Sounds like a no-brainer right? But how many of the ads playing across our sites from our brands fit this brief?

Some very interesting stats from The Centre for Media Research:

According to a new LinkedIn Research Network/Harris Poll in June, 2009, of consumers and advertisers involved in the advertising decision making process, there are often disparate views of the effectiveness of advertising types. While over half of advertisers believe ads that make people stop and think (53%) and ads that give people new information (51%) are very effective, just three in ten consumers (30% and 29% respectively) feel the same, says the report.

When it comes to types of ads, advertisers and consumers agree on the effectiveness of some, but disagree on others.

- 26% of advertisers think ads that are integrated into the feel of the program, that is has the same tone as the program it is based in, are very effective compared to just 7% of consumers
- When it comes to ads that show before/after, 24% of advertisers say they are very effective while only 13% of consumers say they are very effective
- 21% of advertisers say ads that reinforce a message already known are very effective compared to 10% of consumers

Read the rest of this article.

Just 5-minutes ago I was scrolling through realestate.co.nz (looking for one of our advertisers) and spotted a RaboPlus advertisement offering 4% on 3-month term deposits. I’m not sure what is more ironic, the fact that I got excited about a 4% rate for some of our savings (the last one I did paid 8.6%!) or the fact that I did the absolute opposite of what the performance-based banner was asking me to do. Instead of clicking (sorry Alistair – I owe you $0.20), I opened my other browser (Safari doesn’t play well with Rabo) logged into my Rabo account and transferred some money.

Ahhh the power of online advertising beyond the click. If I’d been watching TV (which I don’t do anymore) I may have forgotten about it soon after. Likewise if I was in a train, on a bus or in a car reading papers, billboards or listening to the radio.

If my very small sample of one example doesn’t resonate, try this ComScore presentation that works through the brand-building impact of online advertising on some 80 leading brands.