Commentary
Just an Online Minute... More Case Studies, Please!
- by Masha Geller , August 21, 2001
Created by Trahan Burden & Charles, the goal for StartupJournal's "Mind your Own Business" online campaign was to increase awareness and to generate qualified leads for the site. The overall campaign included newspaper and magazine print concurrent with several online advertising formats, including banners.
The results? Though the Superstitial comprised less than 1/2 of 1% of the impressions in the overall online campaign, more than 33% of all visits to key pages within the site came from the Superstitial vs. other online formats. That's not surprising, considering everything we know about rich media and how much more effective it is at attracting people's attention.
More importantly, Unicast and their client say the Superstitial supplied nearly 11% of the total visits to the StartupJournal site, including those attributed to offline ad referrals. Also, the Superstitial received an approximate click-through rate of 9%.
While all of the above may sounds like an attempt by Unicast to drum up some more business - as Bill McCloskey said in his MediaDailyNews column today, "Unicast needs a financial savior and soon" - there is something more to this story.
Everyone wants to talk about ROI, results and effectiveness, but it is very rare that an advertiser or an agency will share results. Unicast and StartupJournal are paving a good road. Does this mean that Superstitials will deliver the same great results for every advertiser? Of course not. Is it possible for some? Of course it is and traditional advertisers need to be made aware of that.
The bottom line? Here's to more case studies and online ad campaign results, preferably a realistic mix of both successes and flops. Unlike flashy media kits and splashy power point sales presentations, real results have a tendency to convince traditional advertisers to take chances.
