Banners Suck

First let me thank you folks who responded to the last post. It's giving me a much better idea of what readers want. That said, I need to get something off my chest.

Banners suck. One of our web developers learned at a usability conference that eyeball studies reveal that our eyes spend about .09 of a second on banners. Paranthetically, if there's a photo of a man, other men look at his crotch- which means they're gay or sizing themselves up. On a recent campaign (for my day job) we got less click thru on banners than there is alcohol in O'Douls. It was ridiculous. And the agency keeps maintaining it's "enhancing awareness" but if you look at our cost-per-sale we're spending about $6000 to get a new customer. That's fine if you're selling giant diamonds, yachts or California real estate.

So I hereby proclaim that the age of banners (which has been dying for a while) is now officially burried. So what's next? Paid search, CPA (cost per lead) models, and contextual ads, but there's limited inventory there. Which means video is going to be critical.

Those watching video ads (unlike passive TV viewers) are in control, however, so they damned better be clever. I'm talking about super informative or funny as hell. If I see another 30-second car ad of pretty scenery I'm going to puke on my laptop.

I'm counting on some of you faithful WillVideoforFood readers to pass this along to your agency friends. Get with the video revolution or die with the banners.