I’m switched off to banner ads. I haven’t configured my browser to block the ads, I mean I just know where on the page they are likely to be and I sub-consciously ignore them. Even when you get the overlay type adverts my eye and brain is looking for a white cross in a black circle to get rid of it. Lot’s of website rely on advert clicks for revenue and though I have no problem with banner advertising I just wonder if we need to re-think how adverts are delivered.
We recorded Madagascar for my daughter when it was on the TV a while ago. She watches it quite a bit and as it was on BBC there were no adverts to skip through which is great for us. The reason I mention this is because that movie has been on quite a bit in our household and my wife and I just don’t see or hear it any more. So what does this have to do with online banner advertising? Well just like banner ads, our brains have subconsciously worked out how to filter out the movie (my daughter still loves it though).
There is one scene in the movie that got me thinking about this subject though and it’s when Alex (the Lion) gets shot with a tranquillizer dart and we are looking at the situation from his eyes. When he passes out the screen goes black and the sound goes off for a second or two and it’s long enough to grab me or my wife’s attention thinking that something has gone wrong with the TV. Get’s us every time.
I’m no expert on the psychology of advertising or banner click behaviour (though I’m learning more at the moment) as I spend most of my time designing sites that are usable and accessible and my design goal isn’t to trick the user but more to offer clear content with no surprises or guess work.
I did wonder though if there was room for deliberate error (not the fake virus scan or OS message popups) adverts to try and break the average users blinkers to banner ads?
Bad spelling
I felt a bit dirty thinking about these but how about things like deliberate spelling mistakes? We love pointing out bad spelling or typos – it feels like we’ve defeated the advertiser if we spot one right (I’m sure you could find a couple in this blog post actually).
Hardware fault
What about questioning the users hardware? I spent a fair amount on my monitor and got a dead pixel guarantee (i.e. that I wouldn’t have any) but I’m still petrified I might get one. Would a fake dead pixel get a click?
Load problem
Geeks love hunting down a BSOD and collecting a photo trophy but would broken video adverts get a click?
That’s enough dirty talk – let’s get back to the movie.
Excellent article! The dead pixel banner is… meh.
Haha – Thanks Herbug
[...] The error in banner advertising [...]
Nice article and so true, i too no longer “see” web advertising, but is it sneaking into my subconcious? i think my brain now makes a lightning quick desicion. Interested/Not interested.
I remember an experiment that an ad agency i worked at did. they had some free banner positioning left over so they made a campaign to drive traffic to their own site. the banners were terribly made on purpose, most didnt even animate and they simply said. “This is the worst banner on the web – click to find out why”. The conversion rate was through the roof!
[...] The error in banner advertising [...]
[...] writing The error in advertising I’ve been thinking about what the future holds for the humble web banner advertisement. The [...]