November 2001   

 

Editor's note: If you are receiving this for the first time, Beyond The Click® is a newsletter from Dynamic Logic that provides useful insights based on research findings. You are on our mailing list because we either have met you or worked with your company. Our goal is to send you brief and actionable "news you can use." We welcome your feedback and hope you pass it along. To unsubscribe see below.
 
 N E W S  Y O U  C A N  U S E

Pop-ups on Par with Television and Direct Mail in Eyes of Consumers

Over the past year, there has been increasing interest among advertisers and publishers as to the viability of more intrusive forms of online advertising - specifically the interstitial form commonly known as the "pop-up."

Advertisers and publishers were intrigued by pop-ups because they are more noticeable, but some worried about the distracting nature of pop-ups. Consequently, variations on the theme arose, including "pop-unders" which run under the page as opposed to over it and "pop-up-transitionals" which run in between pages [IAB Glossary]. The question remained: where is the line between a good advertising vehicle and a frustrated consumer?

It is common knowledge that when given a choice, people generally prefer less advertising to more. With that in mind, Dynamic Logic set out to see how consumers feel about pop-ups in comparison to other forms of advertising (they may not really like any of them, but which formats do they like more or less?). This was an important question for the industry overall and for our company as well which frequently employs pop-ups to recruit research respondents.

To help answer this question, we surveyed people who were already in the Dynamic Logic database (some of whom had been recruited through pop-ups in the past) and they were asked to compare the desirability of pop-ups to various forms of offline media such as TV, billboards, etc. The mean perception relative to pop-ups was calculated and the various ad formats were indexed against the mean. The results were weighted to match the general online population. The chart below illustrates the findings.

The research showed that respondents view pop-ups as desirable as TV ads and Direct Mail. Telemarketing rates far worse, whereas Print ads (Magazine, Newspaper) are the most desirable. This may be directly correlated to how "distracting" the marketing format is. But the fact that consumers in this study view pop-ups on par with TV and Direct Mail seems to indicate that a distracting advertising in one environment (TV) is as desirable as a distracting advertising in another environment (online). Further questioning found that people accept distracting advertising to support their preferred content; 85% agree with the following statement: "Advertising is necessary to support the web sites I like to visit and keep them free, even if the ads distract me from what I am doing." Respondents were also asked about how many pop-ups per hour were appropriate for a site they like to visit: 78% said one pop-up per hour, 38% said three or more, while 22% said none.

This data should not be misinterpreted to suggest that pop-ups, TV, and Direct Mail are equally effective with consumers. But perhaps when respondents factor in all the considerations (duration of exposure to creative, ability to control/end experience, targeting/relevancy, interactivity, etc.), pop-ups just seem like another sometimes-annoying-but-equally-desirable-form of advertising - an emerging fact of life in an ad-supported media world.

You can get the full Ad Reaction study in .pdf format from http://www.dynamiclogic.com/advertising_reaction-execsumm1.pdf

* The data was gathered through an online survey, with a sample of 413 consumer on 09/30/01. Respondents were recruited from Dynamic Logic's AdIndex database via an email invitation. The results were weighted to the online population profile to remove any potential bias towards pop-ups. Portions of the respondents in the Dynamic Logic database were initially recruited via pop-up invitations.

 M O L L Y  A N D  J E F F R E Y

Considerate Pop-ups   

by Molly Hislop



The research in the study we just completed told us that consumers have accepted online advertising as a fact of life. 85% of the respondents in the sample agreed that advertising, even if it is distracting, is necessary in enabling them to visit their favorite sites free of charge. They understand that someone has to pay for the development and maintenance of the content, and they prefer to not bear that cost.

While consumers have agreed to accept intrusive ads today, that could change tomorrow if things get out of hand (i.e. every page one visits should not launch an interstitial). As an advertiser or publisher, there are ways to serve ads like pop-ups to people while minimizing their intrusiveness. For example, designers can create pop-ups that close automatically after a certain period of time, or can use cache-busting techniques designed to prevent a user from repeatedly getting the same pop-up over and over because it gets trapped in their or their ISP's system.

One step further is to make pop-ups "smarter." For example, one site that I visit uses a pop-up invitation to ask users to register. I filled out the registration ages ago, but the site still serves me the same pop-up every time I come to the site. Using technology to keep track of which users have done what will make the advertiser or site appear more sophisticated. Ads such as pop-ups can be very effective when used strategically, but can alienate consumers when abused or implemented carelessly.

molly@dynamiclogic.com


Don't Confuse Creative with Format

by Jeffrey Graham


Will users accept pop-ups? The question is a red herring. The real issue is whether people will accept bad online advertising. They won't. Good advertising, which is relevant to user interests and rewards their attention, will survive, whether it's in the form of banners, pop-ups or any other kind type of execution.

Unfortunately, pop-ups have become associated with x10 peep cameras and online gambling, building a negative association among consumers and in the online advertising industry. You can't expect people to separate the medium (pop-ups) with the message (bad advertising).

Non-banner formats can be very effective in capturing attention and delivering information, but their intrusiveness must be part of a value exchange between the advertiser and the consumer. When this model is flouted, and advertisers treat users as a captive audience, backlash becomes inevitable.

For even the average Web users, online advertising is optional. Free and easily downloadable tools are available to block not only pop-ups, but most Web advertising. So far, few have installed these tools, but bad advertising can only expedite adoption.

We know most people accept the fact that advertising, including pop-ups, is the price of admission for most content on the Web. But bad advertising may be too high of a price to pay.

jgraham@dynamiclogic.com




 A B O U T   A D I N D E X

Dynamic Logic's AdIndex® is a research tool used by online advertisers to measure the effectiveness of their campaign beyond click-through. By providing real-time metrics on brand awareness, purchase intent, message association, and creative evaluation; AdIndex empowers online marketers to optimize their campaigns and get a true measure of the campaign's impact.

AdIndex was developed by Dynamic Logic and has multiple patents pending.
www.adindex.com

 A B O U T  C R O S S M E D I A   R E S E A R C H

Dynamic Logic's CrossMedia Research™ measures the value of integrated media packages and quantifies the success of a cross-media campaign that combines online with print, television or radio. CrossMedia Research allows advertisers, agencies and publishers to understand cost effectiveness of different media in the mix.

 A B O U T   M A R K E T N O R M S

Dynamic Logic's MarketNorms® is a leading source of normative data for online marketing effectiveness, with a database of over 1,000,000 completed surveys and more than 10,000 tested creatives. MarketNorms is a powerful, analytical tool that allows advertisers, agencies and publishers to compare effectiveness by vertical (automotive, CPG, pharmaceutical), ad format type (rich media, interstitials, email) and audience (gender, B2B, consumer).
www.marketnorms.com

 C O N T A C T   U S

www.dynamiclogic.com

909 Third Avenue, 8th Floor
New York, NY 10022

+1-800-245-2455
+1-212-844-3700
marketing@dynamiclogic.com


Copyright © 1999-2007 Dynamic Logic Inc. - A Millward Brown Company. All Rights Reserved.
If you enjoy Beyond the Click, let us know. Please send feedback, comments and topics you'd like to see addressed to marketing@dynamiclogic.com. All letters become property of Dynamic Logic and may be edited for space and clarity. To subscribe to this email newsletter, send a blank email to join-beyond_the_click@hurricane.sparklist.com.