Thursday, June 19, 2008

Ad Overload? 19 ads on a page!




Today the front page of The Age.com.au had 19 advertising messages on it.
And this doesn't include pushes to Fairfax's own network of sites outside of The Age.

I don't think I'm alone in saying this is a tad excessive.

And it concerns me as an advertiser who has used this placement in the past of really how effective my ad might be when it's competing for attention against 18 other ad messages as well as the content.
I've always found it interesting that every year these 'premium' (their words) placements increase in price, but each year more advertising noise is added to the pages.

2 comments:

Zac Zavos said...

What's the optimum number / balance do you think, Ben?

Ben Shepherd said...

it's a good question ... I would to love to see no more than 1 display ad per screen (ie IAB standard unit) and no more than 2 text modules (ie textlinks or 90x90's with text etc)

publishers always talk 'user experience' when you try and push the boundaries of creativity, but seem to forget about it when it comes to monetising the units they already have. I'd much prefer a clever, interesting eyeblaster execution that uses transperency than ugly text ads for every credit card in market.