Re: ONLINE-ADS>> Banner Ads and Highway Robbery

Ivan (egben_at_dockside.co.za)
Tue, 21 Jan 1997 00:47:53 +2000

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Denise Hradisky wrote
> Just as you have
> diminishing returns in click-through rates, you also have diminishing
> returns in conventional media. The increase in frequency of an ad in
> conventional media does not necessarily mean greater effectiveness. There
> are ads that become more annoying and more of a turn-off the more they are
> seen.

Advertising frequency effects in conventional media have been studied
to the nth. degree - see for e.g. the excellent work done by the
Institute of Marketing Science at Cambridge, Massachussetts, 20
years ago.

There are always exceptions, depending on the creative
devices and the product/service category, but as a general rule
"effectiveness" plotted against frequency follows an S curve - too
little frequency is inefficient and too high a frequency is
inefficient. Irritation is evident by what happens after the curve
levels off - it drops like a cliff.

There is a third variable, of course, and that is time period. There
are fairly good rules-of-thumb for GRPs (Gross Rating Points) per
week for launching a brand and for sustaining a brand. Efficiency and
effectiveness is usually achieved by flighting - e.g. four
concentrated six week bursts throughout a twelve month period.

The exceptions? Here are two extremes - one of the most famous print
ads of all time was for Cadillac - it appeared only once (in the
early, pre-clutter days) but more than a million reprints were asked
for and given over the years. On the other extreme Ivory Soap had
essentially the same advertisement running for nearly 100 years, and
Marlborough Cigarettes for some 40 years - both brands became number
1 in their category.

The Web may well generate new paradigms, but we need lots of
research.

Ivan Weltman

TUDOGS: The Ultimate Directory Of Gratis Software.
http://www.tudogs.com

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