How We Should Be Thinking About Display Advertising - Part Two	Visited: 1899 4.8/5.0 (6 votes total) Rate: Select 1 - Terrible 2 - Poor 3 - Average 4 - Good 5 - Outstanding
by Brian Brown November 04, 2008

In interactive advertising, display ads provide opportunities for highly effective campaigns by providing the widest possible messaging net and, with the right approach, intriguing, smart, and instantly engaging micro-experiences.  But with so many limitations inherent in display advertising, how can we successfully communicate client messaging, create an emotional connection and drive deeper brand engagements? In this second installment, we will cover some specific technologies and tactics that can be used to improve the effectiveness of your display advertisements.

One platform that is becoming more and more the norm is rich media.  Rich media is to the standard flash banner what the flash banner was to the animated gif in 1998.  I firmly believe that with both the increasing number of broadband subscribers and the growing amount of bandwidth available, we are going to start seeing a lot more rich media placements available.

Rich media is a generic term that basically describes a special buy and placement for a content-rich interactive banner.  Rich media placements offer more flexibility for creating more complex user interactions, which in turn offer a greater chance of getting customer attention from the gutter.  Even though the publisher will always limit file size and loop time, there are very few limits to the types of content that you can provide in a rich media banner. We are seeing many more interesting rich media tactics in the marketplace today.  Banner gaming, music, and couponing are all great examples of innovative uses in rich media placements.  However, for the rest of this article, let’s focus on just one tactic: in-banner video.

In our experience, in-banner video is the most effective way to get noticed and spark intrigue in a consumer.  Additionally, if it is executed correctly, it can pay off all the “trust” requirements we discussed in part one of this article. 

Rich media video banners run silently off in the gutter waiting for a user to interact with them by turning the sound on to activate a richer experience, and to get more of the message.  The trick here is to attract attention, without compromising the video’s reason for being.

A great way to drive intrigue here is to use video as bait to drive to a longer story, and a deeper brand connection.   When scripting this story for rich media video, it has to telegraph in two separate, but equally important modes: silent film mode, and trailer mode.

In silent film mode, you naturally have to tell part of a story with no sound.  I suggest using some of the simple silent film techniques of the 20’s.  Use video of people whenever possible, and use close ups to express emotion and conflict.  People connect very quickly with images other people, and especially with expressive faces.  Think about what other elements you can use to support the video to add context to story. 

The next thing to consider in this “silent mode” is the supporting text. What is the supporting text doing? How is it contributing to the story? In some of our rich media banners, for example, we’ve even gone so far as to overlay silent film-style title cards in video for this mode - and remove them once sound is activated.

Once the customer has clicked on the banner, we can now use full sight, sound, and motion. Our goal here is to make people want more, and teasing a story has always been a great way to accomplish that goal.  When cutting video for banners, just as for film, we have understand our audience in order to know the best way to tell a story on behalf of our brands. 

In conclusion, getting quality consumer attention from the gutter isn’t hopeless. However, in order to do it you have to be smart, deliberate, and relevant.  You have to get noticed, and offer the consumer something they want.  And keep in mind, that by clicking on a banner, consumers are agreeing to take the first step in what should be a deep and mutually fulfilling brand engagement.