Death to Display Ads… Not So Fast!

Sorry for the time off; work has been nuts but I’ve still been reading and archiving articles to talk about on the blog. Here goes some of my latest finds…..

In an earlier post I wrote about smaller sites getting better click thru rates (CTR’s) than the mass sites. The article link also talked about some pricing ideas. For the record I have been a big fan of CPM simply because it would finally give the online marketing industry a standard once and for all. However I’ve read some new stuff that is starting to change my mind. At the end of that same article it talks about some interesting ideas for pricing standards. I’ve seen Google keep growing revenue and think CPM might not bring out the competitor in people like bidding does. The author however references a pricing per action (CPC= cost per click/CPA= cost per action) model which is very interesting. If you follow the path it would force better display creative. As referenced in “Are Banner Ads Poised for Creative Renaissance?” good ad creative gets clicked especially when presented in a Takeover style. In order to make money you would have to create cool, engaging, and actionable creative to make money. Publishers would either be forced to grow internal creative teams that get results or be forced out of the display business altogether. This would in turn solve the abundant supply issue display faces today. It would also force content providers who value their skills in attracting the audience to relent website space to facilitate the takeovers. It cannot happen overnight but through conditioning a simple pricing change could create real display ad interactions that marketers seek and value. I would love to hear from others that see this “cause and effect” as different, if I don’t get any good arguments then you can count me as a new huge fan of CPC/CPA models.

Radio Reinvention?!?!

If you are close to the radio industry in any way you always hear the rallying cry of "radio can always reinvent itself", my question is can it really? It seems to me that more often than not we are following the leader instead of truly trusting our guts and stepping out.

Example you ask; Display banners on traditional media sites, how old and stale is this technology. For certain and far between events they make sense. Imagine if you visited a website once or twice a week that had no display ads. Then one day you show up and a full takeover with 300x250's are there. Bet you can recall that brand or message? Instead radio continues to place display banners (sometimes in the most odd and strange ways that it makes you ask yourself who is running this show) within their sites and claiming to investors, if we can just sell a little more of banner inventory we'll get through this hitch. My contention is that you are in a declining market already; what have CPM's done over the last few months?

Yet we have new emerging technology that deals directly with assets that our listeners are most ravenous about, video! Mass interactive video is just around the bend and radio could be the medium that owns it. Instead the minds are focused on selling just 10% more display inventory or streaming inventory. I'll bet you that when this masses finally have it radio will adopt it.... mark my words. Just one more thing we will look back on as an industry and say damn missed that one.

If you would like to check out a company doing this right now check out Video Clix

For more supporting evidence check out this read today in the WSJ, Video Site Entice Viewers to Stay and Play.