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advertising for Or: what will replace the display banner? 12 exciting new ways of digital publishers
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12 Exciting New Ways of Advertising for Publishers (Or: What Will Replace the Display Banner?)

Aug 23, 2014

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Marketing

Soda studio

Display ads are by far the biggest source of income for online publishers. There’s the medium rectangle, half-page, leaderboard, and possibly hundreds of more obscure types.

But, while digital ad incomes are huge online conversion rates are dropping. (For example: 8% of the users account for 85% of clicks on banners, the average click-through rate of display ads is 0.1%.)

What’s going wrong here?
The biggest problem is that display banners are often obtrusive and don’t enhance or integrate with the overall experience well enough.

‘Sad’ news: the display banner as we know it is nearing the end of its life span

However, many advertisers, together with publishers, are rethinking online branding, let’s take a look at 12 exciting concepts for online advertising.

Contains advertising concepts by / found on Forbes, Quartz, The Next Web, Vox (Polygon), De Volkskrant, NRC, Time, WeTransfer, AdGibbon, GlobalMoxie, Google, BuzzFeed, The Atlantic, The Chicago Tribune, FIFA app, De Correspondent & more!

-- Photography sources --

"Ruler" by Scott Akerman, some rights reserved (2010)
https://www.flickr.com/photos/sterlic/4299631538

"Crochet Eyeball" by Net, all rights reserved (2008)
https://www.flickr.com/photos/quoin/2815208617

"Falling Jellyfish" by Joe Flood, some rights reserved (2006)
https://www.flickr.com/photos/joeflood/84125419

"Draining Again" by darkday, some rights reserved (2014)
https://www.flickr.com/photos/drainrat/14017447697

"Pack" by Nick, all rights reserved (2012)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/blank_canvas_photograpy/8154329078
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Page 1: 12 Exciting New Ways of Advertising for Publishers (Or: What Will Replace the Display Banner?)

advertising for

Or: what will replace the display banner?

12 exciting new ways of

digital publishers

Page 2: 12 Exciting New Ways of Advertising for Publishers (Or: What Will Replace the Display Banner?)

Display ads are by far the

biggest source of income for

online publishers

Currently

Page 3: 12 Exciting New Ways of Advertising for Publishers (Or: What Will Replace the Display Banner?)

• medium rectangle

• half-page

• leaderboard

• and possibly hundreds

of more obscure types

(You may or may not have noticed them

depending on your banner blindness..)

There’s the

Page 4: 12 Exciting New Ways of Advertising for Publishers (Or: What Will Replace the Display Banner?)

online conversion rates are dropping

Digital ad incomes are huge while

But, and this is no secret…

Page 5: 12 Exciting New Ways of Advertising for Publishers (Or: What Will Replace the Display Banner?)

• 8% of the users account for 85% of clicks on banners

(and some of them aren't even humans)

• The average click-through rate of display ads is 0.1%

• About 50% of clicks on mobile ads are accidental

• You are more likely to survive a plane crash than click

on a banner ad

”10 Horrifying Stats About Display Advertising” on Hubspot

Some horrifying statistics

Page 6: 12 Exciting New Ways of Advertising for Publishers (Or: What Will Replace the Display Banner?)

Display banners are often obtrusive and

don’t enhance or integrate with the overall

experience well enough

What’s going wrong here?

Page 7: 12 Exciting New Ways of Advertising for Publishers (Or: What Will Replace the Display Banner?)

With today’s ‘everything online is open and

free’ standard, publishers struggle to find

the sweet spot for just-enough advertising

The online playing field

Page 8: 12 Exciting New Ways of Advertising for Publishers (Or: What Will Replace the Display Banner?)

'Just-enough’ ads you say?

Generally, Ads lower the perception of quality of the content, their

distractive nature makes the brand feel cheaper.

Page 9: 12 Exciting New Ways of Advertising for Publishers (Or: What Will Replace the Display Banner?)

More cognitive load means

harder on the eye

From a user experience standpoint, banners are noisy;

Page 10: 12 Exciting New Ways of Advertising for Publishers (Or: What Will Replace the Display Banner?)

banner blindness is getting more prevalent

meaning increased risk

Also,

of missing crucial interface elements(potentially poor usability, less traffic etc.)

Page 11: 12 Exciting New Ways of Advertising for Publishers (Or: What Will Replace the Display Banner?)

The increasing popularity of ad blockers is

evidence that banners are a nuisance to

many internet users.

23% of Americans are using ad blockers,

expected growth 45% per year.

pagefair.com

At the same time

Page 12: 12 Exciting New Ways of Advertising for Publishers (Or: What Will Replace the Display Banner?)

(Maybe.)

!

Although something can be said for the

user experience being ignored for too long

(Leaving out any of the privacy / tracking issues people might have.)

Are ad blockers unfair?

Page 13: 12 Exciting New Ways of Advertising for Publishers (Or: What Will Replace the Display Banner?)

(Btw, site’s are responding to this…)

via littebigdetails.com iconmonstr.com

Page 14: 12 Exciting New Ways of Advertising for Publishers (Or: What Will Replace the Display Banner?)

the display banner as we know it is nearing

the end of its life span

‘Sad’ news

buh-bye!

Page 15: 12 Exciting New Ways of Advertising for Publishers (Or: What Will Replace the Display Banner?)

many advertisers, together with publishers,

are rethinking online branding,

let’s take a look at 12 concepts…

However

Page 16: 12 Exciting New Ways of Advertising for Publishers (Or: What Will Replace the Display Banner?)

From conversion to brandingAdvertising concept

1

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* see our blogpost on emotional design

There’s a rise of beautiful and emotional* online advertising

that conveys the brand identity more effectively

qz.nl

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Even though the ad is huge, it doesn’t ruin the experience

because of the visual attractiveness and the positioning

qz.nl

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”[These ads feel] intuitive for readers and lets

Aziz Hasan, creative director at Say Media (digiday.com)

advertisers keep the authenticity of [their] brand,”

Page 20: 12 Exciting New Ways of Advertising for Publishers (Or: What Will Replace the Display Banner?)

WeTransfer knows how to let advertisers to make the brands

‘pop’ while maintaining the core feature simple & convenient

wetransfer.com Many of the ads don’t invite click-through at all. A flaw?

Page 21: 12 Exciting New Ways of Advertising for Publishers (Or: What Will Replace the Display Banner?)

Vox’s huge Triton ad uses a depth effect; while scrolling

the ad moves slower, hence it’s longer visible

polygon.com The visual effect of layers imitating ‘layering’ and thereby depth is also called the ‘parallax scrolling’.

1 2

3 4

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(A bit like a micro-site)

Devil Ad has developed an ad format that

can be placed next to an article

devilad.nl

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Advertisers can pitch their story more elaborately with visuals, text, video’s or other interactive elements !By not squeezing the message in a small box, this format it feels more integrated

Critical note: this format excels when there’s a column to spare, it doesn't scale that well to smaller screen sizes though.

devilad.nl

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Visual noise is kept at a minimum even

though the photography is larger.

In the end, size does and does not matter.

The thing is

Page 25: 12 Exciting New Ways of Advertising for Publishers (Or: What Will Replace the Display Banner?)

This is digital space.

There’s no need to repeat the formulas of

print, to fight over pixels as if we’re limited

by the medium’s ‘size’.

!

Let’s search for appealing digital native

formats instead.

Page 26: 12 Exciting New Ways of Advertising for Publishers (Or: What Will Replace the Display Banner?)

Swipecube(Mobile) advertising concept

2

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AdGibbon has developed a mobile-first format, Swipecube, which contains content in 4 ‘sides’

that can be swiped through

Page 28: 12 Exciting New Ways of Advertising for Publishers (Or: What Will Replace the Display Banner?)

Thus creating an efficient use of space in which advertisers can express more with less visual

noise

Critical note: the swiping is very much a hidden feature at the moment. This affordance could be communicated more clearly.

Page 29: 12 Exciting New Ways of Advertising for Publishers (Or: What Will Replace the Display Banner?)

Snap banners(Mobile) advertising concept

3

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The Snap banner sticks to the bottom of the screen while the page content scrolls past

Used in the Entertainment Weekly redesign (by Global Moxie)

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When scrolling beyond a certain point the banner is ‘parked' in the page

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When tapping the banner, the ad opens in a full-screen modal window so the user doesn’t leave

the article directly

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For advertisers the banner’s ’stickiness' is attractive because it’s more likely to be 'above the fold’* !For users it’s presumably more acceptable because it’s tiny and doesn’t interrupt the content (too much)

* Don’t get us started about what we REALLY think about ‘the fold’ in the digital media context.

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Display ads in GoogleAdvertising concept

4

Page 35: 12 Exciting New Ways of Advertising for Publishers (Or: What Will Replace the Display Banner?)

Google (the godfather of modest advertising) has been

experimenting with display banners.

It’s no accident that some clean photography was used

Still, the project was plugged (Seodesk)

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Interactive bannersAdvertising concept

5

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On Quartz user are invited to sign-up, they

directly engage with the brand on the

publisher’s siteqz.com

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The user is triggered by a question and

can submit contact information, all within

the siteqz.com

Page 39: 12 Exciting New Ways of Advertising for Publishers (Or: What Will Replace the Display Banner?)

After submitting the form, there’s a

confirmation. Still, the user doesn’t leave

the site until (s)he clicks on ‘Learn more’qz.com

Page 40: 12 Exciting New Ways of Advertising for Publishers (Or: What Will Replace the Display Banner?)

Some WeTransfer ads are also interactive:

here people can freely click through to a

slideshow, before they choose to leave the sitewetransfer.com

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With Time’s ”magnetic ads” brands can use

the left column as navigation for the right

column.time.com

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On a side-note, don’t add tech for tech’s sake*

Instead, integrate interactivity with the story, make it meaningful. (* Like with the The crowdsourced 3d printed QR code drone delivery ticket system)

Page 43: 12 Exciting New Ways of Advertising for Publishers (Or: What Will Replace the Display Banner?)

PrestitialsAdvertising concept

6

Page 44: 12 Exciting New Ways of Advertising for Publishers (Or: What Will Replace the Display Banner?)

Forbes uses a ads called prestitials,

banners that appear before the actual

content is shownforbes.com

Page 45: 12 Exciting New Ways of Advertising for Publishers (Or: What Will Replace the Display Banner?)

With their (light-hearted) addition of a

"Thought Of The Day” this design pattern

should be little more agreeable for users

Page 46: 12 Exciting New Ways of Advertising for Publishers (Or: What Will Replace the Display Banner?)

Why display such a traditional small and static banner in an

otherwise empty canvas?

Also, the Forbes website is already chock full of noisy banners, so

this addition might lower the acceptance towards ads even more.

Still, this can use some tender loving care…

Page 47: 12 Exciting New Ways of Advertising for Publishers (Or: What Will Replace the Display Banner?)

AdvertorialsAdvertising concept

7

Page 48: 12 Exciting New Ways of Advertising for Publishers (Or: What Will Replace the Display Banner?)

BuzzFeed work closely with advertisers

and create viral content for their website.

buzzfeed.com

Page 49: 12 Exciting New Ways of Advertising for Publishers (Or: What Will Replace the Display Banner?)

Because science.

According to the principle of reciprocity

delivering valuable content generates a sense of

gratitude (and, possibly, debt) towards the

advertiser.

”But why would Mini sponsor an article

which has that little to do with the product?”

ISBN-13: 978-0061241895

Page 50: 12 Exciting New Ways of Advertising for Publishers (Or: What Will Replace the Display Banner?)

NRC.nl

Look, integration!

Page 51: 12 Exciting New Ways of Advertising for Publishers (Or: What Will Replace the Display Banner?)

On nrc.nl the commercial blends in nicely

with the editorial content.

!

However

(1) Mixing the two can affect a company’s credibility and integrity, this

can be particularly troublesome for news corps like NRC (2) Google tends to rank sites that don’t or poorly separate commercial

from editorial content lower*

* searchengineland.com

Page 52: 12 Exciting New Ways of Advertising for Publishers (Or: What Will Replace the Display Banner?)

Sponsored contentAdvertising concept

8

Page 53: 12 Exciting New Ways of Advertising for Publishers (Or: What Will Replace the Display Banner?)

Sponsored content in a yet subtle

and elegantly form

theatlantic.com

Page 54: 12 Exciting New Ways of Advertising for Publishers (Or: What Will Replace the Display Banner?)

Sponsored content in a yet subtle

and elegantly form

qz.com

Page 55: 12 Exciting New Ways of Advertising for Publishers (Or: What Will Replace the Display Banner?)

Advertiser buy only the association

with the articleCommon on TV: ”This program is brought to you by…”

chicagotribune.com

Page 56: 12 Exciting New Ways of Advertising for Publishers (Or: What Will Replace the Display Banner?)

Another way of jumping the ‘ad-less era

bandwagon’ while maintaining an online

presence. Well played, Shuttershock.

thenextweb.com

Page 57: 12 Exciting New Ways of Advertising for Publishers (Or: What Will Replace the Display Banner?)

Sponsored channelsAdvertising concept

9

Page 58: 12 Exciting New Ways of Advertising for Publishers (Or: What Will Replace the Display Banner?)

On Forbes people can follow authors

to get a personalised news stream

forbes.com

Page 59: 12 Exciting New Ways of Advertising for Publishers (Or: What Will Replace the Display Banner?)

They extended this to branded channels

which boosts engagementE.g Dell and NetApp are making use of this

forbes.com

Page 60: 12 Exciting New Ways of Advertising for Publishers (Or: What Will Replace the Display Banner?)

Follows the Twitter-model, which in turn

also supports all kinds of sponsored content

twitter.com

Page 61: 12 Exciting New Ways of Advertising for Publishers (Or: What Will Replace the Display Banner?)

Sponsored featuresAdvertising concept

10

Page 62: 12 Exciting New Ways of Advertising for Publishers (Or: What Will Replace the Display Banner?)

Like an annotation feature, which can

of course be slightly branded

Help building features that people can appreciate

qz.com

Page 63: 12 Exciting New Ways of Advertising for Publishers (Or: What Will Replace the Display Banner?)

The official FIFA app has quite a few

subtle sponsored features

www.fifa.com/mobile Sponsoring features has an opportunity to grow

Page 64: 12 Exciting New Ways of Advertising for Publishers (Or: What Will Replace the Display Banner?)

No ads, when payingAdvertising concept (?)

11

Page 65: 12 Exciting New Ways of Advertising for Publishers (Or: What Will Replace the Display Banner?)

Either the advertiser or the user pays for

the content: there’s a clear choiceRelies on the goodwill of readings wanting to support their favourite site

thenextweb.com

Page 66: 12 Exciting New Ways of Advertising for Publishers (Or: What Will Replace the Display Banner?)

The Chocolat application switches to

Comic Sans after the trial periodA designer’s biggest nightmare

littlebigdetails.com

Page 67: 12 Exciting New Ways of Advertising for Publishers (Or: What Will Replace the Display Banner?)

No ads, … EVERAdvertising concept (?)

12

Page 68: 12 Exciting New Ways of Advertising for Publishers (Or: What Will Replace the Display Banner?)

De Correspondent offers paid subscriptions

but everything’s accessible for anyoneThat is: anyone who has the link, preferably via a subscriber

decorrespondent.nl

Page 69: 12 Exciting New Ways of Advertising for Publishers (Or: What Will Replace the Display Banner?)

To summarise…

The future is exiting!

Page 70: 12 Exciting New Ways of Advertising for Publishers (Or: What Will Replace the Display Banner?)

Know any other great examples? Mail us at [email protected]

• There are no absolutes (if there ever were any) of what

works to best in which situation

• It’s up to advertisers, publishers and designers to

discover the perfect solution

• Granted, developing new formats costs a lot more effort

and money than your average banner

• But we think (while display banners are losing

relevance) that the potential and possible learnings

should outweigh this

• We wish all of you good luck with your innovations!