Last month, the Online Publishers Association announced an initiative that it says is designed "to help stimulate a renaissance of creative advertising on the internet that meets the needs of marketers by better integrating their messages into the fabric of the web." As a part of the new initiative, a group of OPA members will be implementing new -- and significantly larger -- interactive display advertising units across their sites.
Following last month's iMedia Breakthrough Summit in Florida, iMedia asked a group of interactive marketers what the OPA's proposed new advertising units will mean for the future of online display. The response, though generally optimistic, was peppered with words of caution.
Lauren Boyer, partner and chief global strategist at Underscore Marketing, LLC, says she applauds the OPA for trying to solve for the waning engagement rates that the industry has been experiencing. "The notion of increasing impact and enabling stronger metrics is worthwhile, but will bigger ads really be better?" she asks. "While it's not the first solution that comes to mind, we're willing to trust their collective judgment and test."
Similarly, creative marketing strategist Adam Broitman says he applauds what the OPA is trying to do -- but he has little confidence that innovation can be driven by ad unit sizes or functions. "Bigger, more disruptive units do tend to have higher clickthrough rates, but they do not provide for a better user experience (per se)," he says. "If I worked for the OPA, I would make my rounds to various agencies and showcase best-in-class ads that leverage standard units and encourage creative thinking.
On the other hand, Brian Hadley, partner and media director at Cole & Weber United, says he's looking forward to the new display advertising units. "It is a great opportunity for advertisers and agencies to really create engaging experiences that connect with consumers," he says. "I think this also has implications in how sites are designed and how users experience their favorite content.
"Shifting away from the visually sub-fractional and classified nature of online advertising helps to provide the necessary real estate for advertisers to communicate effectively," Hadley adds. "The proposed formats generate a visual dominance which more closely aligns with other media like newspaper, magazine, or television."
As an example, Hadley points to magazines, in which the back-of-the-book classified ads and content look very similar to most web experiences today. However, the new OPA display units will be much more akin to the full page, half page, and one-third page ads found accompanying the front-of-book feature content in a magazine. "The difference will be night and day both in experience and performance," Hadley says.
Similarly, Jordan Berg, co-founder and chief creative officer for Questus, says that the bigger ad units will enable brands to tell a more complete story. "The future success of online ads hinges on these larger placements with enhanced features such as video, sound, and interactivity," he says. "Real creative breakthroughs for online ad creative will flourish under these new sizes. Brands and agencies will create 'ad experiences' that will rival the content they sit next to."
Hadley notes that the transition to the new ad units will be slow as publishers redefine their revenue structures, as well as their value on the media plan, with proposed units. "I don't foresee existing ad sizes disappearing any time soon, but I can see a potentially problematic period of realignment with consumers as expectations are reset about how online advertising is delivered through these new formats," he says. "I hope it will be a welcome change, but consumers are a fickle bunch -- just look at how consumers responded to the Facebook redesign."
In conclusion, when it comes to display ads, Broitman says the interactive industry needs to take a lesson from Lance Armstrong, who famously points out that it's not about the bike, it's about the rider. "In our case, it is not about the ad unit, it is about the message and experience," he says.
Lori Luechtefeld is editor of iMedia Connection.