Jessica Mitidiero adds more heaft to AdAge’s- Making Online Ads Suck Less May 3, 2010
Posted by Mark Blei in : Staff posts, industry news , 1 comment so farMy name is Jessica Mitidiero and I am Senior Account Manager for Dynamic Logic in the Chicago office. An article in AdAge recently caught my attention titled, “Making Online Ads Suck Less in 8 Easy Steps”. In short, the author John Young explains that marketers should focus on strategy, creative, analytics and the long-view in their digital advertising efforts along with 8 steps to follow. While I do agree with John’s points and the benefits of testing from a creative perspective, I think his 8 steps are missing a few points commonly overlooked by advertisers, particularly those focused on branding.
Ensuring more effective ad campaigns starts prior to the development of the banner ads. When advertisers’ and agencies are developing their core objectives and strategies, measurement plans should be developed in tandem. This is one way to ensure ad campaigns are more effective and efficient at accomplishing objectives. (More holistic branding research such as CrossMedia measurement should be considered at an early stage but I’ll be limiting my focus to online alone for the purpose of this blog.)
In terms of brand awareness campaigns in particular, some important steps that I feel are commonly overlooked to the detriment of campaigns are as follows (but not limited to):
- Research. Prior to any creative production work, marketers need to educate themselves on creative and media components that have been historically successful or unsuccessful. Initial creative executions should be established upon relevant best practices. Dynamic Logic has an extremely robust and extensive MarketNorms database full of normative information for clients to utilize including: industry insights by category and product level, creative performance by format and size, site category insights, and frequency of exposure data.
- Pre-Market Test. Testing creatives prior to running them in-market will help you to maximize their impact against objectives. Dynamic Logic’s LinkSelect for Digital will allow you to see the performance of each ad with regards to engagement, motivation and brand association. This solution will also help highlight successes and areas for improvement; tweaking poor performing ads, cutting those that are the weakest, or place heavier impression weight across the highest performers. Having this insight prior to the campaign launch is crucial to the success of the overall campaign and is a relatively inexpensive way to boost your campaign effectiveness.
- Test In-Market. Utilizing in-market testing will further provide context into the campaigns brand impact. Dynamic Logic’s AdIndex solution will help you to understand the true impact of your campaign against key brand metrics. In addition to supplying insight into the most and least effective components of the campaign, this solution will also allow you to see how different media components (sites, frequency, targeting) played a role in affecting performance. Most recently, I’ve seen that AdIndex results have helped guide agencies on their use of new targeting tactics. Because we can provide insight into the branding impact that different targeting tactics have on campaigns, we’ve been able to highlight those that are or are not working the hardest for the brand. Reaching key audience and consumer segments within your campaign is key for driving the lower funnel branding metrics.
- Use What You’ve Learned. After testing is complete and (with our help) you’re grasping what works, what doesn’t, and why it does/doesn’t within the online space, use this data and insight when planning future initiatives. It will help to make your upcoming campaigns more successful.
