There are some schools of thought out there that suggest online branding is dead, that a banner ad just doesn’t have the same ability to create impact that other media do. After all when was the last time you laughed or cried looking at a banner ad? But hold on a minute – when was the last time you snuffed your drink or spilt burning hot mince pie on your trouser leg from the bill-board or news-paper ad you noticed?You might have a tear in your eye for the odd beautifuly produced telly ad – but that’s only if you hung around to watch it and or didn’t zap it with your mysky or tivo right?
Strong images or sounds have compelled me to feel something about a brand in all forms of media from time to time, and the same goes for banners. In fact banners are one of the few media that can use any number of formats to compel you to feel something about a brand – an arresting image, compelling cinema and audio to complete the package. And of course – lest we forget interactivity. The mere fact that you can actually manipulate these ads (i.e. make one character hit the other on the head in the Three Stooges stylie) and have an engaging experience with them has to add to your feeling about the brand.
Here’s just a few great examples of brand ads we’ve run across AdHub:
Unfortunately, we’ve put so much effort into harping on about the accountability of online it’s now hard for people to have the same faith in their online ad that they do in their bill-board, television, radio or print ad; without a click-thru to prove somebody was interested in it. There are other measures of course – such as interactivity within the ad. The above example for Rock N Rolla had measures that reported how many people clicked and played on top of clicking through to see the full preview.
Now that we’ve opened the accountability bag – I guess we have to live with it and as an industry body it’s a huge priority for the IAB NZ in the new year. The key concern is developing an industry-wide accepted measure of brand-effectiveness on the web. Imagine getting a measure of unprompted awarenes, general favourability and intent to purchase along with your weekly click-thru results…
We’ve got a couple of plans in this arena at AdHub too – so watch this space. In the meantime – here’s an interesting piece form Media Post’s centre for media research:
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
A new comScore Brand Metrix norms database, compiled from nearly 200 brand impact studies conducted across a range of industries and online ad campaigns, finds that the effectiveness of online advertising campaigns in meeting branding objectives such as heightened brand awareness, improved attitudes toward the brand, and increased purchase intent, results ultimately in incremental purchasing.
Evan Neufeld, comScore vice president of advertising solutions, says though “With online display ads yielding click-thru rates of less than 0.1 percent, advertisers can no longer rely on click-throughs to gauge online ad performance. Doing so fails to capture the impact of… view-throughs… on attitude and future behavior… essential metrics in assessing the complete (ROI) in online advertising.”
comScore Brand Metrix relies on their panel to parse differences in behavior and attitudes among those consumers exposed to an online ad campaign compared to those who are not exposed, concluding that “… the deleterious impact of cookie deletion… can lead to an understatement of the actual view-thru impact of online ads by a factor of 20 percent or more… “
The report says the data provides compelling empirical support for the belief that there is a quantifiable view-thru impact of online ad exposures on brand value and sales. For the studies in which both retailers’ online and offline sales were analyzed, for periods ranging from two weeks to three months after the initial exposure to an online display ad, the incremental online sales lift was 27 percent and offline sales lift was 17 percent
Source: comScore Brand Metrix, Norms Database, November 2008
The report also says that online ad exposures also yield a lift in various important online behaviors, such as brand site visitation and trademark searches. For example, a substantial lift in visitation to the advertiser’s Web sites can be observed in the weeks following an exposure to a display ad, even though click rates are less than 0.1 percent. Specifically, there was a 65 percent increase in lift in the week following the first ad exposure and a 46-percent increase over the four weeks following the first exposure, underscoring the latent branding effect.
Source: comScore Brand Metrix, Norms Database, November 2008
And, the comScore norms data show that online display ads can cause an increase in search queries that involve the advertiser’s trademark brand name. Specifically, the average lift in branded trademark searches for the online advertisers studied was 52 percent in the week following the first ad exposure. The norms data also show a substantial continued impact, with a 38-percent lift in trademark searches in the four weeks following the first ad exposure.
Source: comScore Brand Metrix, Norms Database, November 2008
Neufeld concluded that “Not only does online marketing have the benefits of more attractive advertising rates and a faster growing retail channel, but it’s clear from the results of our studies that Internet marketing also generates incremental sales in retail stores.”
The Brand Metrix norms database contains the results across ten vertical industries including top-of mind unaided awareness, total unaided awareness, aided awareness, total advertising awareness, online ad recall, favorability, likelihood to recommend, and likelihood to purchase. And, a subset including behavioral metrics, online and at retail stores, of advertiser trademark searches, site visitation and purchasing.
