• by Tom Hespos , June 8, 2004

While checking on a campaign last week, I pointed my browser at a website I hadn't visited in a while. The page loaded, revealing a 728x90 leaderboard ad across the top, while a narrow-format skyscraper framed content on the side. The skyscraper was "shaking" back and forth - a tactic some designers of casino advertising have deemed necessary in order to attract attention. While trying to read the content, a pop-under ad spawned, momentarily taking control away from my browser window and stopping my attempt to scroll down the page. Upon clicking inside the browser window, a floating ad appeared, blocking content I was trying to read. Sometimes, I miss my copy of Lynx.

Welcome back to the late 1990s, folks! You remember what used to happen when publishers started running light on inventory back then, don'tcha? That's right - they simply added more ad elements to each web page.

Clutter is among the many enemies of effective online advertising that reared its ugly head once again when the market started to recover and online advertising experienced a rebirth. Yes, we're going to have to go back and revisit the clutter issue, just as we're revisiting ad impression counting, terms and conditions and all of those lovely issues that were placed on the back burner after the crash.

Surprisingly, the Standards & Guidelines section of the IAB website doesn't make mention of clutter. (Actually, its guidelines for popup ads mention frequency capping of one ad per user session, but that's about it.) I say "surprisingly" only because much of the discussion surrounding updated size specs revolved around the notion of increased ad real estate in exchange for fewer ads on a page. Whatever happened to keeping clutter to a minimum so that advertiser messages could have an impact on consumers?

A recent study by Burst! Media, highlighted in the May issue of its Online Insights newsletter, shows that more than 60 percent of surveyed web users have a low tolerance for more than two ad elements on a given page. Even more troubling were Burst's findings regarding brand favorability in cluttered environments: More than one half of respondents to the Burst survey said they have a less favorable opinion of products and services when they are advertised on web pages the respondents consider to be cluttered.

Remember that one of our most compelling arguments for using online within the overall media mix is its ability to extend reach cost-efficiently. This argument, however, completely falls apart if brand studies begin to show declining brand favorability due to clutter.

How do we combat clutter? I'd suggest making clutter part of the qualitative analyses that media planners construct in order to rate environments for client advertising. Take a couple points off for ad placements that have to compete with more than one other ad element on the same page. That's a start.