217. Online Advertising › the good and the bad › advantages of online advertising Banner advertising goes a long way towards bridging the advertising divide. Adverts have a set size, they can look very similar to print adverts and they occupy a particular bit of real estate in a publication with a particular number of views. It’s easy to understand and it does the things buyers are familiar with. Bottom line - if done correctly, online advertising builds brand awareness and increases sales! Images - Display can offer a rich brand building experience Some campaigns are better suited to having images rather than the plain text of a PPC campaign (although recently PPC image and video adverts have been introduced in the USA). Consider the following types of campaigns: • Promoting travel packages. What stirs more emotion - an image of a tropical paradise or the words “tropical paradise”? • Build a brand within a specific sphere. Use banner advertising to brand the websites of every major player in that niche. • Running a competition. Keep the target market’s eye on the prize. • Launching an exciting new sports car with a Call to Action. “Test drive it now” - or interactive rich media that highlight all the exciting new features as you mouseover that part of the car on the image. • Digital shadow. Using banner adverts that shadow the above the line activity to drive the message both on and offline. Interactivity Since banners can contain rich media, they offer levels of interactivity that other forms of advertising cannot achieve. It allows your target market to not only see your banner, but to play with it too. Interaction builds a bond and improves the chances of the consumer remembering your brand tomorrow. Cognitive learning is a powerful outcome of interactive display advertising. Modern online advertising is able to bring together a number of other online marketing tactics such as animations, games, video and Flash. • A few years ago, Flash microsites were all the rage. Now the same functionality can exist within the advert. This includes filling in a form or playing a game within the advert, there’s no need to be taken to a separate page. • Viral Marketing: clever viral marketing games or “send to a friend” functionality from within the advert. • Video: check out video previews or trailers from within the advert.