Kill My Banner Ads, Please
Can we please agree to bury the banner ad? It served its purpose, but at this stage it’s mostly just digital noise.
This has been stated pretty clearly again (1997) and again (2007; although, go figure, this article says “unethical” banners do better). In 2005′s “High-Cost Banner Blindness: Ads Increase Perceived Workload, Hinder Visual Search, and Are Forgotten” (which pretty much says it all right there) the authors state right in the abstract:
“Eye tracking data reveal people rarely look directly at banners. A post hoc memory test confirms low banner recall and, surprisingly, that animated banners are more difficult to remember than static look-alikes.”
The one place where I think banner ads are still viable is when they serve as a sort of classified ad. For example, on sites like Smashing Magazine or Abduzeedo ads are somewhat relevant, and may actually direct me toward a product or service that I can use. They’re somehow applicable and therefore worth a glance, kind of the back pages of a favorite magazine like Juxtapoz.
Otherwise most banners are just the result of some marketer’s research: “98% of New York Times readers use toilet paper, so let’s advertise there!” yet what does it matter if the ad is ignored?
(As an aside, I have to say from the inside, that if banners are ignored as much as research and most people say, then the amount of work [MONEY!!!] that goes into massaging the slightest of nuances is such a sad, sad waste. Banner ads are NOT television spots! Subtle reflections in the opening will not be seen by most people who even DO look at them! Yet there they are, clogging up my bandwidth…)
So What Else Is There?
Oh, there are SO many alternatives…but here’s one I like: pay for admission.
Some sites are going with a pay-per-view model to help pay for themselves. Of the BIG ones, the Wall Street Journal already does this, and soon so will the New York Times. Imagine if a company sponsors access for a week or a month, make it free for non-subscribers, and add that time to current subscribers payment plans. Then get a nice, happy hraphic along the top of the page, or as an entrance to the site that proudly proclaims “Free access has been provided by Toilet Paper, Inc: We Wanna Help Your Bum!”
Even better, negotiate with the site so that NO other ads appear on the site while you’re footing the bill. This will insure your ad (that’s what this is after all, no?) will be seen.
This is just one possibility… there are more…!
Let’s find some, eh?
Full Disclosure
There are banners in my portfolio.
I even worked on “rich media” ads that popped up and obscured content.
:O
In my defense:
- I don’t want to work on any more banner ads (unless there’s a GREAT non-television-ad interactive idea that justifies the format)
- All “rich media” ads I worked on had to be manually expanded, had VERY clear “close” buttons or simply vanished on the user rolled off
Now that that’s in the open, let’s get back to finding cool banner ad alternatives, eh?