The effectiveness of online display ads has always been a discussions point. Many of us consider display ads to be ineffective outside of very niche situations, in the same way that PPC only becomes viable for certain products or services. This situation is book ended by the fact that viewers are deserting TV and magazine advertising is falling through the floor. Many more brands and forward thinking marketing professionals are seeing the erosion of advertising in it’s current state in favour of brands as experiences and brands as participants not as projectors of message.
So, back to online display advertising. Comscore has recently produced a whitepaper entitled ‘How Online Advertising Works: Whither The Click?’, discussing the merits of online measurement – the click versus the view – and it’s well worth a read.
Some highlight facts from the front:
- According to Doubleclick and eMarketer, click-rates on static display ads fell dramatically in recent years to average levels of only 0.2% in 2006
- Rich media ads don’t perform much better, with a click-through rate of roughly only 1% in 2006, according to research from Doubleclick, eMarketer, Eyeblaster and ABI.
- Recent research conducted by comScore on behalf of Starcom and Tacoda showed that average click rates on display ads in 2008 were less than 0.1%.
- Further Starcom research suggests no correlation between display ad clicks and brand metrics, and shows no connection between measured attitude towards a brand and the number of times an ad for that brand was clicked.
- The research suggests that when digital campaigns have a branding objective, optimizing for high click rates does not necessarily improve campaign performance.
- The comScore research also revealed that two-thirds of Internet users do not click on any display ads over the course of a month and that only 16% of Internet users account for 80% of all clicks. comScore’s research also showed that the demographics of clickers are skewed towards younger users aged 25 to 44 earning less than $40,000 per year. This is hardly an attractive target segment for most advertisers.
- Even search ads, presumably the most effective form of online marketing, are only clicked on 4% of the time at Google, and 2% at MSN and Yahoo!, according to comScore statistics.
We’re in the process of designing and building an iPhone app for one of our lovely clients. Top secret I’m afraid but keep an eye on the blog if you want it first.
Pinch Media have done a really great report on the App Store which gives a really good insight into usage patterns..
Usage over time stats are quite interesting and they certainly show that Apps have a quiet significant honeymoon period beyond which usage drops right off.
That reinforces the challenge we know we’ve got to overcome, and that’s to make an app that is super fun and draws lots of initial attention but also that it has life beyond the first few usages.
D&AD New Blood began yesterday. Some very interesting and thoughtful pieces of design work from this years university graduates, it looks like a good year for new talent!
New Blood Part 1
New Blood Part 2
I am writing this as a stunned and inadequate adult who is completely in awe of the contestants in the inaugural Times Spelling Bee Championships staged in London yesterday. The standard was something to behold !! Words were being spelt which I didn’t even know existed never mind what they meant,
and therefore definitely couldn’t spell !!
We were kindly invited by our friends at The Times with whom we worked very closely to develop the www.timesspellingbee.co.uk website which proved to be a vital window to the world in promoting the whole event going forward. We even managed to be nominated for a Webby !!
They say the best ideas are the simplest and without doubt a National Spelling competition for schools seems obvious, but never before has an initiative been undertaken of this nature in the UK. Hats off to The Times and especially to the Editor James Harding who has been the driving force behind the realisation of this competition, although in his speech he did credit his girlfriend Kate with having come up with the idea !!
So he’s a gentlemen as well as a scholar !! Top marks James…
Congratulations to everybody who competed in both the heats and the final with the winners being St Martin’s School in Middlesex who have already made an appearance on BBC Breakfast this morning !!
Life will never be the same again……..
www.timesspellingbee.co.uk
With the Apple WWDC keynote pegged for today the rumor mill is buzzing with predictions for what it’s going to deliver. According to the rumor mill daring firball has emerged as one of the more accurate sources.
http://daringfireball.net/2009/06/wwdc_2009_predictions
What’s for sure is that the iPhone has changed the mobile landscape for good and there’s no going back for users and vendors alike. What Apple has done is to create a lifestyle choice out of a technology and it’s heading for a cultural status similar to that of the iPod. If what’s supposed to happen happens and Apple releases a $99 iPhone we’re going to see a fresh wave of users who’ve been put off by the inital price of previous generations. And if O2’s exclusivity contract comes to an end we’re going to see some quite interesting things happening in mobile stores across the UK very very soon.
We launched a new campaign-based website for Cockpit Arts last week called Maker Difference.
Cockpit Arts is the UK’s only creative business incubator for designer-makers. Renowned for being a ‘hotbed of creative talent’ their studios are brimming with cutting edge fashion, jewellery and interior products.
As a registered charity they exist solely to nurture creative talent, from first beginnings through to international success. They house 165 designer-makers at their incubators in London all benefiting from affordable studio space, inclusive professional development support, one-to-one business mentoring and public selling opportunities.
Cockpit Arts is launching ‘Maker Difference’ a new campaign to raise awareness of, and encourage support for talented designer-makers.
The campaign comes to life on 12-14 June 2009 and 19-21 June 2009 when Cockpit Arts opens the doors to its renowned London studios, inviting the public inside. At these free summer ‘Open Studios’ events you can meet designers and see new trends in the making.
A friend of mine over at Tamar has written a neat piece on how brands can use twitter better.
http://econsultancy.com/blog/3852-tips-for-brands-starting-out-on-twitter-2
The long and short of it is that brands should be socialising rather than broadcasting which is the challenge they face across all media, not just social media and Twitter.
Bud Caddell, a digital strategist, sum’s up what he does as:
I think it explains quite nicely the challenge brands are facing online at the moment.
We’re really honored to have been shortlisted alongside our good friends at Times Online for a Webby Award this year for the Time Spelling Bee site.
Get voting for us over at http://www.pv.webbyawards.com and we could also be in with a chance of a People Choice award.
If you don’t know what a Webby is, here you go:
Hailed as the “Internet’s highest honor” by the New York Times, The Webby Awards is the leading international award honoring excellence on the Internet, including Websites, interactive advertising, online film and video, and mobile web sites. Established in 1996, the 13th Annual Webby Awards received over 10,000 entries from all 50 states and over 60 countries worldwide. The Webby Awards is presented by The International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences. Sponsors and Partners of The Webby Awards include: Microsoft Silverlight; The Creative Group; .ORG; Getty Images; The Barbarian Group; Digital Kitchen; Wired; IDG; PricewaterhouseCoopers; 2advanced.Net; KobeMail and Museum of the Moving Image
