I realized I don't cover online advertising executions enough. Since the good old banners are getting more and more important also in my daily work I've decided to start taking them in more consideration also here on Adverblog. I personally believe online media are still relevant in the online marketing mix, however I also think that if you decide to advertise online you have to do it in the right way... which means by using rich media and a serving technology such as Eyeblaster or Tangozebra that allows you to be really creative and interactive.

The whole point is quite straightforward: being creative and interactive is nothing special, it simply means to use and exploit the Web at full for its potentials. And the first campaign I'd like to present you is a great practical example of such approach.

This is a remarkable way to grab the users attention. Do you think though that banner ads will continue to lose their effectiveness over time?

Good post, thanks.

Posted by: Mike Morabito at August 5, 2008 05:34 PM

Definitely an innovative and engaging way to take advantage of the oft-overlooked leaderboard space. I got a good laugh out of it too, thanks for sharing!

Posted by: Kyle Studstill at August 5, 2008 08:23 PM

@ Mike

As I said in the post, I think that banners will still be part of the online marketing mix in the future. However, we have to approach them in the right way, as the EA Battlefield example I mean. Out of personal experience I can tell you that banners can still deliver good results (I mean over 0.5%) if they are conceived and developed properly.

Of course, for this to happen we need both smart creative agency (that understand a banner is not an animated print ad) and smart publishers (that evolve their systems conscious that the crossroads is "adapt or die").

ciao ciao

Posted by: Martina at August 5, 2008 09:31 PM

I think, banners are normally unseen or filtered by peoples mind. Just the little nice pictures where noone will click on. But with some more attractive, eyecatchting and shocking methods, also banners will get back their right to exist.

Johannes
http://netjobbers.de

Posted by: Johannes Frisch at August 5, 2008 11:17 PM

My creative side says - wow this rocks!

My pragmatic side is concerned because it's a very specialized placement. Budgets don't typically allow for this type of one-off execution as part of the larger media buy. Production costs for this are higher and the places to run this creative are rare and expensive. Why not spend that time and creativity on a rich media expandable that can run everywhere. Money could have been spent on better animation and thinking up some interactive component.

This works great in the demo, but how does it function in the wild? What is the initial animation that entices the user to mouseover. What if the user interacts with the 300x250 below the fold? This banner starts with sound, however; sound must usually be user initiated with a click.

I do appreciate the creativity of this banner but not the effectiveness/ROI.

Posted by: Trevor Smith at August 6, 2008 12:12 AM

Trevor,

People don't click on banners. I got a 3% click rate once, and it was almost unheard of. The only banners that actually get any kind of pull are video banners - which are still dismal. Expandables, whether leaderboard or skyscraper, although not terrible for brand recall, never get clicked on either. To get someone to play with your in-banner interaction they have to click on it - which again, they don't. By doing something creative and fun, you get an impression that leaves an impression whether they click on it or not. A smile. A 'that was neat'.

Like any form of advertisement, you're getting on the consumers' radar, not completing a sale.

Good luck.

Posted by: Bob at August 7, 2008 10:15 PM

It is a great way to get attention to a certain target audience and would agree with Bob this is more of a branding excercise. It's pushing the boundries of what can be done.

Would be interesting to see the CTR....

THE DRUM
http://www.thedrum.co.uk

Posted by: Nick at August 12, 2008 04:59 PM

These are great examples of display ads done right for their target consumer. Reminds of what Apple did on the NY Times and WSJ banners a couple of months ago.

Posted by: Paul M. Banas at August 14, 2008 01:26 PM

Our clients are always slightly dubious about web banners. Sometimes I don't blame them. Online publications always have so many advertising banners. I think it will get to a point when there will be so many web banner options on the internet that the price of web banners will be driven down.

Posted by: Paul Web at November 5, 2008 08:37 PM