Broadband & Cheltenham: Real-Life Effective Banners

“Twas the day before Paddy's, and all through the house,
Everyone was getting ready for a big session.”

Okay, so it's not Keats, Shelley or Plath, but you get the idea. St. Patrick's Day means many things to many people. Beer, pretending to be Irish when you're not, parades, American cities doing daft things to show their Irish heritage, and so on. I'm still not sure whether I'll be 'celebrating' the Feast of St. Patrick, whether it'll be Galway, Dublin or somewhere else, but I know how I'll be celebrating it. Same as every year, with pint after pint of Guinness.

Right, brass tacks. There are two very good examples of online 'banner' advertising in this week's post. One I really like, the other I'm sure is effective.

Firstly, Virgin Broadband is advertising on Amazon.co.uk and other websites with this ad. There are four essential differences between this ad and 90% of the other banners that are going around.

1. It's very simple and to the point: “no funny stuff.” Like the positioning, the ad itself is very direct.
2. It doesn't use Flash™, which is just rife on the Internet at the minute.
3. It's a non-standard shape, which is known to be effective (or at least less likely to be seen as a banner ad).
4. It's being shown right in the middle of content. Users who visit Amazon.co.uk currently see the ad just underneath the 'Search' box. It's not in the usual banner position (top of the screen or right-hand side), the areas that people just don't look at anymore.

Now I didn't click on this banner, but I did see it. And that's the point. Banners aren't really geared towards getting clicks and orders - pay per click is more effective at that. Banners are for building brand awareness. In fact, studies are now showing that banner ads, when done well, are as effective as TV ads in building a brand.

Now here's another example of online advertising that works. And when I say "works", I mean that it gets the brand and the message across. It may also get clicks, and that's probably the objective of this campaign, but the branding is inescapable.

I visit what used to be called PlanetFootball.com a bit. Now it's owned by SkySports.com, but I still type in www.planetfootball.com every time (old habits, etc.).

Anyhoo, I was there yesterday and came across this (click the image to see it in full size). Boyle Sports have four banners on the homepage!

Now the first thing to be said about this is that it was noticed by me. And I'd say it was noticed by more people on the Sky Sports Ireland website yesterday. So, by that measure it's effective. Also, it's Cheltenham at the moment, so gambling is a big thing at this time of year.

But some people might think of this as overkill. The ads took up just over 40% of the homepage that is viewable on my screen without scrolling. But whatever your opinions on it, you'd be hard pressed not to get the Boyle Sports message when you visit.

Have a great Paddy's Day!

Comments

[Damien]

Personally I think ads should be non-descript on web pages. Anything that flashes or popups I find very annoying

[Eva]

I actually signed up to Virgin's broadband service from that ad!

[Carlito]

Hey d, think Boyle's idea is to really get across, you can't advertise the gambling on adwords so they're using the banners for branding. i noticed it too, so that's proof enough!

[Deirdre]

I think the Virgin ad is a bit flat looking, but I do agree that where it's placed is good. Amazon doing this a while now, and it's a nice idea. Don't like the BS idea, think itll frustrate people waiting for the site to load. Good post.