Posted 4. April 2009, 10:28 by jonathan gilson
Category : Home   Industry developments

Recently there has been much speculation regarding the future of online advertising. “No one can seem to agree on the direction that online – specifically online display – is going� (Treffiletti, 2009). Along the way ‘search marketing’ has been the most enticing format for online advertising and ‘display’ has taken something of a backseat in regards to interest levels. With the meltdown of the economy, display ads are taking a lot of stick for their perceived lack of effectiveness; “Forrester Research expects display ads to come under the scrutiny of tight-fisted marketers uncertain of their effectiveness.� (AdWeek, 2008). Nonetheless, with the opportunities that display presents; greater scope for creativity and brand image building, why do advertisers lack faith in it and why does search continue to prevail? This essay will consider the ‘enticing’ options of search marketing before then critically evaluating these possibilities that display advertising presents.

On its own, search is a powerful piece of web technology. According to Karp (2008) advertising as information on the web is extremely effective, a point which is surely reflected in Google’s $15billion ad revenue. The technology of search has enabled advertisers to create value for consumers in a way that was never imaginable with any other media. The ‘information based’ value proposition to consumers is flawless and is something display advertising would never be able to achieve.

The Chartered Institute of Marketing (2008) has a general ambition for marketing; “Marketing is the management process responsible for identifying, anticipating and satisfying customer requirements profitably�. For search marketers this is a statement of fact. It captures the ability of search to pinpoint and satisfy customer demand with effective measurement, accountable to the last penny, and this is probably the single most enticing prospect of search. Jack Wallington, Chair of Search Council, explains: “Through times of difficulty it is essential to use search in your marketing mix as budgets are increasingly scrutinised� (IAB, 2008). Due to budgets being squeezed advertisers have to justify, measure and report back where, and how successfully, they have spent their money. This makes search an invaluable online tool, not just in times of a recession, but also by creating what every marketer wants; Return on Investment (ROI).

Search marketing can offer further scope for budgeting efficiency in the form of targeting. This is to say that search results can be further targeted to the consumers’ needs. In theory, the much discussed behavioural targeting fits in here, increasing the effectiveness of campaigns by reaching the right target audience online. By using this data advertisers can ensure adverts in search engines are more relevant to that which the user has previously shown an interest in. Building on this, behavioural targeting also has the ability to target ads live during a search session. For example, in Google it is possible to search for your town, and then carry out an entirely new search for a restaurant without the location, and the search engine remembers the previous search to refine results specifically to your town (IAB, 2008).

Evidently then, search marketing does offer advantages to online marketers. Advantages for which there will always be support for from within the industry; search marketing stays true to those who believe that advertising’s main purpose is to sell. As David Ogilvy (1983) explains “I do not regard advertising as entertainment or an art form but as a medium of information�. So perhaps search is purely doing what it should be doing, providing information to achieve an ends- sales. Nonetheless, however enticing search may be it just has a cold, lonely technology character and due to this focus on sales value it can be said that it has little perceived brand value; it seems as though search is loosing track of what advertising is all about. John Boyd (cited in Jaffer, 2008) believes that people come first; empowered by ideas that are in turn facilitated by technology. With ‘search’ we have juxtapositioned this simple recipe with an order that places technology first and people last. “Technology does not dream and without creativity relationships starve to death� (Jaffer, 2008); there is a sense of creative innovation being lost with online marketing. This is to say that innovation with online advertising has been relegated to technological innovation – programmes being able to effectively measure ROI for instance.

So what is the significance of this? Wilmhurst and Mackay (1999) explain “The task of advertising is to establish ‘added value’ by highlighting those perceived benefits which make the product more desirable to its chosen target audience than competitive products�. When considering search, it is fair to say that it does provide benefits (or added value) to consumers by providing information; it would be hard to argue that there is no perceived added value for the brand who appears top of the search list time and time again. However, each brand also has a clearly distinguishable and unique personality (Wilmhurst and Mackay, 1999) and this is something that cannot be offered through information alone.

Display on the other hand, is perfectly set up to remedy this. It is argued that we are now more accustomed to seeing a web page bounded by advertising and “Far from being merely wallpaper, the increasingly rich online ad formats are effective in sparking the interest of users and encouraging them to spend a significant amount of time interacting with a brand� (Kean, 2008), either within the ad or on the website after click –through. This ‘interaction’, which display provides, can encourage consumers to form positive brand associations, by showing (through creativity) the personality and image of the brand.

Display advertising has seen an evolution. Although there are still the standard display ads associated with online, such as; Banner – 728×90, Rectangle – 336×280, Skyscraper – 160×600 and Square – 250×250 (Wallington, 2009), there are also newer formats emerging that offer advertisers greater scope for creativity. Despite creativity still existing, these traditional techniques do seem plain and two dimensional in comparison to these newer formats, which add that extra creative edge to display. One of the most engaging of these embeds video into online display ads, something which has in recent years become incredibly easy to do. Video increases the impact of an ad (Wallington, 2009); “It’s simple, iconic, stunning images that grab our attention, and video even more soâ€? (Shenk, 2009). Further to this, in such a sterile ‘search’ milieu video can surely enhance consumer engagement. Something that has been recognised by a New Media Age survey (cited by Shenk, 2009) which found that “80% of creative professionals predicted video will be important to online advertising in 5 years timeâ€?. Another engaging technique, which is extending the creative scope of display, is ‘expandable ads’. These use standard dimensions but allow the ad to stretch over the content of a page when a user interacts with it. Additionally, they have the potential to include more text, picture or video content.

Andrew Bradford (2009) from Platform-A explains that the Internet has the curious ability to inhibit feelings towards a brand, whilst other media (such as TV or Press) can elicit more positive feelings. This is not to say that creative advertising from other media should be dumped online (namely on display), it purely explains that display advertising perhaps has to work that bit harder; further support for these new creative formats previously touched upon. So this presents a question as to why advertisers still insist on using shortened versions of TV adverts, for example, online. (Think of VOD advertising for instance). They may still have an impact, but you get the feeling that advertisers doing this are ignoring the characteristics of online. The Internet is a medium in itself and therefore placing traditional mass media advertising online seems a bit perverse. Online is more personal and it enables users to interact more. This interaction is something which display advertising encapsulates and can use to create value for the consumer. Karp (2008) explains that “Online advertising must create value for users or it will create little or no value for advertisers� and this highlights the importance of interaction and creativity in online advertising and by the same token the important role that display advertising can fulfil.

Moving on, advertising is not purely about commercial success and it does play other roles than that achieved by the marketer / advertiser. Advertising has a role to play in society and culture and this is something that marketers have to keep in mind. O’Donohoe (1993) found that consumer’s used advertising for two reasons; marketing and non-marketing uses. Examples of a marketing use include consumers using advertising as a source of information, primarily on availability, price and information about new products. When relating this to online, this can be identified through ‘search marketing’; consumers go onto Google to find out more about a product or service or to reassure themselves. However, non-marketing begins to focus more on creative uses for advertising. Related outcomes that came from the research indicated that advertising was used for entertainment, escapism, play, aspirations and reinforcement of attitudes and values, all of which can be closely related to display adverting. This is to say that whilst search marketing may fulfil marketing uses, display has a greater propensity to meet both marketing and non-marketing uses; it will still have a commercial message, it would be ludicrous to argue that it wouldn’t, but display can contribute to other important roles that characterise advertising.

O’Donohoe’s (1993) research, however, is based on uses of advertising in general. As mentioned previously, the Internet is a medium in itself and therefore commands its own research into uses of online advertising. Ko et al (2005) explain that it is “Imperative to examine consumer’s psychological and behavioural aspects in Internet usage from the perspectives of interactive advertising�. The Internet requires a higher level of interactivity from its users in comparison to other media. Their research can be linked to the previous study by O’Donohoe, as it is suggested that people use the Internet not only for information, but also for seeking entertainment and escape. However, interactivity online allows consumers to actively participate in the persuasion process by controlling the advertising messages, amount of information and order of presentation at any time, according to their needs and preferences (Hoffman and Novak, 1996). With the new techniques that advertisers are using for display, it can provide this interactivity whilst putting the consumer in control of the delivery of the message and this therefore provides the escape and entertainment which consumers use online ads for.

Despite all the creative benefits illustrated with display advertising, there is no denying the fact that online marketers do focus their strategies around ROI. However, there are still ways in which display can hold its own ground during this time of difficulty. Ignoring the creative opportunities that display offers marketers for a moment, it should be an enticing option in any case as a result of the ever-increasing price of ‘search’ due to bidding wars. Budgets and ROI are of the upmost importance when it comes to online marketing / advertising and this is something which is not going to change soon. Therefore, ads need to be better targeted and relevant to the consumer. Behavioural targeting is not just a method limited to search and “Targeted display advertising is exploding� (Hallerman, 2007). Greater attention is being paid to overall ad targeting and the possibilities for display should present a ‘comfort factor’ for advertisers, when knowing that their ads are better targeted.

It is fair to say that it is hard to see what display is doing in terms of measuring success and ROI. However, this essay has put forward issues why advertisers should consider the technology to have many benefits. Advertisers get so tied up in measuring success that they forget the true characteristics of advertising. The characteristics associated with creative innovation. This is not to say forget about search marketing; as we know it is a pioneer in online technology. This essay puts forward the argument that display advertising is a force to be reckoned with in the online advertising world and something not to be forgotten. The Internet is a medium in itself and online display advertising can be seen as the shining knight of creativity entering a lonely world.

Reflective Essay

This essay has provided new insights into online marketing and advertising. It has done this by giving a detailed analysis into the personality of display advertising. This contribution is valuable because it can gives greater scope into why online marketers don’t rate display advertising; and why it should be a valuable tool in the online community. This could give others new insight into the deeper (hidden) advantages of display as we know it today. For example, the loss of creativity online can be said to be a big debate and the new ways of looking at display can shadow that debate or even become what is known as the creative future of online.

As a result of this work I gathered insight into all the different views faced out in the industry, not just for display advertising, but also for online culture. I have learnt to see how much conduct there is out on the online community. There seems to be a shared understanding of appreciating different point of views which in turn has given me a better understanding, not just for this assignment, but also new insights into communities being a credible source of information. This could link into the pedagogy approach to online communities; we learn by doing rather than by memorising, we learn better in a social group and reflection is a key part of learning.

I have felt that the Interactive Media unit has shown me different ways of intellectualising debates. By this, it does not necessarily mean that everything has to be done by the book, as everybody’s point of view is valid. It just means that coming up with a new way of looking at concepts, helps not only yourself, but also others around you in the community to learn, and aid each other when introducing new insights. This approach has been adopted in this essay and by coming up with a new way of looking at display, it could aid the process of a more refined insight into online marketing or advertising, which in turn could be invaluable out in the industry.

(2407 words)

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