It is a well-known fact that online creative is, to put it nicely, not very good. With banner click-throughs at their lowest levels in history, the blame for low banner ad effectiveness oftentimes
falls upon the creative directors, who in turn bemoan the limitations of a 468x60 canvas. But the banner is still the most widely used online advertising format, largely because the IAB has entered it
into the big book of standards.
Thus, creative folk still have a tiny box to work with. They try to break out every chance they get, but the results are often disappointing from the site
usability point of view. For example, recently I came across a site that allowed an advertiser (who shall remain nameless) to dangle a spider in front of visitors to its home page. The spider
eventually does crawl into a banner where it belongs, but before it does, the site visitor has no choice but to watch it spin its web – no clicking or closing of the ad allowed.
You could call
it inventive; I found it annoying, especially after the third or fourth time. While I was looking for information, my Internet experience was taken from me, stolen by this electronic arachnid. Yes,
advertising is what makes my Internet experience mostly free, but ads should never affect the usability of a site. No matter what anyone says, an ad on a website home page is not the same thing as a
commercial on TV.
However, rather than ranting about this conundrum, I’ve decided to find a solution, a compromise. Surely someone out there has found a way to let creative directors be creative
and web surfers stay un-annoyed. And I found it. A company called Point.Roll (pointroll.com) provides ad designers with a tool that expands the effectiveness of the banner without taking control away
from the visitor’s mouse. Using JavaScript, an everyday programming language, Point.Roll expands the normal banner when the user’s mouse rolls over it.
The expanded section of the ad can be
designed using HTML, Flash or anything a creative’s heart desires. A possible application could be a banner for a humor site. Every day or week, mousing over a Tom & Jerry scene on a banner could
reveal a new knee-slapper, encouraging visitors to interact with the banner, which ultimately increases brand awareness and the possibility of a click-through (if that’s the desired effect.)
While testing the actual design tool I did have some initial problems figuring out where to upload the banner creative and where to enter the rollover material. But given 10 or 15 more minutes to play
with it or, better yet, after a guided tour through the creative utility, it’s not difficult to figure out how it all works.
Mark Kecko is Technology
Director at MediaPost.