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size does count
IAB: New larger ads especially good for branding
By Marty Beard
Back in February, the Internet Advertising Bureau sanctioned an assortment of plus-size online ads. The thinking: Ads that are bigger must work better than traditional banner ads.
Five months later, there’s evidence to suggest that bigger is better, at least in terms of branding. And bigger is best when it’s interactive.
These conclusions are based on three studies released by the IAB, one by the IAB itself and the others by IAB members MSN and DoubleClick.
The data suggest that the new ad units, namely the large rectangle, small rectangle, interstitial and skyscraper, can improve brand metrics by an average of 40 percent.
"There is quantifiable proof across a large number of categories and a large number of brands that online advertising is effective at a range of marketing strategies," says Rex Briggs, who serves on the IAB’s research committee.
The studies looked beyond ad click-throughs, the metric most commonly used for banners, to such metrics as purchase intent, brand awareness, message association, brand-logo recall, brand-tagline recall, ad recall and recall of visual images in creative.
The MSN study concludes that the larger ad formats are more effective because they provide more room for a message and because they are more effective at gaining the consumer's attention, especially if the ad is interactive.
In fact, the IAB says that just about the best way to make an online ad effective is to make it interactive.
When the larger formats are combined with interactive technologies such as rich media and Flash, according to Briggs, the impact and branding effectiveness increase further still.
The MSN study found that interactive units that use DHTML, or dynamic HTML, boost awareness twice as much as non-interactive creative units.
Interactive DHTML units boost awareness by 13 percent, double the showing of non-interactive ads in the campaigns.
And interactive DHTML ads lift message association as high as 43 percent and raise brand awareness by 24 percent.
DoubleClick posted similar findings. Ads that used Flash saw an increase of 14 percentage points in terms of ad awareness and an increase in ad recall of 10 percentage points.
"Flash and HTML often were quite effective at providing deeper messaging or visually intriguing messaging," says Briggs.
But, he says, there is such a thing as technological overkill. A message can get lost in a busy, animated ad jammed with images and noise.
"The key thing I remind my clients is that rich media is not the message," Briggs says.
"But if rich media helps make the message more interesting or more clear to the consumer, then it’s a very effective strategy."
Regardless of whether they use animation or are interactive, larger ad formats are having an impact on consumers, the data indicates.
Those irritating pop-up ads turned in an especially strong performance. As many media people have said all along, obtrusive equals effective, like it or not.
Interstitial ads, the MSN study found, can boost brand metrics by 194 percent, especially if deployed when users move between web sites.
Other clear winners are the skyscraper and large rectangle formats.
The MSN study, which was conducted by Dynamic Logic on ads for ShareBuilder and uBid that ran on MSN’s Slate webzine, found that the skyscraper raised brand awareness by 16 percent, which was roughly six times better than the other ad formats in building brand awareness and almost two times better in terms of message association.
The DoubleClick study, on the other hand, determined that the most effective interactive ad format is the large rectangle, which measures 336 by 280 pixels. That format boosted brand awareness by 86 percent.
DoubleClick also pronounced skyscrapers effective. In the DoubleClick study, skyscrapers boosted brand metrics by 64 percent. The small skyscraper format lifted brand awareness by 40 percent.
And the IAB study, which also was carried out by Dynamic Logic, determined that the new larger ad units can lift metrics such as branding awareness and message association by as much as 25 percent, even after just one exposure.
The IAB study found that skyscrapers and large rectangles were the most effective online ad sizes. Skyscrapers increased brand awareness by 7 percent over the control group, for an overall 62 percent of people exposed to the ads recalling the brand.
In terms of message association, the IAB declared the large rectangle unit to be the winner, with message association increasing by 10 percentage points.
These findings by no means rule out the traditional banner ad.
The studies determined that banners can increase brand awareness, message association, brand favorability and purchase intent.
The IAB study found that banners can increase brand awareness by 2 percentage points and message association by 1 percentage point.
Briggs recommends using a mix of all of the ads: interstitials to break through the clutter and capture people’s attention, skyscrapers and horizontal rectangles to communicate what he calls big idea-messaging, and banners to reinforce the core message and distribute it broadly.
"If you’re a marketer trying to spend your money wisely, you should be taking a good look at how to use online effectively," he says.
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Branding Effectiveness of Online Ad Sizes |
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|
Metric |
Control (%) |
Standard banner (468 x 60) (% increase) |
Large rectangle (336 x 280) (% increase) |
Skyscraper (120 x 600) (% increase) |
Small skyscraper (120 x 240) (% increase) |
|
Aided brand awareness |
60 |
+5 pts |
+9 pts |
+8 pts |
+3 pts |
|
Aided ad awareness |
12 |
+9 pts |
+15 pts |
+11 pts |
+6 pts |
|
Brand logo recall |
10 |
+7 pts |
+8 pts |
+6 pts |
+5 pts |
|
Brand tagline recall |
3 |
+5 pts |
+6 pts |
+5 pts |
+3 pts |
|
Visual image in ad creative recall |
10 |
+6 pts |
+9 pts |
+6 pts |
+4 pts |
|
Ad recall |
15 |
+8 pts |
+15 pts |
+10 pts |
7 pts |
| Source:
DoubleClick
|
|||||
|
Branding Effectiveness |
|||||
|
Metric |
Control (%) |
Gif |
Flash |
Audio |
Video |
|
Aided brand awareness |
60 |
-2 pts |
+8 pts |
-1 pts |
-1 pts |
|
Aided ad awareness |
12 |
+1 pts |
+14 pts |
+3 pts |
+3 pts |
|
Brand logo recall |
10 |
0 pts |
+6 pts |
+1 pts |
+2 pts |
|
Brand tagline recall |
3 |
+1 pts |
+5 pts |
+1 pts |
+1 pts |
|
Visual image in ad creative recall |
10 |
0 pts |
+6 pts |
0 pts |
0 pts |
|
Ad recall |
15 |
0 pts |
+10 pts |
+2 pts |
0 pts |
| Source:
DoubleClick
|
|||||
|
Branding
Effectiveness |
||||
|
Metric |
Control (%) |
Interstitials |
On the page |
Over the page |
|
Aided brand awareness |
60 |
+11 pts |
+2 pts |
+3 pts |
|
Aided ad awareness |
12 |
+31 pts |
+11 pts |
+9 pts |
|
Brand logo recall |
10 |
+17 pts |
+5 pts |
+5 pts |
|
Brand tagline recall |
3 |
+14 pts |
+3 pts |
+4 pts |
|
Visual image in ad creative recall |
10 |
+19 pts |
+5 pts |
+5 pts |
|
Ad recall |
15 |
+33 pts |
+8 pts |
+7 pts |
| Source:
DoubleClick
|
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| Brand
Awareness by Size Format
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Size |
Control (%) |
Exposed (%) |
|
Gif skyscraper |
38 |
44 |
|
Gif rectangle |
38 |
39 |
|
Gif banner |
38 |
38 |
| Source:
MSN/Dynamic Logic
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Message Association by Size Format |
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Size |
Control (%) |
Exposed (%) |
|
Gif skyscraper |
11 |
16 |
|
Gif rectangle |
11 |
15 |
|
Gif banner |
11 |
13 |
| Source:
MSN/Dynamic Logic
|
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July 25, 2001 © 2001 Media Life
-Marty Beard is a staff writer for Media Life.
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