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A survey carried out by Adlink Research in March and April 2001 revealed that 54% of UK internet users never click on advertising banners. In fact, most regard advertising on the internet as the most significant disruptive factor. One reason for this is the extra time needed to load websites as a result of the complex design of advertising banners. Ironically, it's the internet that offers the best opportunities for targeted advertising, using a variety of different forms of adverts, and allows the success of the advertising to be monitored. The average clickthrough rate of around 0.23% (this is the frequency with which people click on banners) shows that these benefits are being almost totally lost.
In contrast to conventional media such as radio, television or the printed word, an important factor to be taken into account in internet use is the technical performance of the users' internet access method. This is not a problem for traditional media, where conditions are the same for everyone. The content and the advertising take the same amount of time to reach the end consumer and there are no delays in reception. This can't be taken for granted on the internet. Content providers, advertisers and media consultants have to take into account the technical reality. They must be aware of whether the internet user only has a modem connection, or whether they have ISDN or even a broadband connection at their fingertips.
It's also a good idea to take into account the performance of the whole internet, alongside the local factors. If your content gets stuck somewhere on its way across the network, even the broadest of broadband connections won't help. With today's technology, these so-called bottlenecks are still the critical points on the global digital highway.
VIDEO BANNERS DON'T GO WITH THE FLOW
One example: the type of banners which we're all familiar with are more or less out. The use of streaming media in video advertising banners or in ad insertion is becoming more and more popular. This type of advertisement is more appealing and therefore attracts the attention of consumers, which makes the advertisers happy. But however attractive this advertising may be, it is also problematic. If complex video banners are aimed at target groups without any additional information being available about the group itself, the effect can be exactly the opposite of what was intended. Imagine a user with a 56 kBit/s modem connecting to a website with video banners. It takes a disproportionate amount of time to load the website, so the user gives up and disconnects before the site has finished loading. Even the most appealing and interesting video banner won't get its message through to potential customers in these circumstances. An Internet user with ASDL or a cable connection may, on the other hand, have nothing against videos, even advertising videos, but he is constantly accessing websites with static or animated banners, which seem so boring that he just moves on.
If advertisers had accurate information available about the connection speeds of Internet users, they would be able to give every user what he wants or expects, at least from a technical point of view. The content of the advertising has been deliberately excluded from this discussion, because it's a different topic altogether. Another aspect of the availability and use of this type of information is that it allows the advertising to be customised for the user without him having to enter any information or click on anything. We're not talking about sensitive personal information like names and addresses, because advertisers have become aware that extracting personal information from Internet users is like getting blood out of a stone.
SKILFUL POSITIONING
Is a breakdown of user's access profiles just wishful thinking on the part of the marketing strategists? From a technical point of view it's certainly possible to collect detailed connectivity data (this is how media professionals refer to connection speeds). In order to make advertising accessible, it's just a case of evaluating the information carefully. Together with information about the country, region or town where an Internet user lives, the IP address, which is assigned to every user when he connects to the net, also contains connectivity data. Users with a private connection are generally given a temporary IP address. This means that after the user has disconnected the IP address is available again and can be assigned to another user. The permanent or temporary assignment of IP addresses is not really relevant to the current discussion, because we're not talking about sensitive personal data, only about technical possibilities. Akamai Technologies' EdgeScape service can provide just this type of information. Using EdgeScape, content providers can identify in real time the country, region, town and service provider of the user and the connectivity options available to him (cable modem, DSL, ISDN, dial-up).
The advantage which this information offers is obvious. The type of advertising can be customised to suit the user's access method. Users with a slow connection are shown static advertising. Anyone with a broadband connection can automatically be offered moving pictures, intersticials or audio clips.
THE ADVANTAGE OF BROADBAND
The question is whether consumers are really aware of the advantage of broadband. They probably don't perceive the added value. However, with broadband, surfers don't get irritated by slow data-intensive websites and are prepared to wait the short time needed for the site to load. Users of broadband connections are therefore more likely to recognise its advantages.
Anyone with a broadband connection wants to be given broadband content. These users are no longer happy with static banners. They are more likely to pay attention to moving pictures, videos or 3D animations. These types of advertising have a greater attraction for consumers because they are new and appealing. Moving pictures also attract people's attention automatically.
Internet users like connecting to sites which appear in their own language without them having to click on little flags. This also applies to advertising. If a user is offered advertising which is customised to his region or town, he is more likely to take in the message than would be the case with advertisements from companies in foreign countries.
This means that the likelihood that this person may become a customer is correspondingly greater, and this applies to all forms of advertising. Of course, the type of advertising used and its success depend on the content, the context and the positioning. Internet users who are looking for information on a particular topic want it quickly. Users who are not looking for anything specific, but just surfing for entertainment, are more receptive to advertising. Ad insertion allows advertising messages to be placed on the Internet in the same way as blocks of adverts appear on commercial television and radio. For example, a video stream can be inserted as the opening or closing sequence to a series of adverts. When compared with banners, the awareness rate is higher, because consumers take a conscious decision to watch the stream and therefore the series of adverts. However, this type of advertising is only effective if the entire stream, including the video adverts, runs smoothly. This means that what the consumer sees must be reliable and good quality output.
RESTRICTIONS ACCEPTED
Even users with narrowband access (that is, a modem) can watch streams and are prepared to accept certain restrictions on quality and the additional time taken, as long as these remain within reasonable limits. However, the stream must be transported along the last part of its route smoothly and effectively. The best and most simple method of doing this is cross-network content delivery.
The perfect advert attracts the attention of the surfer, entertains him and creates a specific need. A lot can be gained by using emotion-based advertising, but a lot can also be lost, particularly when positive emotions have the opposite effect to that intended. It's hard to communicate emotions using static or animated banners. Intersticials, audio and video offer far better opportunities.
However, because of the bandwidth required, these types of advertising are very much dependent on the user's access type. If you include criteria such as language, region, town or network in the equation, then all types of advertising are access-dependent.