Re[2]: UKNM: online ad tolerance collapsing

[Geoffrey Inns]

Maybe a lot of online advertisers are in that in-between stage, from accepting

the medium to using it in its proper fashion i.e. within individual contexts. 

We have advertisers such as BT on our sites whose banners are the same for every

site they advertise on, regardless of content.  You know that I am now going to

advocate individual tailoring of banner creative and that there are high costs

associated with this.  But we consistently achieve double figure CTRs with

banners that have been tailored to our sites.


Perhaps the problem is that not enough banner creation means that banner

production prices are too high;  lots more banners being produced should mean

that production prices are driven down and therefore allow a lot more tailoring.

When we recently put out a tender for banner production the replies ranged from

�200 to �1000 - all for the same sort of simple GIF; no java, no Enliven.  We

talk about standards a lot of the time (and, as Ross of BMP quite rightly says,

how to change them again!) and I think real progress is being made in this area

and due credit to the IAB for a major role in this;  now perhaps it is time for

production houses  (and everyone else along the line who has a markup) to allow

the advertising clients to implement tailored banner campaigns.  


Admittedly a whole lot of sales people out there are going to have to learn

about the attitudes of the visitors to their sites as well as their demographics

but that's no bad thing.


I realise that this would probably hasten the acquisition/going bust nature of

the production business but we must fully explore the possibilities the banner

can offer us before writing it off completely.  To start all over again with a

brand new set of standards would probably be more laboursome than rewarding.


I believe this to be a separate issue from sponsorships, rich media, navihedrons

etc.  By offering a segmented, modular advertising model to clients/agencies all

concerned find it easier to understand, just as many agencies divide the web


into search/communities/content producers.


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