The IAB, which announced a new task force to explore new online ad formats, has brought in nine agencies to the table for creative input. The agencies, including Interpublic’s Universal McCann and R/GA, Razorfish, and BBDO, join network heavyweights Google, Microsoft, Yahoo and AOL’s Platform-A and a host of media firms, including CBS Interactive, NYT Digital, and Turner.

The IAB has been pushing for more impactful advertising as a way to pull online advertising out of its current rut, arguing that upping the “creative magic” of online ads will forestall the commoditization of the media. When it comes to display and rich-media advertising, it’s a safe bet that publishers’ goal is for advertisers to recognize the value of “engaged eyeballs” online, paying out the same enviably high CPMs that television spots command. (How do you get website visitors to pay attention for 30 seconds?) Mesmerizing creative, an enticing engagement model, and formats that are harder to ignore enhance the value proposition of display and rich media advertising, and elevate the medium for premium advertisers and publishers above the muffin top ads publishers have been plagued by.

For publishers focusing on contextual text ads, the challenge is related but somewhat different. The value of the ad is related to its vertical and specific offer (RPC), a matter of the ad network’s breadth and advertiser bid ranges, as well as the likelihood that the ad will be clicked (CTR), which is a matter of the strength of the contextual targeting technology and formatting optimization. Publishers and ad networks have less convincing to do of their value to advertisers, since it’s measured in conversions rather than boosts to brand awareness and perception. But the need to overcome subconscious ad blinders is still there, and so the need for innovation is important here, too. (Incidentally, this is one of the values that YieldBuild gives to its customers)

Fighting ad blindness and inspiring a user to notice and engage with an ad is one of the central challenges to both types of online advertising. Innovation is necessary because novelty wears thin after a while, and predictability doesn’t give users any reason to pay attention to or click on ads. Creative types and technological innovators have to be one step ahead of the conscious threshold of the Web users they’re targeting.

This entry was posted on Friday, May 1st, 2009 at 4:50 pm and is filed under Online Advertising. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.