display advertising: a user–centered approach

8
45 Main Street, 2nd Floor, Brooklyn, NY 11201 718 625 4843‑—www.hugeinc.com By: Dan Hou, Senior Product Strategist and Aaron Shapiro, Partner | June 15, 2010 Display advertising : a user–centered approach

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A user-centered approach to display advertising—one that is sensitive to how today’s users actually engage with traditional and multimedia ads—can lead to significantly higher recall.

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Page 1: Display advertising: a user–centered approach

45 Main Street, 2nd Floor, Brooklyn, NY 11201

718 625 4843‑—www.hugeinc.com

By: Dan Hou, Senior Product Strategist and Aaron Shapiro, Partner | June 15, 2010

Display advertising: a user–centered approach

Page 2: Display advertising: a user–centered approach

Summary.

A user-centered approach to display advertising—

one that is sensitive to how today’s users actually

engage with traditional and multimedia ads—

can lead to significantly higher recall. This is

particularly true for new formats such as video

pre-roll, video overlay, push-down banners and

other interruptive ads. Publishers and advertisers

are increasingly relying on these formats after

users learned to ignore static banner ads. But

traditional banner ads can still be memorable

if carefully tailored to trends in user behavior.

Regardless of format, a user-centered approach

to display advertising efforts is required if ROI is

to be maximized.

Research Methodology:

Our research team conducted one-on-one

surveys with 60 casual Internet users ages 18

to 45 to better understand how users approach

multimedia and banner ads.

Users were asked to complete various tasks that

demonstrated their daily Internet routines over a

45-minute period. Tasks included browsing news

headlines and video clips, finding the latest sports

results, booking a flight for vacation, selecting

a restaurant for dinner, choosing a movie and

showtime, researching consumer electronics,

and watching video content that a friend

recommended. We interviewed the participants

about ad recall following this period of use.

Key Findings:

• Positioning ads too far above the fold often

reduces the amount of time the ad is visible.

• Relevance is the strongest driver of ad recall.

• Heavy ad repetition results in unaided ad

recall.

• Interruptive advertising improves recall, but at

the expense of the user experience.

• Video pre-roll performs better than overlay.

• Users are developing behaviors to ignore

video ads.

Page 3: Display advertising: a user–centered approach

Figure 1: Content position below the fold

Figure 2: YouTube “Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2” masthead

Fold

The Value of Above-the-Fold Ad Placement

is Overrated

Customarily, ads placed higher on the page

command greater cost per thousand impressions

(CPMs) due to the assumption of greater visibility.

However, a user’s target content is often located

below the fold, and that motivates users to scroll

away from the leaderboard.

For example on MovieFone.com, a site frequented

during our study, showtimes are located below

the fold. As a result, users scrolled down quickly,

sometimes even before the above-the-fold ad fully

loaded.

Obviously for a display ad to even have a chance

at making an impression on a user, the user has

to see it. Therefore, a smaller ad placed further

down the page adjacent to desired content could

perform better than a larger ad that’s above the

fold and closer to the global navigation.

Relevance Powers Ad Recall

The vast majority of directly and indirectly recalled

ads were ones that were relevant to the user’s

interests.

In one instance, a BMW ad consisting of synced

display and pre-roll ads left no impression on

nearly all users who saw it. However one user,

a self-professed car lover, was able to recall the

particular advertisement, the brand and the exact

car model featured.

This was observed again involving a banner ad

for video game “Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2”

on YouTube’s homepage. The only person who

recalled seeing the ad was a 19-year-old male

who frequently played video games. He was

not only able to recall the creative and layout of

the advertisement, but also the specific game

featured in the ad. Relevance helps users notice

an ad and drives home the brand and the brand’s

message.

Size, on the other hand, doesn’t power recall. The

“Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2” video game ad

occupied a full 1/3 of the space above the fold

(Figure 2), but was ignored by 11 out of 12 users

who came upon it.

Page 4: Display advertising: a user–centered approach

Heavy Repetition Pays Dividends

Repetition strongly influences recall. Banner

ads that are perceived to be ubiquitous and

unchanged over a long period of time maintain

user mindshare. In exit interviews, people recalled

Netflix and Classmates.com ads, but neither

was displayed during the course of the study. It

is therefore evident that once a high threshold of

impressions is met, advertisers achieve unaided

display ad recall.

Interruptive Ads Have High Recall, but Can

Backfire

Interruptive ads such as pop-ups and full-screen

overlays make lasting impressions on users, but

the impression tends to be a bad one. Nearly

half of the respondents directly or indirectly

recalled interruptive ads, making the format the

most recalled type in our study (Figure 3). But

it was also vehemently disliked. The majority of

participants expressed annoyance and frustration

when discussing interruptive ads.

“They are annoying. Very annoying. Those full

ads…. I don’t mind banner and sidebars, but don’t

make me stop and click and close a window to

get to where I’m going. I don’t like that extra click.”

–Allyson, 34

“F**k!” -- Sean, 26, in response to JVC overlay on

CNET

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

2.2%

41%

19%

30%

StaticBanner

Interruptive Overlay Pre-Roll

recall rates by ad format

Figure 3

Page 5: Display advertising: a user–centered approach

Video Overlay Recall is Good,

but Pre–Roll is Better

Video overlay and pre-roll ads stood out as

effective ad formats over the course of the study.

Both were dramatically more memorable to users

than typical banner ads. However, pre-roll was the

clear winner. It was significantly more effective in

terms of brand and message recall.

recall rates for video overlayrecall rates for pre-roll

recall rates for video overlayrecall rates for pre-roll

recall rates for pre-roll

recall rates for video overlay

Page 6: Display advertising: a user–centered approach

Users are Learning to Ignore Video Ads

Banner blindness is already a well-documented

phenomenon. But users are developing video ad

blindness now too. Some users in the study were

observed avoiding video advertisements similar to

the way one would avoid television commercials.

When pre-roll ads ran, users would shift their

attention to other content on the page, completely

scroll away from the video or direct their attention

to another browser window. Audio cues let them

know when the ad was over.

Overlay ads, meanwhile, are getting the pop-up

treatment. A few users reflexively closed the

overlay within a second or two of it popping up,

never really observing the contents of the ad.

“I usually have other pages open at the same

time; I’ll tweet while I’m waiting for the ad to

finish.” – Lisa, 29

“As soon as [the ad] went over what I was reading,

I switched to the next tab. I’ll flip back when I

figure it’s over.” –Mary, 49

What to Do? When designing a marketing plan, advertisers

should:

• Ensure that ad placements are close to

meaningful content, rather than simply being

above the fold.

• Implement a behavioral targeting solution

across all of a publisher’s properties.

• When considering implementing an

interruptive marketing effort, carefully weigh the

value of brand awareness against the cost to

the brand’s goodwill.

• Produce pre-roll or overlay video ads. The

higher production costs can be balanced with

higher recall.

• Continue to experiment with new, innovative

ad placements to stay ahead of ever-evolving

user avoidance behaviors.

Page 7: Display advertising: a user–centered approach

Appendix.

Display Ads: This category includes static and

animated banner ads in a variety of placements

and sizes. Text ads are not included in this

category and were not considered during this

study.

Interruptive Ads: This category includes pop-

ups that open in a new window, interstitials and

large pushdown ads.

Video Overlay Ads: This category includes ads

that overlay an online video. The size and specific

format varies, but most could be closed at the

user’s discretion.

Definition of Key Terms The following terms are used throughout this document with specific meanings:

Video Pre-Roll: This category includes video ads

that played before, during or after an online video.

The lengths ranged from 5-30 seconds.

Direct Recall: A user was able to remember

specific brand and/or messaging aspects of an

advertisement.

Indirect Recall: The user only had a vague

recollection of general ad characteristics. This

data is still relevant and important to capture

because indirect recall would still influence

purchase decisions in a shopping environment

where there are visual brand cues.

Page 8: Display advertising: a user–centered approach

New York

45 Main Street, Suite 220

Brooklyn, NY 11201

Phone: +1 718 625 4843

Fax: +1 718 625 5157

[email protected]

Contact.London

60 Sloane Avenue

London SW3 3XB

Phone: +44 20 7193 8879

Fax: +44 20 7900 6729

[email protected]

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Stockholm 113 83

Phone: +46 75 240 6001

Fax: +46 75 240 6002

[email protected]

Los Angeles

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North Hollywood, CA 91601

Phone: +1 310 614 5838

Fax: +1 310 469 6306

[email protected]

45 Main Street, 2nd Floor, Brooklyn, NY 11201718 625 4843‑—www.hugeinc.com