• by March 14, 2001

Judging by the number of responses I received to yesterday's Minute, I've certainly hit a nerve with many of our readers. Some took my plea to someone, anyone unbiased out there in the real online ad world to PLEASE tell me the real pros and cons of using larger ad formats as rhetorical. Fortunately, I did receive several dozen real responses, with useful, real- life opinions. Here's a synopsis:

THE PLUSES: - Bigger banners are relatively new and like anything "new," larger ad units are getting honeymoon attention both with advertisers and web users who are showering bigger banners with at least triple the click-throughs of regular banners.

- Larger formats provide a bigger canvas upon which to paint a picture - as IndustryClick's Nat Rosen said, a :30 commercial can make us cry, but a 2 hour feature film can do it more comprehensively. An 88x31 banner can get our attention, but a skyscraper can really cause us to stop and look up.

- Sites are generally willing to negotiate the price, both to 'test' performance and, more often, to make a sale, any sale.

THE MINUSES: - Bigger banners take up more space, so it becomes more difficult to read editorial, which is why visitors come to a website in the first place. Agencies/clients have not fully figured out how to best use them creatively. Many large units look like fence billboard ads.

- Skyscrapers are generally placed on the right side of most screens, so keep in mind that browser size and screen display inconsistencies don't guarantee that the right edge of the page is seen by every web surfer.

- Don't forget about the higher cost of ad production and higher CPMs - bigger banners cost twice as much as regular banners on average, both to produce and to place. And, although this will change in the very near future, unique size tags can not be implemented by most 3rd Party Ad Servers yet, thus the new units are not available on all websites. And most importantly, none of the above matters if the ads aren't relevant, creative, and are extending an offer that's easy to ignore. What matters: better marketing, smarter targeting and innovative creative ideas.