Wisdom - Marketing Tactics 46

This year we negotiated a large multimedia package with a couple industry publications on behalf of a client of ours. The package contained traditional print and direct mail but also offered several Internet tactics. Having not utilized the Internet in the past (outside of common company Web pages) we, and the client, were excited about the opportunity. However, we ran into some problems with our Internet banner ads. When the first month reports came in, the click numbers were incredibly low. Well, it’s the first month we were told. Then reports came in for the next month — incredibly low numbers again. Now we were getting concerned. After much discussion with the Web site owners and with our internal agency team, we realized there was no reason for viewers to click on our banner ads. They were attractive ads, well designed and well built. But they were simply banner-sized product ads that outlined FABs. We apparently didn’t think strategically about these ads. So back to the drawing board. Our internal team met to discuss the problem and designed several new ads with some sort of pull (reason to click). It can be argued that the initial ads were still making impressions but we really wanted to see click throughs. After a month of running the new banner ads the reports confirmed our thoughts. The numbers were much better and considered a success. This experience led us to a few realizations: 1. All ads need to be thought out strategically, no matter how simple or unimportant they may seem. If we wanted click through numbers then we needed to give viewers a reason to do so. 2. Ads for different media need to be handled differently. Revising print ads into banner ad size and format may not work. 3. We’re not always right and don’t always create the perfect ad every time. But it is important to step back, examine the problem, and create a solution.

Learning Account Exec., Milwaukee Area Advertising Agency