Re: UKNM: AdFilter - The death of ad-banners?

[Felix Velarde]

On 14/10/98 I read:


>I nasty bit of software just to keep us on our toes.

...

>As you cruise around the Internet viewing web pages, ADfilter works 

>in the background, intelligently removing advertisements, pop-up windows

>and other items that slow down your experience - saving your valuable

>time, money and sanity!"  From www.adfilter.com


We've been using (we in this case means my wife and I) a piece of 

freeware called WebFree for the last two years that does exactly the 

same job, and has user-configurable options to remove banners should 

they change shape in the future, even if they are served from the 

same server as the host page.


>Personally I don't believe that users are concerned by banners.  In

>fact, as with magazines and TV, users probably see adverts as a part 

>of the content.


We (Head) were asked to review banners recently - we couldn't recall 

a single banner ad since the H-P 'Pong' banner from, I think, 1996 - 

oh, apart from a banner for a Finnish mobile phone company done by 

someone who applied for a job with us. Our sister company Underwired 

did do some research a while ago that showed that in the UK at least 

only a fraction of a percent of non-industry surfers (they were 

volunteers from three music-related newsgroups) could recall a single 

banner 'brand'. My own view is that for the ten grand you'll spend on 

a tiny campaign you could do some on-line PR for your site that will 

be worth its weight in gold - Underwired did a short campaign (for 

around STG6k) for the PWC / Coopers & Lybrand CF site which increased 

qualified traffic by 170percent over nine weeks. A similarly-priced 

banner campaign for another client produced a surge of just under 

four percent.


Felix Velarde


director      Head New Media

success is about interaction

voice  + 44 (0) 171 737 7579


http://www.head-newmedia.com