In order to keep audience attention, advertisers were forced to completely revamp the format, shortening the ads, bringing in humor, rich graphics, special effects, celebrities, action and so forth. Internet advertisers have also started upping the ante, experimenting with a variety of rich media applications. Today we're going to focus on audio banner ads, the Short Attention Span Theatre of the Internet. I mean it's fine if it's there. But I don't want it in my face.
Most people consider audio banners intrusive, an invasion of their private space.
Michael Lubell is the director of Marketing at WinStar Interactive, an enterprise at the forefront of rich media applications, including audio, in banner ads. The trick for today's advertisers becomes marrying the concepts of consumer profiling and targeting the right advertising delivery to capture users' attention and increase the probability that they will buy the product or react to the call to action. The bandwidth issue is also significant, possibly even more so than ad placement. And advertisers have already learned the hard way that the best way to lose customers is to make them wait. With bandwidth and speed, advertisers don't face the same delivery problems as in the at-home market.