Monday
The future of online advertising is FULL SCREEN
In a mini-keynote earlier this week, Joseph applauded industry efforts addressing his call-to-arms for larger ad units.
By Joseph Jaffe
This week I participated in the launch of Unicast’s Full Screen Superstitial. In the breakfast presentation to industry and press participants, I was asked to deliver a mini-keynote talking about the importance of creativity and the role it will play in the continued evolution of online advertising. Here is the edited transcript of my address:
As I recall, my first public platform or pulpit if you’ve ever heard me speak was the iMedia Summit in Deer Valley towards the end of 2001. On this panel dedicated to rich media, I left the audience with four bullet points I felt summarized where online advertising creative needed to be:
BIGGER
BETTER
BRAVER
INTERACTIVE
I’m still searching by the way for another word for INTERACTIVE beginning with a “B” – suggestions are always welcome! Until then, I just call it the BBBI scale.
Almost a year and a half later, which in Internet dog years would equate to about 15 media years, we’ve come a long way in some respects and in others, we haven’t moved an inch.
Proof of this assertion is evidenced when talking with and listening to traditional representatives of the marketing, communications and press communities. I feel we’re battling against an extremely strong current of misperception and misguided perspective in terms of what the Internet can do and what it is capable of doing.
This is not a medium of banners and buttons.
This is not a medium of pop-ups.
This is not a medium in which click-through presides.
This is not a medium in which Websites are enough to establish, sustain and command an optimal share of voice or presence.
And yet this is what we keep on hearing time and time again.
This is a medium that has the opportunity to reach consumers when they are uniquely attentive with a highly involving 300-second commercial capable of blending all pre-existing media formats (television, print, direct marketing) in order to qualify a lead through self-selection, reward early interest with immediate fulfillment and reduce the lag between exposure and conversion to milliseconds.
To quote the late and great David Ogilvy: “Unless your advertising contains a big idea, it will pass like a ship in the night.”
And unless online advertising is creative, engaging, relevant and even entertaining, it will pass like a ship in the night.
In my various industry engagements I often ask my audience to rate or grade the quality or standard of online advertising. The average grade is typically around a C+ which let’s face it, is not good enough.
With this in mind, I helped launch the iMedia Creative of the Week Showcase on iMediaConnection.com which became the industry’s first ever central destination to showcase the latest and greatest breaking creative in the business. No more slot machinesque, hitting the reload button ten times to see a creative; no more hit-and-hope approach of a colleague IM’ing you to alert you to a new piece of work. I may not be a Barbara Lippert or Bob Garfield yet, but I’m working on it!
So, how do we increase our grade on the BBBI scale and fulfill our quest to grow the pie or the percentage of budget allocated towards online?
For too long, I felt like a lone voice asking that question, until recently, Jerry Back, VP, associate director of research & new media at Publicis’ Hal Riney was interviewed and had this to say: “The power of online advertising should be immediately apparent at a consumer level to brand-marketing managers. Until it is, they won’t transfer their dollars. Brand-positioning advertisers want but don’t require the Internet in the mix at this moment if it can’t deliver a comparable option to broadcast and print media ad units.”
This is a two-tiered battle: the battle for the mind which is being waged in the fields of research, ROI and efficacy, and the battle for the heart which is entirely a creative war with creatives [traditional, interactive and integrated] as our generals responsible for success or failure.
Our creative generals have made strides with online creative that is so interactive, it’s positively involving, such as the breakthrough work from ABSOLUT. Their bravery has ensued in the form of non-clickable executions from the likes of CBSMarketWatch or highly page-integrated solutions from ING or Lexus. Better work is also evident across the board, with the traditional brand stalwarts like Microsoft, Coke, IBM and GE flexing their muscles and creative ability.
And as far as bigger is concerned? I go back to my panel in Utah where I retorted to the audience, you want standards? You want impact? You want comparable quality formats? How about ¼ screen, ½ screen and full screen? My outspoken call-to-arms for a full-screen product has finally been answered by a few publishers with their own solutions and now, Unicast, with its standardized Full Screen Superstitial format.
Why should we care about a full-screen unit? For two reasons – the role it will play in improving the creative product and the comparability with most major offline offerings.
Creativity is our single biggest means to achieve our branded response ends. Up until now, we’ve been cramming television commercials into banners; we’ve been force-fitting horizontal photography into vertical skyscrapers; we’ve been vacuuming entire Websites into boxes. Quite clearly, we’ve been searching for a better product.
A full-screen format is also important because for the first time in the history of the Internet, it offers advertisers an apples-to-apples comparative product to offline.
Television advertising is the most intrusive medium in existence today. And yet it is accepted as a “necessary evil”. TV’s 30- and 15-second full-screen commercials are otherwise non-clickable in the sense that they need to play to completion in order for the viewer to receive the content that they were tuning in to see. Of course, the remote control and most recently, PVRs like TiVo offer consumers the ability to hit the proverbial Close Window “X” button.
Print ads employ combinations of page and spreads. Both are “full screen”. The same can be said for Outdoor and Radio commercials: one message from one advertiser to one consumer at one time.
And now online can boast the same value proposition.
A full-screen commercial that utilizes the full real estate of the page to engage, entertain, enthrall and yes, even sell.
For the creative and marketing communities, this is a boon – the realization of an elusive search for a gold standard; a format capable of transforming the world of banners, buttons, pop-ups, pop-unders and clutter into a simple, succinct and compelling form of communication.
This is arguably the first substantial opportunity to invite the traditional community to play ball; to step up and bring their integrated expertise to the world of two-way dialogues, interactive and involving experiences.
So what about the consumer? Is this the beginning of the end? Will empowered consumers baulk at this bold move? Will they boycott the Internet in a defiant stand against Madison Avenue?
Hardly.
We only have to go back to the humble beginnings of television to see the future. In the beginning, television creative “looked” like radio; the quality was abysmal; consumers were enraged with the audacity of the corporate world to invade their homes and privacy.
But persistence, hard work and education paved the way for smarter, better and more innovative creative on the Tube – and the same will be the case with the Web. Consumers will finally be rewarded for their precious time with engaging creative that connects with their hearts and minds, is relevant and targeted. This should help us edge ever closer to the ultimate consumer response: ‘I’ll watch your advertising if you pay for my content.”
Today, the publishers that dominate the Web with the quality of their content are trusted and recognized brands just like their offline counterparts. What has been absent online is a tolerable balance of that content and the advertising that pays for it.
There is solid evidence that consumers compliment great online creative. I have countless examples in which consumers are recognizing great creative by sending in accolades in e-mail droves. I would be happy to share this with you.
Furthermore, Market Research validates breakthrough creative with brand lift across the board – greater than the current market norms or averages.
Full Screen breaks through the shackles imposed by pixel-constrained units and pre-existing technology-led formats to give the creators of advertising a full and blank canvas to work from and with. No more Harry Potter whizzing around the screen, trying to evade the weather report, latest news or e-mail message; no more Websites being crammed into compartmentalized boxes; no more pop-up Tetris where users skillfully extinguish the barrage of insect-like annoyances. Full Screen liberates creative minds free to ‘be creative’.
When faced with the choice between the current landscape of more than 4,000 different online units and formats, or the singular alternative of one message at a time from a trusted and recognized brand, the outcome should be pretty clear.
We’ve seen recent data reflecting that nine out of the top 10 rich media advertisers are now traditional brand advertisers. I’m licking my lips at the prospect of what they can and will accomplish with their top creative partners on board; with a blank canvas to work from that stretches from one side of the screen to the other; with an ever-exploding broadband populous waiting to see what is possible.
The stage is set. The curtain is about to be raised. We could be in for a show that would make Cirque du Soleil proud.
The future of online advertising is here. The future of online advertising is now.
The future of online advertising is full screen.
In a mini-keynote earlier this week, Joseph applauded industry efforts addressing his call-to-arms for larger ad units.
By Joseph Jaffe
This week I participated in the launch of Unicast’s Full Screen Superstitial. In the breakfast presentation to industry and press participants, I was asked to deliver a mini-keynote talking about the importance of creativity and the role it will play in the continued evolution of online advertising. Here is the edited transcript of my address:
As I recall, my first public platform or pulpit if you’ve ever heard me speak was the iMedia Summit in Deer Valley towards the end of 2001. On this panel dedicated to rich media, I left the audience with four bullet points I felt summarized where online advertising creative needed to be:
BIGGER
BETTER
BRAVER
INTERACTIVE
I’m still searching by the way for another word for INTERACTIVE beginning with a “B” – suggestions are always welcome! Until then, I just call it the BBBI scale.
Almost a year and a half later, which in Internet dog years would equate to about 15 media years, we’ve come a long way in some respects and in others, we haven’t moved an inch.
Proof of this assertion is evidenced when talking with and listening to traditional representatives of the marketing, communications and press communities. I feel we’re battling against an extremely strong current of misperception and misguided perspective in terms of what the Internet can do and what it is capable of doing.
This is not a medium of banners and buttons.
This is not a medium of pop-ups.
This is not a medium in which click-through presides.
This is not a medium in which Websites are enough to establish, sustain and command an optimal share of voice or presence.
And yet this is what we keep on hearing time and time again.
This is a medium that has the opportunity to reach consumers when they are uniquely attentive with a highly involving 300-second commercial capable of blending all pre-existing media formats (television, print, direct marketing) in order to qualify a lead through self-selection, reward early interest with immediate fulfillment and reduce the lag between exposure and conversion to milliseconds.
To quote the late and great David Ogilvy: “Unless your advertising contains a big idea, it will pass like a ship in the night.”
And unless online advertising is creative, engaging, relevant and even entertaining, it will pass like a ship in the night.
In my various industry engagements I often ask my audience to rate or grade the quality or standard of online advertising. The average grade is typically around a C+ which let’s face it, is not good enough.
With this in mind, I helped launch the iMedia Creative of the Week Showcase on iMediaConnection.com which became the industry’s first ever central destination to showcase the latest and greatest breaking creative in the business. No more slot machinesque, hitting the reload button ten times to see a creative; no more hit-and-hope approach of a colleague IM’ing you to alert you to a new piece of work. I may not be a Barbara Lippert or Bob Garfield yet, but I’m working on it!
So, how do we increase our grade on the BBBI scale and fulfill our quest to grow the pie or the percentage of budget allocated towards online?
For too long, I felt like a lone voice asking that question, until recently, Jerry Back, VP, associate director of research & new media at Publicis’ Hal Riney was interviewed and had this to say: “The power of online advertising should be immediately apparent at a consumer level to brand-marketing managers. Until it is, they won’t transfer their dollars. Brand-positioning advertisers want but don’t require the Internet in the mix at this moment if it can’t deliver a comparable option to broadcast and print media ad units.”
This is a two-tiered battle: the battle for the mind which is being waged in the fields of research, ROI and efficacy, and the battle for the heart which is entirely a creative war with creatives [traditional, interactive and integrated] as our generals responsible for success or failure.
Our creative generals have made strides with online creative that is so interactive, it’s positively involving, such as the breakthrough work from ABSOLUT. Their bravery has ensued in the form of non-clickable executions from the likes of CBSMarketWatch or highly page-integrated solutions from ING or Lexus. Better work is also evident across the board, with the traditional brand stalwarts like Microsoft, Coke, IBM and GE flexing their muscles and creative ability.
And as far as bigger is concerned? I go back to my panel in Utah where I retorted to the audience, you want standards? You want impact? You want comparable quality formats? How about ¼ screen, ½ screen and full screen? My outspoken call-to-arms for a full-screen product has finally been answered by a few publishers with their own solutions and now, Unicast, with its standardized Full Screen Superstitial format.
Why should we care about a full-screen unit? For two reasons – the role it will play in improving the creative product and the comparability with most major offline offerings.
Creativity is our single biggest means to achieve our branded response ends. Up until now, we’ve been cramming television commercials into banners; we’ve been force-fitting horizontal photography into vertical skyscrapers; we’ve been vacuuming entire Websites into boxes. Quite clearly, we’ve been searching for a better product.
A full-screen format is also important because for the first time in the history of the Internet, it offers advertisers an apples-to-apples comparative product to offline.
Television advertising is the most intrusive medium in existence today. And yet it is accepted as a “necessary evil”. TV’s 30- and 15-second full-screen commercials are otherwise non-clickable in the sense that they need to play to completion in order for the viewer to receive the content that they were tuning in to see. Of course, the remote control and most recently, PVRs like TiVo offer consumers the ability to hit the proverbial Close Window “X” button.
Print ads employ combinations of page and spreads. Both are “full screen”. The same can be said for Outdoor and Radio commercials: one message from one advertiser to one consumer at one time.
And now online can boast the same value proposition.
A full-screen commercial that utilizes the full real estate of the page to engage, entertain, enthrall and yes, even sell.
For the creative and marketing communities, this is a boon – the realization of an elusive search for a gold standard; a format capable of transforming the world of banners, buttons, pop-ups, pop-unders and clutter into a simple, succinct and compelling form of communication.
This is arguably the first substantial opportunity to invite the traditional community to play ball; to step up and bring their integrated expertise to the world of two-way dialogues, interactive and involving experiences.
So what about the consumer? Is this the beginning of the end? Will empowered consumers baulk at this bold move? Will they boycott the Internet in a defiant stand against Madison Avenue?
Hardly.
We only have to go back to the humble beginnings of television to see the future. In the beginning, television creative “looked” like radio; the quality was abysmal; consumers were enraged with the audacity of the corporate world to invade their homes and privacy.
But persistence, hard work and education paved the way for smarter, better and more innovative creative on the Tube – and the same will be the case with the Web. Consumers will finally be rewarded for their precious time with engaging creative that connects with their hearts and minds, is relevant and targeted. This should help us edge ever closer to the ultimate consumer response: ‘I’ll watch your advertising if you pay for my content.”
Today, the publishers that dominate the Web with the quality of their content are trusted and recognized brands just like their offline counterparts. What has been absent online is a tolerable balance of that content and the advertising that pays for it.
There is solid evidence that consumers compliment great online creative. I have countless examples in which consumers are recognizing great creative by sending in accolades in e-mail droves. I would be happy to share this with you.
Furthermore, Market Research validates breakthrough creative with brand lift across the board – greater than the current market norms or averages.
Full Screen breaks through the shackles imposed by pixel-constrained units and pre-existing technology-led formats to give the creators of advertising a full and blank canvas to work from and with. No more Harry Potter whizzing around the screen, trying to evade the weather report, latest news or e-mail message; no more Websites being crammed into compartmentalized boxes; no more pop-up Tetris where users skillfully extinguish the barrage of insect-like annoyances. Full Screen liberates creative minds free to ‘be creative’.
When faced with the choice between the current landscape of more than 4,000 different online units and formats, or the singular alternative of one message at a time from a trusted and recognized brand, the outcome should be pretty clear.
We’ve seen recent data reflecting that nine out of the top 10 rich media advertisers are now traditional brand advertisers. I’m licking my lips at the prospect of what they can and will accomplish with their top creative partners on board; with a blank canvas to work from that stretches from one side of the screen to the other; with an ever-exploding broadband populous waiting to see what is possible.
The stage is set. The curtain is about to be raised. We could be in for a show that would make Cirque du Soleil proud.
The future of online advertising is here. The future of online advertising is now.
The future of online advertising is full screen.
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