps people wouldn't just ignore them all the time.
But could the banner ad, for example, be rescued? I still remember, way back in the early days of banner ads, actually paying quite a bit of attention to an HP banner ad for the Mopier. In fact, I remember the ad so much, I still remember the name of the product it was advertising. That's because the ad itself was fun. It was a game of Pong within the ad itself, with the paddles controlled via mouseovers. That was advertising that worked... But, for the most part these days, banner ads are either boring or intrusive. Yet, sometimes, people still do creative things. Mike (different one, obviously) pointed me to an award-winning banner ad from Pringles, which is quite silly, but fun to click, because it tells a story (and does so amusingly) and you want to find out how it ends. I don't know if the initial call to action is enough to get people to dive in, but if advertisers actually put more thought into making their ads interesting and fun, perhaps people wouldn't just ignore them all the time.
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Reader Comments (rss)
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Problem with flash ads
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Agree with Ilfar
However, I hope to see more companies getting a bit more creative with their ads.
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Re: Problem with flash ads
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Great ad
But there really is a problem that you never know where clicking an ad will take you.
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The problem with ads, to begin with; over use
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Re: The problem with ads, to begin with; over use
i couldn't agree more.
there are some films that i still haven't seen because i saw the trailer for it too many times. this happens a lot on basic cable networks like comedy central and spikeTV.
i have all but stopped watching cable TV and i have found that i am more open to movies now that i am not seeing commercials for them all the time, especially the films my wife likes that are not really targets towards me.
i hate to say it, but the most interesting ads i have seen in the past few years are from burgerking. between their crazy commercials, xbox games, and crazy web promotions, i find myself paying more attention to their ads than i do to anyone else's. those ads, plus the having a decent veggie burger on the menu make BK a more likely choice for my family when it comes to burger joints.
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Advertising hurdles
This is the sentiment that modern day ad agencies are going to have to figure out how to hurdle, and I think it's more major than most realize.
What do you do when you're watching network/cable TV and the commercials come on? That's when I usually hit the head, grab another drink, let my dog out, scratch myself, etc.
The problem with banner ads and most internet ads is that they require interaction. You aren't asking someone to VIEW something, you're asking them to DO something. Click me, then actively explore this website I'm sending you to. This can be fun, but imagine if today's banner ads were on TV.
Today, if I see a commercial I don't really want to view...I don't. No big deal. I do all those other things I mentioned before. But what if the tv commercial suddenly began overlaying other sounds over my tv audio? Or switched channels. Or split the screen between my NCIS and a commercial for Billy Mays' (RIP) Orange Glow? I'd be shouting at the TV as if it had a life of it's own, and then probably turn it off out of frustration.
The question is, how do advertisers avoid us turning them off.
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Amazing
And not in the way you may think, there is not a break in the service for a commercial. Almost everything is ad content. If a character wears a shirt, there is a logo or brand attached. If its a baseball game the area behind the catcher has a banner.
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Some of the most unique ads were the apple ones on CNN.com that used both a top scrolling banner (full width) plus a flash video on the sidebar that actually played together. It was one of the rare ones that would encourage people to click just to see what they were talking out. Unfortunately for Apple, it was the same old same old (PC vs Mac ads) that really didn't need all the reinforcement like that.
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Re: Advertising hurdles
Obviously you don't watch MTV. Not that I blame you...I generally avoid it as well...but they've begun doing just that. Right in the middle of a show - even if it's a brand new episode - they'll cut out the image and throw in a commercial. They leave the audio from the show running, so that you know that you're missing things, but they completely kill the picture. The first time I saw it my thoughts were 'wow, someone screwed up pretty bad...' but apparently not.
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What Banner Ad?
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Re: What Banner Ad?
My selective blindness is insane. The advertisers are boned. Also the ad was hilarious.
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Re: Re:
Children that lack the skill to make animated flip books of stick figures with exploding heads do this kind of thing instead. And it's usually funnier.
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No
"Banner blindness" is so pervasive that it not only affects actual banner ads, but also any Web graphics that look remotely like them. It's even been documented outside the Web.
So no, I don't think there's anything that can revive the banner ad.
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Bing banners
Oh, and *stay the hell inside your space*. Expanders/flyovers are the worst.
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Banner ads are still around?
Yes, there are some great banners out there, but I think too many people have been bombarded with bad banners that they block them all out.
Years ago, I got infected by a Flash-based ad while checking my Yahoo mail. It was partly my fault since I didn't install that day's IE security patches. But, this taught me to use Firefox and block every banner ad and Flash ad without question.
So, like the posters are saying: the first job of advertisers is to convince us that their banner ad is somehow different from all the crappy, flashing Flash ads out there and that it's worth viewing.
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Re: What Banner Ad?
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Banner Revenue
I think google have the right idea by keeping their sites ad free and pumping out ads onto other non-owned sites to our annoyal...
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billy may's death
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billy may's death
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