YES - Enda McCarthy, Chief executive, Publicis Modem
Click-through rates continue to hover at about 0.01%, banner blindness is rife and recall minimal, yet spend on digital display ads grew by 6.4% to £384m in the first half of 2010. And rightly so.
Brands should continue to invest in display advertising, but also demand more from media planners, real-estate owners and creative agencies - asking them to think like Apple, rather than the Acme Credit Rating Company. Targeting is improving; it's more semantic, attitudinal and relevant.
Takeovers, rather than clutter, need to become the norm. Clever tech and cooler techniques are increasingly easy to apply. We can also learn lessons from the old media world.
Vogue France's 90th-anniversary edition this month personified its audience, mirrored perfectly by the advertising real estate, targeting and execution. It had gatefold covers, one-off executions by celeb designers, cool bound-in inserts and an iPad app - but that's not the point. Banners done right can be far more inventive than folded paper. Whether they are, is up to us.
YES - Mark Runacus, Senior partner, Crayon
Brands' faith in banners will be restored as sophisticated attribution tools do away with the predominant 'last click wins' model.
We'll know more about the user's online journey, and brands will invest more along the way from first touchpoint to purchase. The next step will be to complete and connect our understanding with offline.
Even though attention economics seems to be a key driver, with users less likely to demonstrate random behaviour, ad networks can pool data from a huge variety of sources to build user segments, which they combine with contextual, demographic and geo-targeting for improved performance.
Other clever targeting, such as excluding existing customers by IP address, along with a sensible approach to pricing, should ensure banners are around for some time to come.
Banner ads have come a long way - from static 2D executions through animated multiframes to 3D and video-streaming technology. In fact, 'banner ad' doesn't do them justice.
YES - Mel Cruickshank, Chief executive, LIDA
There has been much talk of the demise of banner ads, fuelled by reports of falling click-through rates. Of course, digital advertising will keep evolving, developing more interactive formats that will attract better PR coverage and click-through and engagement rates. But there are several reasons why banner ads will continue to grow.
First, the development of more sophisticated tracking and analysis tools will help us understand and measure better the contribution made by online advertising, over and above the crude measure of CTR.
Second, the same technological advances that will facilitate format development will allow increasingly intelligent targeting.
Lastly, with these developments, display's capacity to deliver relevant messages at significant volumes and cost-effective prices will be unmatched. Only Facebook ads have the potential to beat this, but the danger here is that the user's acceptance of advertising on such a scale is yet to be tested. This is not the case for display.
YES - Dom Robertson, Managing director, RPM
The effectiveness of the ad depends on the strength of the brand and the creativity of the agency. Increasingly, brands are exploring new ideas and stretching traditional boundaries to get real cut-through and buzz around 'blog land'. Smarter brands are treating their users to a genuine brand experience.
They are more than a sales tool - they are also a brand-engagement tool. The challenge is to maximise the click-through rate - or even better, do away with click-throughs and provide everything needed within the banner.
More behavioural marketing allows the better use of budget either on its own or in conjunction with other forms of targeting, based on factors such as timing, demographics, geography or the surrounding content.
Banner ads will continue to grow, as long as brands can demonstrate tangible ROI from them. As alternative options force down CTRs, banner ads must provide greater impact to justify spend.
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