Death of display advertising

Or should I say, the decline of display advertising (especially in online), to a step-child position. Over the past couple of years, the din of “measurable marketing” has overwhelmed us all. The success of search-based advertising & the proliferation of click-based ad networks/affiliates/publishers means anyone wanting to do a campaign not based on clicks is laughed out of the building. As tracking tools get more sophisticated, and gurus develop ever-more complicated models to measure anything that can (not necessarily should) be measured, the clamour to join the bandwagon has grown. In all this, the poor display ads (read banners that purely exposed you to a message, but didn’t demand an action or engagement or involvement) has been vilified & pushed into a corner. Lesser & lesser media plans actively promote display per se, and probably none with displays that don’t have a gimmick (click here, play a game on the banner, watch a video, etc).

Recently, Josh Chasin passionately argued to not allow the “Click wagging the Dog“. He held forth on the 8/86 rule (8% of the universe generated 86% of the clicks), as shown by a comScore report on clickthroughs & how it was skewing the spend mix as budgets shifted increasingly to search & affiliates/ad networks following the pay per action pricing model. As online agencies fight to draw more budgets from the offline world,  this works as the “sweet spot” with most clients fighting to showcase some sanity in how they spend their marketing dollars.  Also interesting is to read Kathryn Koegel who has been consistently defending the display world & its role in the media/marketing mix. Multiple studies have been done by the IAB & the OPA in the US to show how display leads to repeat visitors, who then go on to act as both buyers & advocates for a brand that maintains it’s focus on building the brand story even during tough times.

The question, as always comes down to a choice – how do you balance the need to instantly demonstrate results versus the need to sustain brand-consumer engagement. Pat LaPointe makes a cogent case on the Cost of Not Branding, and how difficult it is to avoid being short sighted in these tough economic times.

The decline of display advertising is an indicator to a broader dilemma – how does one balance the long term health of a brand with the short pressures of the market.