• by Masha Geller , June 3, 2003

Yesterday, the Interactive Advertising Bureau released new research results from McDonalds on the effectiveness of different online ad sizes, and overwhelmingly, the bigger ad sizes have it. The research demonstrated that larger rich media ads perform better in communicating brand attributes.

The research, part of the ongoing Cross Media Optimization Study (XMOS), looked at the advertising campaign for the launch of McDonalds Grilled Chicken Flatbread Sandwich to determine the impact of individual ad sizes, as well as the incremental effect of each format in conjunction with and over offline (TV) advertising, in influencing McDonalds branding goals.

The study tested the :30 television commercial along with transitional ads (Supertitials), banners, skyscrapers, boxes, and rectangles.

The brand attributes tested included: "New," "Different," "Exciting," and "Combination of Great Flavors," and the largest "lift" in consumer awareness of each brand attribute came from use of the transitional ad. This rise was most striking in the case of "Exciting" where not only did the transitional ad outperform the other ad sizes, it outperformed TV in achieving awareness goals.

"Identifying ad size effectiveness is crucial for advertisers to effectively deploy online marketing efforts," said Neil Perry, Senior Director of Internet Marketing at McDonald's. "For most advertisers, including McDonald's, "Exciting" is a critical attribute to move with any campaign (offline or online), as it represents the emotional connection the consumer has with a brand as a result of the advertising. The transitional ad unit successfully communicates the "exciting" attribute to our target. This study helps demystify the significant contribution online advertising can make in conjunction with Television, radio and print advertising.

Greg Stuart, president and CEO of IAB, added that the XMOS research has already shown that by identifying the optimal advertising mix, advertisers can increase brand or sales impact from 7 to 34%, but "this additional analysis here proves that communicating Brand Imagery and consumer preference, once the domain of TV, can be successfully accomplished online.

In fact, he said, "it's astonishing to see that by using online advertising, persuading consumers that a product is "exciting" can be significantly improved by over what TV alone can do - especially in the case of transitional ads."