• by July 31, 2000

As banner click-through rates decline, sites find new and innovative ways to advertise. Jackpot.com, for example, has replaced standard slot-machine icons such as cherries, bells and sevens with ads of paying advertisers. Matching three ads presents such prizes as promotional discounts.

Jackpot.com today released results of a preliminary survey demonstrating that its unique games and promotions that integrate sponsored ads into Web games can dramatically increase brand awareness.

Conducted this spring among 138 respondents selected at random, the new survey runs counter to the recent body of research on Internet advertising, which has focused almost exclusively on click-through rates on banner ads. According to Jackpot.com survey findings, awareness of company ads - as distinguished from click-throughs - placed in games increased among players anywhere from 44% to a staggering 314%.

Consumers who had not played Jackpot.com games were asked to name businesses that sold food, jewelry and beauty products on the Internet, or write "none" if they were unable to recall any. After six weeks of exposure to the game and its sponsors' ads, an identical survey was posted. By advertiser, NetGrocer.com registered a 67% increase in brand awareness, Eve.com, a 193% hike, and ice.com, a monumental 590%.

Two other recent surveys complement the Jackpot findings. Acknowledging that banner ad click-through rates are declining by roughly one percent a year, the research firm Dynamic Logic examined some 18,000-plus Internet marketing campaigns and found that advertisers were able to increase brand awareness an average of 6%, when compared with awareness prior to the campaigns.

Additionally, a new study by Media Metrix's AdRelevance unit, based on data from hundreds of websites, indicates that online marketing is an effective means of luring new customers and building brand loyalty.