Re: Text Banner Standards: Isn't it about time?

From: Matthew da Silva <mdasilva_at_ibd.yamatake.co.jp>
Date: Thu, 28 Jan 1999 13:49:58 -0600 (CST)

I would like to know which lists, apart from Online Ads,
allow text banners. What actual returns do advertisers
expect? Is it because banners don't work? Now it is the
turn of targeted lists.

Apart from the fact that it was someone else doing the
targeting, maybe the point to be felt on this thread is a
faint prick of humiliation that is experienced when
promotional strategies fail. It happens to everyone, but
nobody subscribes to a list in order to read adverts. Do we
need to commercialize every available bit of empty space on
the Net?

At first glance it appears that advertisers would target
lists because their other systems failed. Why lists? It's
easier than coming up with an original idea that will
actually bring rewards. Unlike stuffing socks into one's
trousers or wearing a wonder bra, which actually do work (at
least, I've been told so) inserting banners into subscribed
lists is like selling bumper bars to inventory holders. My
Other Car Was Bought At John Swan's Tank Yard. Who'd put
them on?

More importantly, who'd take them seriously? The 'locus
amoenus' of subscribed lists has its own special credibility
due to the simple fact that subscribers expect to get
information from them that is absent elsewhere. My many
online 'magazines,' or daily editorialized posts, are
convenience itself. Busy professionals everywhere expect
the Net to help them do more things, in less time.

Ads, as all Netizens now know, are only ubiquitous. Sorry
if this sounds abrasive. Let's substitute a subscribed list
for a mailbox or a telephone, and think of a list of
subscriptions as a list of credit card owners or a club
membership list. An unsolicited call every other week is
not enough to cause anger, but enough to make me suspect
that banners in posts will make them less easy to skim
through.

Who said that lists were designed to make money?
Conversely, my opinion is they serve to attract attention to
a property -- a Website usually.

Let's spend more time discussing nomenclature standards,
which is a vital issue. Or tools that allow the average
business to tie the Net into their purchasing systems. Valid
solutions will spur Net growth and deliver dollars to online
advertisers. List-posted banners will soon become unpopular
with webmasters.

Matthew da Silva, Online Solutions
International Business Development
Yamatake Corporation
 2-12-19 Shibuya, Shibuya-ku
Tokyo 150-8316 Japan
Tel: 81-3-3486-2216
Fax: 81-3-3486-2503


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Received on Thu Jan 28 1999 - 15:02:54 CST