NONE: RE: ONLINE-ADS>> VRML Banner Advertising
RE: ONLINE-ADS>> VRML Banner Advertising
Carl Crisostomo (csc_at_mgl.co.uk)
Wed, 24 Sep 1997 19:38:29 +0100
This is a reply to the email sent by by Donna;
For Windows 95 and NT4.0, Netscape ships SGI's CosmoPlayer VRML browser
with the full Communicator suite download. On the 'lighter' 8MB
Netscape-only install, Cosmo is not included, much to the dissapointment
of the VRML community.
Netscape may well not ship the Cosmo browser with Communicator for the
Mac, VRML support is definitley much worse on this platform. But Cosmo
is available for the Mac and also Unix platforms - check out
http://cosmo.sgi.com
The full download of Microsoft's Internet Explorer 3.02, once again on
the Windows platform, ships with the Worldview VRML browser. A version
for the Mac is available at
http://www.intervista.com
Cosmo, now at version 1.02 is stable enough to use. It rarely fails,
even during development work, and if it does, it brings down
Netscape/Explorer rather than the whole system. This is on Windows NT
though, which handles crashes better than some other operating systems.
You got the broken picture icon - one can put some code in to a page to
check the client browser for a VRML plugin (and show an alternate gif,
for example). We will implement this shortly but this was only meant to
be a page demoing VRML, and is incomplete as an example of a slick VRML
web site.
We plead guilty to being PC-centric here, as we do not have regular
access to Mac and Unix systems. But we check our work in Netscape and
Explorer on different powered PCs at different screen depths and
resolutions, using both Cosmo and Worldview. This is something all web
developers should consider.
This lowest common denominator thing: if we made sites that worked well
on all web browsers, we would have to consider text only browsers like
Lynx. This may be an extreme case, but it illustrates that we have to
aim higher than the lowest platform available, in order to produce a
site that looks nice to 'most' people. But what should happen is sites
should degrade gracefuly, if you can't handle VRML it should be replaced
by a gif as you sugest. And if you can't handle gifs.......you should
use ALT tags to provide a textual description.
I think there may be some confusion on this subject though. The term
lowest common denominator was not refering to hardware. A VRML banner ad
should be capable of running on a 486-66mhz PC. I think this is a
reasonable spec considering it was state of the art in 1992 and it is
hard to buy less than a 166mhz Pentium now. Hopefuly that shouldn't lock
too many people out on the hardware spec. Would most people agree that
computers realy only have a useful life of about 4 years? (useful
meaning being able to run most apps and games available in those 4 years
- without upgrading CPU and RAM etc.).
So, sorry about the confusion but that makes your arguements about
buying new hardware to view advert vs. buying the product advertised a
little redundant - all the VRML browsers are available as free
downloads.
Your final points about 'Eye candy vs. adverts on topics you're
interested in' is valid, but is possibly for a different thread. You
seem to be asking 'Does advertising work?' This is a dark question.
Speaking to media buyers, it seems one pours advertising budget in at
the top, and increased sales pop out the bottom. This has apparently
been proved by research. How the mechanism works 'within the machine' is
something no-one has been able to tell us - in fact this question scares
most advertising types.
Ther are possibly several types of adverts - some introduce a new
product or service and are designed to just make people aware of their
existance and tell you what they do. Some adverts are just to shift
units - nothing glossy, if you know what you wan't, here it is and its
cheaper than the next bloke. Some (many!) adverts are about brand
positioning and are about creating or changing public attitudes to a
brand - trying to make people aspire to owning desirable products as
they will make you a happier, more desirable person - ie all cosmetic
and most car adverts. An example of brand repositioning is the Lucozade
brand which started of as a 'medicinal brand', then became a 'sporty'
brand, and is now a 'rave/dance culture' brand.
So I don't think you were being fair - you weren't comparing like with
like. A web site is great for the pro-active consumer who is activly
seeking details of a product/service they are interested in. But surely
it is an established fact that sites need secondary advertising in
'traditional' media (including banner ads!) to make people aware of
their existance.
Carl Crisostomo <csc_at_mgl.co.uk>
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