Talk to me about banner ads

Every Friday, I'll post an interview with someone far more knowledgeable than myself on specific marketing and publicity subjects. This week, web producer Alex Sturtevant on The Elusive Yet Omnipresent Banner Ad.



Alex Sturtevant is a Producer at NYC-based agency thehappycorp global. He is the lead for many digital projects for clients such as Cadbury-Schweppes, Miraval Resorts, Idealist.org, and Brooklyn Brewery. Alex also managed the creative for the 87th Annual Art Directors Club Awards Gala, and has previously worked for clients including Universal Music, Dell, Coca-Cola, J.P. Morgan, Paramount Vantage and Vivendi Games.




On average, what would a basic banner ad campaign cost to design and implement?

As frustrating as it is, I am not going to answer this question. There are myriad factors that influence the price of a campaign, ranging from the complexity of animation to the size of the media buy. I don't think it's very useful to try and pinpoint an average price point, but I would stress that I have been amazed by ads done on the cheap and nobody should think that they are necessarily priced out of the game.


For a venue marketing one performance, how far out (time-wise) would you start a banner ad campaign? One month? One week?

I'm not a media planner, but this depends on what you are trying to accomplish with the campaign. If the goal is to have users purchase tickets online by clicking on the ad, then it is a good idea to have two-three weeks running up to the show. If an advertiser is trying to generate buzz around a performance or drive offline ticket sales, then you may want to begin a little earlier.

For LVHRD, a series of live events for the creative community in NYC, we typically begin running ads 3-5 weeks prior to an event.
 

In your opinion, would it be more effective for a venue to produce a banner ad campaign announcing its entire season or to target specific performances?

Again, this is really a question that needs to be preceded with a decision about positioning. Are you trying to sell tickets? Or raise the profile of the venue? Target a specific audience? Banner ads should be treated just like any other piece of marketing collateral.


How important is placement? Obviously, arts presenters/record labels would want their ads in the arts sections (or is that not so obvious?), but does right/left/top/bottom of the webpage matter?

There are two types of placement - what section of a site the ad lives on, and where on the page the ad sits. In terms of the first issue, the homepage is usually a better bet than any interior page (even the arts section) because the dropoff rate grows and grows as you move deeper into a site. End of the day, you want the most eyes on your ad as possible. For placement on the page, it is always a good idea to have the ad above the fold (i.e. a user can see the ad without scrolling). There are technical details about how often your ad will appear on a page ("share of voice"), but again, that's really a question for a media planner.


What are the markers of effectiveness for banner ads? Click-throughs, time spent viewing the page advertised? What kind of report can organizations expect from the sites they advertise on?

The most reliable metric for success is clickthrus. All sites will provide their advertisers of a breakdown of total impressions (number of unique visitors who have seen the ad), clickthru rate (number of users that click on the ad), and clickthru percentage of total users. Successful, national banner ad campaigns usually average 0.2% clickthru rates.

For rich media ads (that expand, include video content, etc), there are additional metrics such as time on ad, interactions with the ad, and so forth. These become important as these ads don't necessarily need to drive users to an external site to be successful.


Are clients advertising on blogs versus mainstream newspaper sites now? What are the benefits/drawbacks of advertising on blogs?

Blogs are a great tool for advertisers. Many of the most influential and popular sites on the internet are blogs, since the content is refreshed on a consistent basis throughout the day. That's not to say that nytimes.com isn't a great place to advertise, but blogs are a fantastic and more cost-effective resource.

This is especially true in industries like the arts, as oftentimes you are marketing to a niche audience. thehappycorp has recently started a blog publishing network called Largetail, that includes a number of likeminded culture/arts/media blogs such as LVHRD, Coolhunting, The Winger, and PSFK. Working with the Largetail network allows advertisers to reach the elusive but coveted demographic of creative professionals, media makers and urban influencers. We are able to offer a range of custom programs to help acquaint our readers with a brand in a unique, relevant and meaningful manner.


You told me once that those irritating ads that float over your screen are the ones everyone asks for. Why are they effective? Doesn't everyone think they're annoying? The only time I ever click on them is when I can't find the X and hit Shrek's ear or whatever by mistake.

Rich media ads. A blessing and a curse. I admit that I have had just about enough of the dancing cowboys encouraging me to refinance, but these ads can be a great way to engage users in new and creative ways as well. Video content is always compelling. At thehappycorp we have also done projects recently that used an XML feed to send new and updated content to the banner ads throughout the life of the campaign. This would be useful if you wanted to advertise a full season at a venue, but display rotating information depending upon what performances were happening on a specific date.


On the other end of the spectrum, I feel like I'm so used to movement in these ads that when I see a static one I'm totally disinterested. Should organizations not even bother if they can't afford animation/video in their ads?

Not at all. That's like saying that since you can't afford to buy a Superbowl ad, it's not worth running a print ad in the Times. There are lots and lots of creative people in digital advertising that are making compelling banners based on good ideas and great creative, not flashy content. Doug Jaeger, the founder and Creative Director of thehappycorp, won numerous international awards for a campaign he did for Doctors Without Borders that included almost no animation at all.


Most effective banner ad campaign you've ever encountered?

I think the "click here to win a free iPod!" ads have absurdly high clickthru rates, but I just can't stomach endorsing them. I think the multiple-placement takeover that Apple did on the New York Times homepage earlier this year was extremely clever.


Least effective?

There are plenty of ads that I don't like personally, but that's not to say they're not effective...!


What's "the next big thing" in banner ad design and engineering? I'm picturing the shark hologram that jumps out at Marty in Back to the Future II.
 
Close - it's actually going to be a squid hologram. I think the age of tricking users into clicking on ads has come and gone, and advertisers are going to have to start offering the user something useful. That might just be clear information - name of product, price, availability - or it might be something more complex like being able to check flight availability in a banner, but either way, give the user something they can use.