Banner Blindness Part 1: Distrusting banner ads to the point of oblivion

By Carla van Straten - 1649 views

We are distrusting ads to the point of oblivion – and rightfully so. Banner ads are forms of traditional advertising hi-jacking digital space in a way that is intrusive and annoying.

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The phenomenon

The U.S online display advertising market delivers 1.1 trillion impressions per month. Internet budgets in the US stand on $244 million, which means 4,508 ads are being served to each American user every month, and 150 ads are being shown to each American user every day. Internet users are unable to consume such large quantities of advertising, and as a result they are completely blind to it.

The term “banner blindness” came to my attention a couple of years ago, when I was determined to find evidence that adverts were actually becoming a waste of time and budget in an age where consumers can no longer be blindly persuaded, fooled or tricked into paying attention, never mind into buying. I was amazed to stumble upon the phenomenon stating that millions of Internet users have actually stopped noticing adverts all together.

Stats About Ad Viewers

Infolinks published an article in March 2013 after having conducted a survey study in which they found that 14% of digital content consumers cannot remember the last advert they saw moments after being exposed to it. This means that 86% of consumers no longer see ads, or will try to remove them from their line of vision if possible, and this was established a full year ago. It is because these aggressive, loud, intrusive things have become visual pollution – banners ads, like billboards, are litter. 

The Internet is a Space Uninviting of Ads

“Marshall McLuhan said, in context of the great eruption in multimedia some decades ago, the medium is the message. In other words, the nature of a medium embeds itself in the message being delivered, creating a relationship by which the medium influences how the message is received and understood.”

As I have mentioned in numerous other posts; you can’t change the medium and expect the message to be unchanged. The very essence of marketing changes when you move it from a billboard onto a website. It may look the same, and advertisers expect it to work to same, but how can it when, all of a sudden, the ad is placed in a foreign landscape where a completely different language is being spoken as well as understood.

Common Behaviour of Digital Content Consumers

Behaviours of digital consumers show strong needs for instant gratification, definite demands to be in control of their navigation experience and high levels of intolerance to interruptions.

There is No Cure, But There is Hope Yet

Many researchers seem to be desperately seeking a “cure” for banner blindness. This is understandable considering the massive threat that this consumer condition poses to the foundations upon which traditional advertising is founded. It too seems that this will not simply be a passing phenomenon or a social rumour that has been blown out of proportion. "Banner blindness" is real, it is global and it is growing with every new flickering banner ad being posted.

We, however, are not seeking a cure. We hate banner ads just as much as any consumer trying to find what they are looking for on the web without having to “click to skip the banner ad” every five minutes. We do, however, believe in a different kind of marketing where the term “adverts” do not feature. 

What I propose is less of a solution than it is a substitute. Read the follow up of this article, in which I discuss the four most successful content marketing methods that will blow any banner ad out of the water - Banner Blindness Part 2: Banner Ad Substitutes That You Can Trust.

Now You Tell Me

Web browsers, what has your experience been regarding banner adverts? Marketers, do you allocate budget to banner ads? Why or why not?

Sound Idea Digital is a full service digital marketing agency. For more information contact 012 664 4227 or email to info@soundidea.co.za
Carla van Straten is a writer for Sound Idea Digital |
Carla@soundidea.co.za | @SoundIdeaLMS | Sound Idea Digital | www.soundidea.co.za

   

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