• by Masha Geller , August 7, 2001

As you know, the main purpose of this column is to talk about things that fall into the media buying and planning categories of online advertising, but just this once I'd like to say a word about creative - the component many online campaigns seem to put on the back burner.

Everyone is talking about larger sizes, premium placement and other format-related issues. Take the latest Jupiter report to make headlines, which said, "Publishers should focus on selling the 30% of their inventory they can sell at a premium," and "Place Premiums on Media, Not Creative."

Granted, Jupiter's research shows that publishers who create premium inventory opportunities that combine premium reach, premium branding and premium targeting will command the greatest return from advertisers.

"Splashy creative and fat bandwidth will not solve the industry's problems. Premium inventory today is largely a function of creative unit size and placement - while only the latter makes sense," the report says.

I beg to differ. Without good creative (which doesn't have to be splashy or require monster bandwidth), premium reach and premium targeting won't ever come even remotely close to doing the trick.

Instead of screaming "think outside the box;" instead of blaming the low response rates (click-throughs and all others) on sizes of banners, poor reporting, poor placement or poor targeting, first figure out what's really wrong inside the present box. If your campaign isn't getting the response you hoped for, try a different creative before you blame it on size, target, or placement. I'm not saying those components aren't important. They're immensely important, but they're not a panacea.