Re: UKNM: online ad tolerance collapsing

[Tom Hukins]

On Tue, Nov 10, 1998 at 12:07:32PM -0000, Philip Rooke wrote:

> 

> When new areas of advertising appear they always have greater effect in the

> early days.  As users became used to them they were bound to be less likely

> to respond.  This effect has been recognised and measured in Direct Mail,

> Sampling, Posters and Magazines.  


Indeed. When Web ads first appeared, the proportion of sites carrying

them was very low. Consequently, ads captured users' attention, and so

were effective. As ads became more common, the demands placed upon

users' attention increased. We're now in the situation where Internet

advertising isn't far off suffering from a tragedy of the commons - with

users' attention being so heavily consumed that its value is

sub-optimally low. The fishing industry suffers from the same problem:

Many different groups are catching fish, but each group catches as many

fish as it can without considering the behaviour of other groups.


Increasingly compelling creative and increasingly innovative technology,

incurring increasing costs, are essential to attract the same level of

attention, generating the same level of revenue. In other words, human

attention is being devalued by the demands advertising places upon it.


> IF YOU'RE WORRIED, GET CREATIVE

> 

> This is why the whole advertising industry spends so much time thinking of

> new ways of creating impact and consumer attention.  The best ads in any

> media differentiate themselves in some way: delivery, targeting, creativity

> or message.


Given all the effort that has gone into all sorts of rich media

advertising, I'm really surprised that "standard size" banners persist.

I put forward my arguments on this a few months ago, so I won't repeat

myself. Anyone who missed them should be able to find them in the list

archives. In short, constraining advertisers to use rectangular boxes of

specific dimensions hinders creativity. Sites could easily be flexible

enough to display ads of many different shapes and sizes.


> USE THE CONTENT TO MAXIMISE ADVERT EFFECT & MESSAGE.

> 


> As with any other media it matters where you are seen.  Brands pick up a

> great deal of value from the content around their ads.  Fashion brands

> advertise in fashion magazines to appear fashionable.  Quality newspapers

> are often used lever a reliability.  Etc, etc. . .


This is an interesting point, but I'd be very careful about applying

conventional wisdom from other media to the Web. People have got the

wrong end of the stick so often from doing this. I'm not saying it isn't

important, but I'd be very wary of placing much credibility on this

(unless reliable research has concluded it is important).


Regards,

Tom


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