Alternative Advertising Is Key Theme of Jupiter Forum
- by Ken Liebeskind , August 9, 2001
That was the message communicated by the final session of yesterday's Jupiter Online Advertising Forum, which was by far the most interesting part of the day.
Following the tired projections of increased Internet ad spending, a reiteration of the recent DoubleClick branding study and the constant criticism of performance based ad models, the final session, Beyond Online Advertising, was a real breath of fresh air.
Late in the afternoon, when most attendees were looking forward to the promised open bar, six Internet advertising executives took the stage for a panel discussion on alternative ad formats, which have been growing in popularity recently.
The discussion, upbeat and heated at times, expanded on a theme that had been mentioned earlier in the day: that digital marketing will overtake online advertising by 2005. "Suppliers, promotion and marketing departments have to become more creative," said Tim McHale, chief media officer of Tribal DDB Worldwide. "The Internet has put itself on steroids."
"Alternative ideas have become more popular because the Net is such a powerful, flexible medium," said Jason Devitt, CEO of Vindigo. "You can ask yourself what is the right tool to reach the right audience at the right time."
Among the most creative tools that have already been used to reach Internet audiences are online games, which a few members of the panel have been involved with. "The death of the banner has promoted advergaming," says Jane Chen, director of research at KPE, an interactive ad agency that claims to have created the word advergaming and developed a game for Microsoft to promote the XP software program. The paper clip game was immensely popular. "We sent out the URL to an email list, which usually gets 15,000 clicks and this one got 700,000," Chen said. "It was a pointed campaign targeting techies. When you offer games and multimedia, they respond."
Games had been criticized for only appealing to young boys, but Keith Farrazzi, president of YaYa, an advergaming company, says they are the fastest growing online segment and appeal to everyone with a special interest for women over 35. "It's all about metrics," he said. "Advergames get between 25 and 45 percent open rates and they play the games for eight to 15 minutes. Compare that with a 30 second TV spot."
Advergaming isn't the only alternative format out there. Vindigo serves ads to wireless devices and is renowned for creative campaigns that send tidbits of information to users, such as interesting facts they can relate on dinner dates that are sent to users requesting restaurant reviews. The company's advertisers include Absolut, American Express and NBC, Devitt said.
Active Buddy has made Instant Messaging an advertising platform, creating IM bots for advertisers that are used to chat with customers. The company made waves recently with its first campaign for Capitol Records, which created the Googly Minotaur bot to promote the latest recording by Radiohead. Users chat with the bot, ask questions and click on links to a variety of sites, including music retailers where they can buy the album.
So who is using these alternative platforms? The answers range from Fortune 1000 companies with huge ad budgets to "companies with a culture of innovation who want to get a jump on the competition," Ferrazzi said. They spoke of a "risk profile," presumably the risk of trying alternative formats. McHale said companies should leverage their spending in other media to make room for alternative formats, which generate a lift that justifies the spending.
One member of the panel was the foil. Gary Miller, director of e-marketing strategies at IBM Global Services, said only three major companies devote more than one percent of their ad budgets to online advertising. "They don't trust the medium, so they shouldn't use alternative formats," he said. He also said, "There's no way to measure ROI for alternative media," but others on the panel disagreed with him, saying the numbers of people who play advergames can be accurately measured.
Ferrazzi noted that another division of IBM was a client of his and is using an advergame now. Miller thanked him for the plug but continued to push the benefits of traditional advertising over alternative formats. But the overall message was clear--alternative formats are hot and growing hotter as the Internet develops.
