Darren Herman

Mike Shields, a colleague of mine penned an article for Mediaweek entitled, Is the End Near for Display .  In this article, a few digital media directors and executives from advertising organizations talk about the death of display.

IMHO (these are my thoughts, not my employer), there are a few reasons why display ads aren’t going anywhere:

• There is absolutely no replacement.  Engagement Mapping ?  We’re in stage 0.5 of a 10 stage game.  Not even close.  There is a lot of money being comitted here by major industry players, but we are far away from anything really substantial.  Additionally, engagement mapping will have to be adapted by the entire media planning and strategy team (and clients), similar to econometric/media mix modeling.
• Publishers scale with IAB standard display ads.  Publishers need to make money today.  Not tomorrow.  IAB standard ad-units have dollars committed to them today and they have allowed digital media companies to grow and scale over the past dozen or so years.  Publishers both large and small have spent a lot of money designing their website to fit in the 300X250s and 728X90s (etc) and will continue to serve these ad impressions.  There are large networks created to back fill display inventory.  How many publishers are going to turn a blind eye?  I’ve been in talks with multiple large affluent publishers who say they do not participate on exchanges or networks… only to run my media and find out otherwise.  Dollars talk.
• Client side :  How long did it take to understand the quantitative measures of today’s digital marketing?  CTR.  CPM.  CPC.   eCPM.  An agency can be as advanced as they want, but unless their clients understand, no headway will be made and the media plan will be based on what people understand.  How many people want to go out on a limb and lose their job?  Especially during these economic times.
• Display ads :  To the contrary, when used correctly, they work.  In every industry, there needs to be a black swan and unfortunately, display ads play this roll.  Why?  Because it’s easy to blame the billions of ads that are served everyday – a scapegoat.  When creatives and marketers harness the interactive nature of what you can do with a display ad, then they will understand the power of them.  Creatives may feel constrained when limited to a 300X250 canvas, but once understood and harnessed, the world is their oyster.

I’ve sat in too many meetings where someone senior pontificates about how display ads are clicked only by mid-western housewives.  The entire room agrees and then they create a complex media plan only to get shot down by the client(s).  When the creatives, media, CRM, and everyone work together to make a display ad campaign work well and play with all of the other media channels, it could work extremely well.

I think the future of online advertising includes display.  It won’t be replaced.  Are new metrics and analytics being born each day?  Yes.  I love them.  The issue is until they are adopted by all industry constituents, they will remain in their own niche.