On a recent job interview, I was asked to create a sample banner ad that was supposed to entice someone to click on it. I did my best and ended up not getting the job, but that is okay. I was thinking about it later and I was given the impression that a well-designed and exciting banner ad would get anyone to click on it. The thing is - advertising doesn't work like that, at least for me. I'm throwing this out there to see how everyone else feels.
At my old job, we made spam banner ads and websites and were constantly challenged to make them visually appealing. I get that, you don't want it to look like crap. But still. If you are 55 and don't need an iPod, I don't think any amount of flashy design will make you click on a banner ad for a FREE* iPod.
My opinion is that if you aren't in the market for the product they're selling, nothing will make you want it. I've had zero interest in buying a new car for a few years now. If someone offered me $1,000, I couldn't tell you a memorable car commercial or advertisement I've seen in years. Besides that, car commercials are some of the worst ads out there.
I know ads are "supposed" to make you want something and make you rush out to buy it, but I would say it rarely, if ever, works on me. I can appreciate a clever marketing campaign and a funny commercial. I may even recall a logo or product years later based on advertisements - but if it's not my thing to begin with, is it even possible to make something like that? Can you truly make a banner ad to sell something a person doesn't even need?
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3 comments:
I am amazed at how challenging it is to do spam sometimes. I have no actual content on the websites I'm working on. None. It's all just links, with very strict rules, imposed by Google about how and where things need to be on the page.
Earthlink has ad space when you check email through a browser. I take screen shots of some of them because they're actually nicely designed. But they're more well known companies like Sprint and AT&T which follow a style guide. So there is good stuff out there, but if you're talking about pure spam, yeah, that stuff is pretty brutal.
So the funny thing is, that people don't usually click and convert on the GOOD looking ads. It is amazing to look at the top 100 ads on a website and see all the kinds that you think are "cheap" looking or "full of text that no one would read" or "pictures of gross bodies" and then find out that those are the kinds of ads...work and the really nice ones for the products you'd think people would WANT to buy do not. Or at least, not nearly as well.
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