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With display enjoying the second largest share of all online advertising expenditure the IAB's head of marketing Kieron Matthews argues that there should no longer be any excuses a lack of creative consistency.
Monday, 19 November 2007
Look back At TV, Radio, and Outdoor advertising and not a great deal has changed to their structure since the early days. Of course digital has enabled them to become more interactive, but broadly speaking a 30” TV spot remained the same since the first was made. But interestingly, given online display advertising is a little over 7 years old we’ve seen nothing but change.
Flat images began to expand before they eventually started to boast interactive animations. Animations gave way to video because of bigger file sizes, click-throughs bowed to dwell time and engagement scores not to mention the plethora of format titles.
Agency and advertisers aside for a moment, this change has undoubtedly had an effect on consumer interaction with the traditional online format. Because of the internet’s accountability the slightest sign of a drop in performance and we’ve been quick to react with something even snazzier or interactive. Just because a consumer doesn’t interact with an ad does not mean that it’s not working. I haven’t ever interacted with a TV ad, though I have no doubt that they are working brilliantly.
At a conference recently I showed a great expandable banner for a major car brand, after which I was asked by a member of the audience whether I could tell if that user had gone on to buy that car. I was amazed by the naivety of the question - of course I didn’t know, no more than I knew if the same person had bought a packet of Walkers crisps as a result of seeing a TV or print ad.
So with reference to the car ad, if the intention was to drive consumers to the site (which it wasn’t) and it performed badly then you can appreciate that something new is required. Optimising ads live is one of the many advantages of online, but the issue here is not optimisation, but that of identifying the role for online advertising before any creative is produced or even booked. By doing this you have a much better opportunity to ‘settle in’ with a format and use it consistently.
Consistent presence on the web hasn’t really been adopted by many advertisers because they are still conducting campaign planning as they always have. TV and print advertising generally has slots because it’s cost prohibitive to maintain a presence on these media all of the time. Because of its value for money, reaching diverse audiences all year round should make online advertising an attractive proposition, but it’s sadly not.
This is because most advertisers and their agencies are still producing short burst campaigns. I’d be interested to know if any advertisers have a year-long awareness strategy, where the ads are produced at the beginning of the year and rolled out every day from there on in – I would imagine not. Yet this surprises me when we know that most consumers use the internet every day. Only when advertisers and agencies get together and rethink the way they produce their campaigns will this shift in mindset change.
However, better insight into the role of your advertising and a fully established online presence will not compensate for poor creative. “Is it good enough?” is clearly a question that is not being asked enough.
Too much average work is being produced which has catastrophic effect on results, consumer outtake and overall perception of the industry. I’m not talking about home-made ads either; I’m referring to proper grown up brands where advertisers have invested money. With display enjoying the second largest share of all online advertising expenditure there really shouldn’t be any excuses for the lack of creative consistency.
Just a cursory look at the creative awards and it’s the same agencies winning, or even the Won Report which doesn’t paint a great picture for British creativity. From the work that does succeed it’s refreshing to know that the opportunities are there, but consistent creative work appears to be few and far between. Incidentally I don’t think this is an issue for the online industry in isolation, but it is one we have the opportunity to tackle.
Many agencies would argue that strength of client, adequate time to create and mature budgets will improve the chances of success. So with the industry now a £2.4 billion medium the next challenge should be improving production budgets and development time. Only then will the creative bar be set even higher across the industry.
Monday, 19 November 2007
Flat images began to expand before they eventually started to boast interactive animations. Animations gave way to video because of bigger file sizes, click-throughs bowed to dwell time and engagement scores not to mention the plethora of format titles.
Agency and advertisers aside for a moment, this change has undoubtedly had an effect on consumer interaction with the traditional online format. Because of the internet’s accountability the slightest sign of a drop in performance and we’ve been quick to react with something even snazzier or interactive. Just because a consumer doesn’t interact with an ad does not mean that it’s not working. I haven’t ever interacted with a TV ad, though I have no doubt that they are working brilliantly.
At a conference recently I showed a great expandable banner for a major car brand, after which I was asked by a member of the audience whether I could tell if that user had gone on to buy that car. I was amazed by the naivety of the question - of course I didn’t know, no more than I knew if the same person had bought a packet of Walkers crisps as a result of seeing a TV or print ad.
So with reference to the car ad, if the intention was to drive consumers to the site (which it wasn’t) and it performed badly then you can appreciate that something new is required. Optimising ads live is one of the many advantages of online, but the issue here is not optimisation, but that of identifying the role for online advertising before any creative is produced or even booked. By doing this you have a much better opportunity to ‘settle in’ with a format and use it consistently.
Consistent presence on the web hasn’t really been adopted by many advertisers because they are still conducting campaign planning as they always have. TV and print advertising generally has slots because it’s cost prohibitive to maintain a presence on these media all of the time. Because of its value for money, reaching diverse audiences all year round should make online advertising an attractive proposition, but it’s sadly not.
This is because most advertisers and their agencies are still producing short burst campaigns. I’d be interested to know if any advertisers have a year-long awareness strategy, where the ads are produced at the beginning of the year and rolled out every day from there on in – I would imagine not. Yet this surprises me when we know that most consumers use the internet every day. Only when advertisers and agencies get together and rethink the way they produce their campaigns will this shift in mindset change.
However, better insight into the role of your advertising and a fully established online presence will not compensate for poor creative. “Is it good enough?” is clearly a question that is not being asked enough.
Too much average work is being produced which has catastrophic effect on results, consumer outtake and overall perception of the industry. I’m not talking about home-made ads either; I’m referring to proper grown up brands where advertisers have invested money. With display enjoying the second largest share of all online advertising expenditure there really shouldn’t be any excuses for the lack of creative consistency.
Just a cursory look at the creative awards and it’s the same agencies winning, or even the Won Report which doesn’t paint a great picture for British creativity. From the work that does succeed it’s refreshing to know that the opportunities are there, but consistent creative work appears to be few and far between. Incidentally I don’t think this is an issue for the online industry in isolation, but it is one we have the opportunity to tackle.
Many agencies would argue that strength of client, adequate time to create and mature budgets will improve the chances of success. So with the industry now a £2.4 billion medium the next challenge should be improving production budgets and development time. Only then will the creative bar be set even higher across the industry.
