I rarely spend time in my role thinking about the humble banner ad – they’re something that comes through as a given request on a media plan and sort of just gets done by the studio.
Earlier on I saw a study by Google that spoke of a fall in CTR year on year (0.09% down from 0.1%). Whilst only 1 click in every 1000 feels extremely low when you compare that to that age old, did they actually read our magazine ad (let alone bother to action anything on the back of it) it suddenly feels slightly more positive.
It does make you wonder though whether creativity has gone out of the display ads. I remember would labour over a display creative brief and agonise over whether this is the right ad for the target audience, the brand and the website. Now, more often than not, these briefs go straight over my head. Seen as production jobs not as a creative, or consumer challenge. Is this really the case? Should we not be nailing creativity in each and everything we do?
Interestingly I think it was the arrival of social and the focus more on getting the content right that saw this shift. Suddenly the destination has become more important than the journey to get there because, if the interaction is right, they’ll tell their mates and you wont have to spend a penny more on the ads…
This is a naive approach and, if anything, this article serves as a reminder to me that each and every stage of the journey needs to be as important – how to weave it into the thinking at the start needs to become critical so it doesn’t become that forgotten craft and CTR continue to plummet as creativity, and consumer apathy, increases to our faithful internet wallpaper friends – All hail the banner!!
Amy Naughton 