Commentary

Just an Online Minute... Too Little, Too Late

  • by February 26, 2001
By now you've heard that the Internet Advertising Bureau has come up with new standards for bigger banners. At first glance, establishing guidelines for seven new ad units, two vertical units and five large rectangular units seems like a major accomplishment on the IAB's part.

According to the announcement, IAB hopes that this new set of guidelines will "rejuvenate" the online advertising industry, but forgive me if I see this as a clear case of "too little, too late."

The organization, whose primary duty is to promote online advertising, has been under heavy fire lately for keeping quiet as failing dot-coms dragged the industry's perception of online advertising through the mud. That, and doing absolutely nothing to reassure the ad community that online ads really do work if used properly.

Specifically, bigger banners are not a new concept. Forbes.com created the Skyscraper ad - a vertical 150x800 pixel unit that spans an entire page - back in 1997 and advertisers have been using them since. It's no secret that bigger ads get better response - the shapes are larger and thus advertisers get a bigger canvas to paint their messages on. Size matters.

That said, adoption of these new formats does not depend on whether or not the IAB standardizes the specs. It depends on the willingness of website publishers to change the layout of their pages to accommodate the bigger ad units, which oftentimes means slimming down their own content. Not to mention that the suggested standards fail to cover the technology associated with bigger banners almost entirely.

Moreover, website publishers will base their opinions on advertiser demand, and advertisers know that bigger ads carry a heavier price tag - twice to three times as high as the typical banner ad. That's not to say bigger ad units will never see the light of day - it will simply take time to prove their effectiveness.

In the meantime, no matter how much the IAB hopes to save face with this new release, these big unit standards are not likely to rejuvenate the industry. We'll just have to keep looking for something that will.

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