• by Masha Geller , November 15, 2001

How does an average web user feel about pop-ups, pop-unders and online advertising in general? Researchers at New York's Dynamic Logic took it upon themselves to figure out the answer.

A few days ago they released the results of an Advertising Reaction Study, which concluded that banners generate the most favorable opinions; that consumers feel advertising is necessary to keep sites free even if the ads are distracting; that pop-ups are on par with TV ads and Direct Mail in their desirability; and that consumers will accept a limited number of pop-ups to access preferred and free online content.

Dynamic Logic found that more than half (53%) of the consumers have a positive attitude towards the banner and that the newer, larger formats rank second and third, respectively, with 35% of respondents indicating they are positive about skyscrapers and 17% about large rectangles. On the other end of the spectrum, only a small number of respondents had positive feelings towards the more intrusive formats such as pop-ups (6% positive) and full pages interstitials (3% positive).

Respondents were also asked to compare pop-ups to other forms of ads in terms of desirability and the results showed that consumers put pop-ups roughly on par with TV ads and Direct Mail in terms of relative desirability. Direct Mail and Telemarketing are less desirable than pop-ups, while Print, Radio, and Billboard advertising are more desirable.

Furthermore, 28% of the sample said no number of pop-ups were appropriate even to support a website they liked, while 72% indicated that some amount of pop-ups per hour would be. appropriate. Among the latter group, the amount deemed appropriate varied, averaging out at 3 pop-ups per hour.

And the most comforting finding: the majority of respondents (85%) agreed with the statement: "Advertising is necessary to support the websites I like to visit and keep them free, even if the ads distract me from what I am doing."