The Future of Display Advertising

A change is happening in the world of display advertising, with new ad formats appearing all the time and now with the reinvention of the Telegraph group it's happening faster than ever.

Partly due to the increased spend from the consumer goods sector, online display advertising increased by almost 20% back in 2011 and now almost half of online display advertising is coming from brand budgets. Even manufacturers of yoghurts, shampoo and beans are getting in on the action by using display for engagement.

With the improvements in broadband capabilities, screen resolution and the infrastructure of the internet in general, it's clear that Mid Page Units (MPU's) and standard banners are no longer the most effective way, no matter how successful they may have been in the past.

Consumers now expect more because of the aforementioned technological improvements and the desire for higher resolution, larger images, HD videos and social interaction is growing. Now the online industry must step up to give the marketers the tools they require to meet these desires from the consumers.

For the first time since its creation, the Future Formats Award companies submitted just fewer than 20 formats to be judged by the ten major creative and media agencies, resulting in Google, AOL, Microsoft, YouTube, MediaMind and the Telegraph being the finalists. All 6 that made the cut were advocates for larger adverts that were more engaging and interactive for consumers through their use of multiple layers.

Since the half page ad became standard back in 2010, we have seen these larger, multi layer format adverts become more and more commonly used and this is now surely a sign of things to come, not only here in the UK, but with our American cousins too.

The US Future Formats (IAB US Feb 2012) revealed that with these new larger multi layer ads, the consumers are 2 and a half times more likely to interact and with the increased functionality, they are also likely to view the ads for over 30% longer than before and that the improvements in the advertising would improve the consumers opinion of the brand.

The speed that new advertising campaigns and formats are taken to market is only possible due to the fact that they are online, they can go from ideas to reality in hours rather than the months it would take through other mediums.

All signs are pointing to the philosophy that bigger adverts give better brand results, so with just under 50% of online display budgets now spent on branding the sky is the limit for bigger and bigger brand building campaigns.

Written by Jason John Mills