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New ads here to stay
'Rich media' ads: Does the message obscure the medium? 07/25/2002
They arrive on our computer desktops with a flourish. Stick figures
dance across the Web browser window, obscuring text and navigation.
Or a lemon appears, then zips across the monitor, crashing into a can of
Pepsi Twist. Sometimes, the browser itself wobbles uncontrollably for an
eternity.
Get used to it.
A growing number of advertisers are bent on injecting their commercial
breaks into your online experience, using a variety of new
attention-grabbing, in-your-face techniques.
Many of the most daring are being commissioned by an emerging online
force – such corporate giants as Nestle USA, Pepsi, Coca-Cola and
General Motors that sat out the first iteration of Web advertising while
the rest of the nation went dot-com nuts. These behemoths never showed
much interest in banner ads that urged Web visitors to "Click Here!"
But advancements in "rich media" technologies have loosened their
wallets and sparked the imagination of their well-heeled ad agencies.
"We're definitely seeing an evolution," says Charles Buchwalter, vice
president for media research for Nielsen//NetRatings' AdRelevance
service. "These larger companies seem to look at these kinds of more
elaborate, emotional, vibrant ads as more consistent with the kind of
advertising they've done in other media."
Whether these rich-media ads are memorable and effective – or simply
annoying and off-putting – is still being gauged.
Traditional ads are tested extensively before being rolled out in
expensive print or broadcast campaigns. The new online ads, however, are
so cheap that advertisers can launch them quickly, then take stock of
their effectiveness.
"These firms are constantly learning things about what does and doesn't
work," says Mr. Buchwalter. "It speaks to the fact that this is a huge
piece of art that is unfolding, a work in progress."
Although many Web surfers deplore the new ads as too intrusive, the
genre's Web presence has become undeniable.
'A renaissance'
"What you're seeing with this wave of ad products is kind of a
renaissance in the way advertisers are thinking about the Web," says
Doug Weaver of Upstream Group, an advertising consulting firm.
"Advertisers are no longer content to use the advertising on Web sites
to get people to click on ads and come to their sites, then get the
payoff."
One research group reported last month that the rich-media campaigns
appear to be twice as effective as static Web page ads. Dynamic Logic
said interviews with 300,000 consumers about ad campaigns under way on
such major sites as MSN.com, NYTimes.com and ESPN.com showed that
brand-name messages were being conveyed successfully to 44 percent.
Less-intrusive, older, static ads produced "branding lift" in only 21
percent of people interviewed, the firm says. Older research from the
firm DoubleClick has shown click-through rates (the number of times
users actually move to an advertiser's site after being enticed by an
ad) are six times higher for rich-media ads than for standard online ads.
Experts like Mr. Weaver, who has shepherded online ad campaigns since
1994, say it's still too early to tell whether rich-media interruptions
will become a staple.
"It's the top of the second inning right now as far as the development
of the medium – still ridiculously early," Mr. Weaver says. "And, in the
consciousness of the mainstream advertiser, the Web still occupies a
relatively small space."
But that is changing quickly. While advertisers have been devoting only
2 to 3 percent of their marketing budgets to the Internet, that money
goes further every day. Meanwhile, today's commercial Web site managers
– struggling to improve their bottom lines – are more willing to allow
experimentation with rich media.
The Yahoo Web portal, for example, announced partnerships this month
with four rich-media ad companies, pledging to actively promote and
incorporate them into Web pages. Other portals such as AOL and MSN are
expected to follow suit. Likewise, Web media companies including New
York Times Digital, MSNBC.com and CNET Networks, the publisher of
News.com, have been pushing the envelope in serving larger, flashier
advertisements.
Much of the impetus for more dominating online ad campaigns comes from
what Mr. Weaver calls a Web advertising "space consolidation."
Culling the herd
Before the Internet bubble burst, it was common to find dozens of static
banners competing for attention on many prominent Web destinations. But
as thousands of dot-com companies died, things have thinned. And the
void is being filled by some real powerhouses that are willing to spend
big bucks to create a more dominant "out-of-banner" experience.
"Advertisers are saying, 'We want a meaningful palette on which to tell
our story,' " Mr. Weaver says.
Companies that provide tools for rich-media ads are also reporting an
uptick in interest. They include firms such as Unicast, which produces
TV-like presentations that appear before a Web page loads its content,
and EyeBlaster, which has developed a variety of over-the-page animation
techniques using Dynamic HTML, a combination of Javascript and Web page
code. Other companies, including Point.Roll, produce banners and
enlongated "skyscraper" ads that expand when rolled over with the cursor.
Eyeblaster CEO Gal Trifon admits that the campaigns produced by ad
agencies using his company's seven different floating formats are
walking a fine line with users. Too much interference with a Web
surfer's activities can be counterproductive, so EyeBlaster has
developed ways to regulate the number of times a visitor sees the same
animated effect.
"We think users have respect for the fact that Web sites do need to
sponsor themselves and, in time, they learn to actually appreciate this
type of advertising," says Mr. Trifon.
More than 200 ad agencies are experimenting with EyeBlaster formats,
says Mr. Trifon. From the time EyeBlaster began operations in 2001, the
number of campaigns using its rich-media techniques has steadily
increased to more than 100 per month in July, he says. And creative
directors are learning how to strike a balance between site usability
and their branding efforts.
When the right message is struck, Mr. Trifon says, users often go out of
their way to compliment advertisers on their ingenuity. Zippo lighters,
for example, has produced an EyeBlaster campaign that is particularly
effective.
As users arrive at a Web site, the targeted page suddenly fades to
black. An animated hand holding a metal lighter appears on the left edge
of the screen, moves toward the center, then strikes the lighter. The
page is briefly illuminated by the flickering flame, then the hand
retracts. Clicking on the lighter takes users to Zippo's Web site for
special offers.
"It was very surprising, entertaining and unusual," Mr. Trifon says.
"Many, many users actually took the time to click on the ad and
compliment the advertiser. Month by month, we're seeing better and
better creative work."
But large companies adopting rich-media campaigns now realize that
measuring an online ad's effectiveness shouldn't be measured by
click-through rates, says Mr. Weaver.
'Wait a minute'
"That dog won't hunt," he says. "Click-through is three-year-old
thinking, which makes it a hundred years old in this medium."
Instead, he says, advertisers are beginning to look at what kind of
users are attracted to particular Web sites.
"Advertisers are realizing, 'Hey, they have this person visiting this
site and the demographics look good; maybe there's more I can do here
than try to yank them away from their knitting to come to my own site,'
" says Mr. Weaver, whose clients include CBS MarketWatch, ESPN.com and
CBS Sportsline.
"They're thinking, 'Maybe I can do something that builds my brand or
tells more about product.' "
Adds Mr. Buchwalter: "With click-through rates, people were demanding
more accountability on the Internet with their ad campaigns. But that
ultimately got you to think: 'Wait a minute. How do you really know if
an ad really works in another medium, like TV?' "
To be sure, acceptance of more intrusive rich-media campaigns faces some
major hurdles. Many Web users are already fed up with the proliferation
of pop-up and pop-under ad windows that open on arrival at many
commercial Web sites. In fact, America Online currently faces a
class-action lawsuit filed by a Miami attorney on behalf of 2.5 million
AOL hourly-plan subscribers. The attorney contends that, since pop-up
ads slow down Web browsing, users shouldn't be forced to pay for the
time it takes to load them.
One of the nation's most prominent Web site usability gurus, Dr. Jakob
Nielsen of the Nielsen Norman Group, says the surge in rich-media ads is
destined for failure.
Advertisers simply do not understand that the Web – unlike television –
is a two-way medium, says Dr. Nielsen. Web surfers are going to sites to
gather specific information, he says, and anything that distracts from
that mission will be ignored.
From his own studies done with Web users, it is clear that they actually
tune out the most hyped-up features on a Web page on the assumption that
they are useless, Dr. Nielsen says.
"Those Web sites that are good at giving you the answers you seek now
will be successful," he says. "The ones that get in your way are going
to lose customers. Not that very day, but over time."
Simple text ads like those contained on the Google.com search engine
site are much more effective, he says. "They're not all singing an
dancing," Dr. Nielsen says. "But they move a lot of product because they
are targeted and directed and designed to give you something you might
want – something related to your search."
In time, faster Internet connections and better technology may entice
advertisers to experiment with even more television-like interruptions
of Internet browsing. "But it's a self-defeating approach and will die
in either case," says Dr. Nielsen.
"If it ends up that every Web page is a little circus performance, what
you'll see is that people will basically stop using the Web and do
something else," he says. "It's just too much."
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