Forget “Location, Location, Location “ when it comes to online advertising the mantra should be “Location, Integration, Communication”!  The latest Red Sheriff research on Online Advertising points to some strong potential of on-line advertising.

Firstly, the facts as we know them:

1. Online advertising spend is very low in New Zealand.  Some recent high profile closures in the local online ad industry are graphic examples of the difficult environment.
2. The ability to accurately record click-through rates has lead to an overly narrow viewpoint of what online advertising is about. This focus ignores the ability of on-line ads to build brand/campaign awareness, change perceptions, and drive off-line actions.
3. The decline in click-through rates is not proof of the medium’s shortcomings but a natural result of novelty loss with users increasingly reporting “banner blindness” – the automatic avoidance of the top inch of the webpage. We can expect this same pattern to be repeated when interactive TV comes in.

Location
So how do you design an effective on-line advertising campaign?  Well for starters, the same key factors long identified in offline advertising  still apply - relevance and entertainment value.  But here’s the key difference: most of those using the internet are actively interacting with the medium, the so-called “lean forward” syndrome compared to the passive, “lean-back” nature of television viewing. Hence the very purpose of a person’s session online, and thus websites viewed, will influence their reaction to any online advertising.

This is best illustrated by the people Red Sheriff identified as “Ad Absorbers”, those with a positive orientation towards online advertising, and who are thus more likely to notice and click on online ads (18% of the Australian online population). Ad Absorbers are not aimless leisure surfers or glazed-eyed entertainment junkies but are generally information gatherers using the Internet to obtain product information (66%) and / or news, sports and weather (61%). What this means is that people accessing these sites are already in the “information gathering” mindset. If an online advertisement can be presented as a logical extension of the content being presented on a given webpage, then better results will be the target – it’s NOT just a case of demographic targeting.

Integration
Another key point is that your own company websites are the most informative, controllable and interactive advertisements you have. Given that some 53% of our respondents said that television advertising was the greatest contributor drawing them to visit new websites, you should seldom run a TV commercial without your URL on it. 

In sum, the most successful on-line advertising is usually going to be but one component in a well-constructed multi-media campaign. It must be remembered that when consumers say a certain ad triggered their response, this does not mean any of the other ads have been any less effective.  The consumer may view the ad on any number of occasions, and via a number of media, before deciding to act. For example, a customer may see your outdoor billboard whilst driving home, but only act once the 0800 number is shown on TV that night.  So the TV ad was the final initiator of the desired action - was the billboard totally ineffective here or an important component of the mix? 

Communication
Which brings us to the third key ingredient – communication of the message; just being noticed and read at the very least.  Just  as you don’t simply slap your print ads on TV and expect them to work, the same holds true with on-line advertising. Red Sheriff’s research confirmed that the ads which best utilised the potential of the internet (including movement, animation and an element of interactivity) also increased recall, as did campaign consistency or familiarity with offline communication and promotion. 

So the age old AIDA principles of advertising still apply to this newest of mediums; creating Awareness, Interest, Desire and Action, is still going to get the results.  It just needs to be applied using the medium’s unique ability to animate and be interactive. 

Used correctly you should be getting some great results from on-line advertising – just remember “Location, Integration, Communication”, don’t get hung up on counting click-throughs and make sure every other advertising medium you use – TV in particular – carries your URL.