• by September 15, 2000

By David Cotriss

Given the just-released study by Manhattan-Pacific Multimedia showing that banner click-thru rates decrease with increased frequency, it is well worth mentioning that increased banner frequency does have an added branding impact. This is confirmed in a study by Dynamic Logic, a New York-based online marketing research firm whose clients include 24/7 Media, United Airlines, Gatorade, and Kimberly-Clarke.

According to the study, there is a direct correlation between the branding value of online advertising and the frequency of exposure: by increasing exposure levels from one to four or more, advertisers can virtually double the impact the advertising has on brand awareness. The range of lift in awareness spans 5.6% for only one exposure to 10.4% for four exposures or more. This finding is based on data collected through AdIndex, Dynamic Logic's proprietary online advertising research tool and is based on over 24,000 interviews and covers various product categories. Another study by the firm found that banner advertising raises brand awareness by 6% on average.

"The click-thru only actually measures 1% of an entire campaign," says Thomas Deierlein, VP of Sales for Dynamic Logic. "24/7 Media, for example, until recently only measured the later behavior of people who clicked on banners, ignoring the rest of those who saw it." He says 24/7 now uses AdIndex to solve this problem. This raises the important issue of measuring not just immediate behavior, but that of people who return to a site later. It's obviously of great benefit to be able to do this for people who were exposed to a banner rather than just those who actually clicked on it.

Reinforcing this, AdKnowledge found that 24% of the conversions resulting from an ad campaign were the result of an ad click. 32% came from users who viewed an ad, but did not click. The remaining 44% of the conversions came from repeat customers, regardless of whether they had initially clicked on an ad.

Deierlein adds that the technology combines attitude and behavior to help gauge results. This is useful since sites want to know who is more aware of and more likely to choose them. The importance of attitudinal information to media buyers and planners cannot be denied.

Based on the study's findings, Deierlein recommends loosening frequency caps to at least 4, developing creative that takes advantage of sequential ad serving and message building, and not hesitating to keep creative constant, particularly for logo and tagline placement.

- MediaDailyNews staff reporter David Cotriss may be reached at dcotriss@mediapost.com