E-MARKETING TOOLS 491
global ad spending is forecast to make 22% worldwide in 2015.^18 In the UK, online advertising
is likely to grow by around 11% to €5.9 billion in 2012, whereas TV is set to increase by just 0.7%.
Print will also increase by only 0.3%, with other traditional methods of advertising, mostly
radio, increasing by 2.6%. Europe solidifi es its online advertising position even further with
an 11.7% increase in online ad spending predicted against 3.4% for TV. Already in 2011 video
was the fastest-growing form of online advertising and will continue to be in 2012. Banner
ads also play a key role in the advertising campaigns of online marketers, due to their ability
to be adapted for both desktop and mobile devices, the latter of which is set to become a
major advertising platform as smart phone penetration increases.^19 Banner ads are graphic
images (animated gifs or Java applets) used as ads. Several formats (defi ned by number of
pixels) exist: some are known as buttons (very small rectangles or squares), rectangles and
skyscrapers (a thin and small format, typically along the right side of a web page). Th ese are
a popular choice as they remain in view as the reader scrolls down the page. A good banner
ad campaign might include a mixture of diff erent sizes and positions for banner ads. Next to
the size, the choice needs to be made whether the banner ad needs to be static or animated or
even incorporate sound. Apart from banners and their variants, other forms such as pop-ups
and interstitials exist. Pop-ups are banners that appear in a separate window on top of or beneath
(in which case they are called pop-unders ) the visited website. Interstitials are ads that appear
temporarily when loading a new web page. Sometimes they cover part of the browser; some-
times they take over the entire screen. Superstitials are additional pop-up browser windows that
are opened when a new web page is opened; they are very intrusive and irritating. Interstitials
can be static (an image fi le) or dynamic. In the latter case, they oft en consist of a so-called rich
media ad , i.e. an ad using animated content such as audio/video, Flash, Java, etc., to create special
eff ects, interaction, or moving or fl oating ads. Th e fl oating ad that moves over the browser in an
animated way and is usually very eff ective in getting the attention of the website visitor is also
called ‘ shoskele ’ or overt. Some newer and popular types of online ads are wallpaper, where
an ad appears and changes the background of the website, and billboards.
According to new research conducted by Millward Brown, the new large-display ad formats such as ‘Billboard’ and
‘Wallpaper’ are outperforming standard banners such as Mid-Page Unit (MPU) banner (flash or movie banner)
against key brand metrics, especially at the start of the purchase funnel.
The study was based on 940 campaigns over a two-year period across the UK, USA, Europe, South America and
Australasia and examined the performance of formats on the following key brand metrics: aided brand awareness,
online ad awareness, message association, brand favourability and purchase intent.
Six formats were analysed, three new (billboard, wallpaper and half-page) and three already-established formats
(skyscraper, MPU and banner). The results highlight the performance of the different ad formats against brand
metrics by showing the average uplift achieved by exposure to each format:
z The billboard outperformed the other formats analysed. It offered three times better ad awareness levels and
double the level of brand favourability uplift than the next best-performing format (wallpaper).
z The wallpaper format provided five times the level of message association and the highest level of brand
awareness.
z The skyscraper outperformed other formats at the end of the purchase funnel, achieving an uplift of 1.4 percentage
points for purchase intent.^20
z The Thomas Cook travel group is offering different banner ad possibilities for third parties on its websites.^21
RESEARCH INSIGHT
Size matters: large ads boost brand awareness
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