While at InternetWeekNY last week it was said that banner advertising is a dead issue and that studies show more than 50% of the people who go on-line experience 'banner blindness'.

But today I am looking at the results of the Search Engine Marketing and Online Display Advertising Integration Study (even the acronym would be to long so from here on in I will refer to it as the study), and it show quite different data. In fact, the study shows that 52% of people actively respond to display advertising with 31% clicking directly on the ad. I will assume the other 21% respond to the ads in other ways. So, with a third of the internet users clicking on the ads, it is safe to say that the banner ad part of an internet marketing campaign is alive and well.

The study also showed that 27% of the people surveyed said that after seeing the ad (and possibly clickin on it) they also searched actively in the engines for more info. So a relationship does exist between SEM and the thought-to-be-dead display ads. Taking into consideration these results, and I urge all who are interested in this to seek out the study and check it out for yourselves, will you advise your clients or your company that they perhaps need to revise their overall internet marketing strategies?

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Kind of whether your glass is half empty or half full. If half of the people of "banner blindness", that means that the other half don't.

Personally I'd approach purchasing banners cautiously. Make sure your system is able to actually track conversions from your advertising campaigns. If you can't track conversions, very difficult to know if it's money well spent.

It depends on the banner and the message the banner ad is displaying. Some time, I saw a banner ad featuring a mean looking baby and I just had to click. It lead to an informational site featuring an array of mean looking babies and it was for whooping cough. The banner ad definitely got my attention. Thus, it did its job. If the banner ad is just a logo, most likely I will not click to it at all. Thus, the most effective banner activates an emotional response.

My take on it.... It does depend on the product and its market. Some banners are engaging and they will drive clicks (quality of that traffic is another story thou). CPM will be dying, that's almost a fact.

I think what is underestimated is a product placement (with integrity). Quality advertorials that presell advertisers' product can go a long way if you have tools to support the process. The audience wants quality, fact based content, education and entertainment. Advertisers want measurable performance.
If you can give it all, you are a king :-) (or a queen... but now it might offend someone ;-) )

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