A Call for Better Creative in Online Advertising

A while ago, ZEDO’s marketing team had a discussion about the new possibilities for our high impact formats. We thought about sponsoring a contest to encourage creative directors to exercise their talents on some of these formats, because they guarantee 99% viewable impressions but they don’t necessarily guarantee conversions.

Why? Because brand lift and conversions require something more than great formats that produce oohs and aahs over the engineering that created them. They also require great content.

This morning a post by Jason Lehmbeck caught my attention:

The first wave of online ad innovation has enabled marketers to buy and trade consumers like pork bellies. Marketers can now reach consumers anywhere: at work, in their living rooms, in their cars — even in their bathrooms. But when it comes to advertising, the Internet revolution has largely overlooked the most important piece of the marketing equation: the ad itself.

Lehmbeck goes on to say that advertisers have swung too far to the “tech” end of ad tech. Now we have to go back to the “ad” part. We’ve got the analytics, but there will be nothing to analyze if we create and place ads mechanically without engaging the consumer. We’ve got to go back to connecting the formats to the content, and giving the consumer an educational, entertaining, and informative experience.

There’s no better way to do this than on-screen video. Consumers are watching online video in every format from the smart phone to the web-connected TV. This means online advertising can now be as effective as TV advertising — with the right creative.  Our new full-screen video formats that take existing TV ads and transfer them to online and mobile instances can deliver the results advertisers want, using the tools they perfected years ago.

It is time for advertisers to go back to what they do best: create great ads.  Let this be a challenge to you. If you can create them, we can get them seen.