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-----Messaggio originale-----
Da: Roberto Marzialetti <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
A: weebies Mailing List <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Data: 17 July 2000 16:18
Oggetto: weebies: banner
>>Lo spazio a disposizione =E8 =
>> gi=E0 talmente limitato...in 468 x 60 px non =E8 che si possa fare =
>> molto...Ad esempio per un banner che deve far comparire delle scritte si
=
>> potrebbe pensare a un aeroplanino con uno striscione: 40 Kb se fa solo =
>> pochi giri. Forse non sono brava nell'ottimizzare i colori, o forse =
Un interessante testo in inglese sui banner pubblicitari, segue.
Saluti alla lista,
Agata Grillo
--->>>
Web Marketing Today: Banner Advertising, 7/17/00
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THEME: BANNER ADVERTISING
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Dear Friends,
In this Issue:
* Designing Banner Ads Like a Pro
* Tools and Resource for Designing Banner Ads
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DESIGNING BANNER ADS LIKE A PRO
by Dr. Ralph F. Wilson, E-Commerce Consultant
http://www.wilsonweb.com/wmt5/ad-design.htm
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Do-it-yourself banner ad designers need a lot of what Yiddish
calls "chutzpah." They have to believe that they can design a more
effective banner than the professionals, one that gets an
equivalent click-through rate (CTR). A good banner could pull a 2%
to 3% CTR or more, while a mediocre banner might pull the industry
average of 0.4%. In other words, an effective banner can have a
huge effect on your advertising campaign, the difference between a
triumph and a trouncing.
As a banner ad do-it-yourselfer I've turned out some pretty
pathetic banners that I thought were good -- and a few winners.
When I talked to two banner ad professionals, I found out why some
of my banners were failures. Here are the key elements involved in
effective banner design.
SET OBJECTIVES
Ad design firms begin with a precise understanding of what their
client is trying to accomplish. Here are 10 questions that Lounge
Lizard Graphics asks of its prospective clients:
1. What is your vision of the brand?
2. What is your business objective for banners?
3. Describe your target audience.
4. Any consumer thoughts we need to overcome?
5. What is the single most compelling idea that the target
audience should take away from the communication of the
banners?
6. What personality do we want to convey for the brand?
7. What types of imagery and communication do you feel are
inappropriate for the target audience?
8. Where will the banners be running?
9. File size restrictions including looping and dimensions?
10. What is the launch date of the banners?
Once you have identified your goals clearly, you're much more
likely to achieve them.
PROVIDE SUCCINCT COPY
The conceptual phase comes long before the graphic artist puts
mouse to canvas. What message are you trying to communicate? How
succinctly can you say it and still get it across?
I designed a banner for my own site a couple of months ago with my
message spread across four frames of animation. I thought it was
cool. But Ken Braun, president of Lounge Lizard Graphics on Long
Island, told me. "You have one frame of a banner to catch their
attention, two tops -- but two is pushing it. Three or four frames
are way too long." I was ashamed to tell him what I had done, and
said something like, "Of course, Ken."
But he's right. The message needs to be very brief and very
concise. As a writer, I know that this kind of precision takes
much, much longer to compose than a sentence or two. The best
analogy to a banner ad is the highway billboard. You have one to
eight words to make your point. Anything longer is unreadable as
you whiz by.
Whether you prepare you own banners or employ professionals,
refining your message is your job as a marketer -- unless you want
to pay ad agency prices. Decide what you want to communicate, then
bring it to the banner ad specialists.
INFUSE WITH CREATIVITY TO BREAK THE NORM
People's eyes are trained to ignore banner ads. If the ad looks
like the same old banner-type stuff, no one will give it a second
glance.
The best design firms put their creativity to work to express your
message in a way that breaks the norm. Something that surprises,
shocks, suggests, seduces. Creative people tend to be a little
off-beat themselves, half a scoop shy of a full cone, so that
helps.
BannerWorkz.com prepared a banner for comedy.com with a hypodermic
needle injecting something into a person's head. Shocking!
Different! I took the time to look at that ad.
http://wilsonweb.com/wmt5/images/comedy-injection.gif
The average small businessperson just doesn't have the creative
juices to produce a winner. Neither do computer whizzes who love
to run graphics programs. Creativity is a gift. So when you're
looking for a banner ad professional, look for something creative.
Ask to see their most recent campaigns (not just the pretty one's
they show on their site), and look for creativity in expression.
FIND A VISUAL METAPHOR
The creativity extends to finding a visual metaphor that carries
your key message. Ken Braun told me, "The message really needs to
be communicated through visuals, not the text, since humans
respond better to images than to words."
A metaphor suggests a likeness or analogy between your message and
an object. For example Lounge Lizard prepared a banner for
RagingBull.com that shows an investor riding a Wall Street sign as
if it were a bucking bull.
http://wilsonweb.com/wmt5/images/ragingbull.gif Clever,
different, shifts the company mascot into a clever investment
image. I've made the mistake too often of relying on the words
rather than the image.
You find the visual metaphor by brainstorming the basic concept.
What are we trying to communicate? What actions or objects have
something in common with that concept? How can I get the message
across without words? Then narrow it down to a simple, easy-to-
recognize image.
ATTRACT ATTENTION WITH ANIMATION
Animation is important to catch the eye and pull it towards the
banner ad. Studies have shown that animation dramatically
increases the click-through rate. But animation can go too far.
Michael Chung, general manager of BannerWorkz.com, thinks that
people no longer fall for an ad that's too gimmicky, that tries
too hard to get attention. "It's a branding issue," Chung says.
"The more legitimate your product or service, the less you need to
use wacky, flashy, obnoxious animation." Indeed, many websites
limit the number of times an animation can repeat.
The best use of animation is to reinforce rather than compete with
the message you are trying to communicate.
For example, Lounge Lizard designed an ad for the Minolta Vectis
2000 camera to emphasize its small size and portability, by
showing ants carrying it away. The movement of the exiting camera
conveys the message and add enough animation to catch the eye.
http://wilsonweb.com/wmt5/images/minolta-ants.gif An ad from
BannerWorkz features a hammer tappping on text that forces you to
read the ad copy that is being tapped. Clever.
http://wilsonweb.com/wmt5/images/etools-workz.gif
QUALIFY THE PROSPECTS
While the click-through rate is easy to measure, the most
important measure is cost per sale. Ad professionals have found
that banner ads can help them pre-qualify visitors to their
website, and attract only the best prospects, those who are
already looking for their product or service. Let's say your
banner has a photo of a sultry woman with the caption, "Come up
and see me sometime...." This kind of "teaser" banner is likely to
get a huge click-through rate, but a dismal conversion rate
(percentage of visitors who make a purchase), a high cost per
sale. "Teaser banners need to be tailored around the product,"
says Ken Braun. "Blind teasers don't work."
ASK FOR THE CLICK
Web veterans may take banners for granted, but newbies don't.
"Tell them to click," says Braun. "They don't know." But there's
also an art to this "call to action." Contrary to logic, a large,
bold "click here" caption doesn't usually get as high a CTR as a
small, more subtle invitation to click.
TEST THOROUGHLY
The final nugget of wisdom I learned is to test, and test
extensively. It helps to have a "test bed" where you can try a
number of banner ads in order to determine the kind of click-
through rate each receives. This could be part of your own site,
or a second site that you own. If you do a lot of advertising on a
particular site, perhaps they can assist you in doing some
testing, since you are already sending business their way. Another
way to test is through banner exchange networks, though you will
need 1,000 to 5,000 banner impressions to get an idea of how well
a particular banner is pulling.
Sometimes changing even minor elements can make a big difference
in the click-through rate. Michael Chung told me about a set of
travel banners his firm designed for Away.com. Conventional wisdom
was to include beautiful scenery, but testing showed that a plain
blue background got a better response than a beautiful background.
Testing is inexpensive compared to putting into service an
untested ad that may pull less only a fraction of its potential.
EXPERIENCE COUNTS
Like many areas of business, experience pays. While great graphics
software can give you high quality graphics with effortless
animation, it doesn't substitute for the kind of learning that
comes from failure.
I love the story of the young bank trainee who files into the
CEO's office to meet the boss with the other trainees of his
class. Somewhat awed by seeing this company legend in the flesh,
he asks the crusty old banker, "Sir, how did you learn to make
such good decisions?"
"Experience, young man," retorts the old banker.
The trainee, thinks for a moment, and then inquires, "And how did
you get your experience, sir?"
"Mistakes, young man. Mistakes."
Will I continue to design my own banner ads? Probably. But I find
that learning is sometimes painful. When you hire professionals,
you are paying for what they have learned by making mistakes ...
on someone else's project. :-) How do you design banner ads like a
pro? Trying, testing, failing, and trying again, just a little
wiser the next time around. That's how the pros get to be pros.
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TOOLS AND RESOURCE FOR DESIGNING BANNER ADS
by Dr. Ralph F. Wilson, E-Commerce Consultant
http://www.wilsonweb.com/wmt5/ad-tools.htm
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Here are the tools and resources you need to design effective
banner ads.
PERIODICALS
BannerTips from Workz.com is the important newsletter on banner ad
design I know of. http://www.bannertips.com/ It includes reports
on testing various versions of banners to see which pulls best. By
studying the archives you learn which colors, fonts, and gimmicks
seem to work best. A scientific approach. I recommend you
subscribe to this free newsletter.
Microscope from ClickZ.com provides weekly reviews of banner ads
from advertising professionals who point out the strengths and
weaknesses of a particular ad. http://www.microscope.com/
ARTICLES
Banner Ad Design section of our Web Marketing Info Center provides
links to dozens of articles on various aspects of banner ad
design. http://www.wilsonweb.com/webmarket/banner-design.htm
CNet Builder.com has a number of practical articles on the
subject.
http://home.cnet.com/webbuilding/0-7330.html?tag=st.bl.3883.dir1.7330
WebReference.com also includes a number of articles.
http://webreference.com/authoring/graphics/animation.html
SOFTWARE TOOLS
When I asked Ken Braun of Lounge Lizard Graphics what tool he
recommend for banner ads, without hesitation he pointed to
MacroMedia Fireworks, and described it as "Photoshop on steroids."
He likes it because it allows you to build the frames and do the
animation within a single product, and provides excellent
optimization of the final banner to keep the file size small. "A
great timesaver." Lounge Lizard also uses Adobe Photoshop for
retouching and compositing photos and images. Photoshop also works
well with Fireworks, which can easily import "layers" from
Photoshop images.
Michael Chung of BannerWorkz.com uses Adobe Photoshop 5.5 with its
companion product ImageReady for animation. "It's is a memory hog,
gets jealous of other programs running at the same time and
temperamental. But if you treat it right, Photoshop is a great
design tool."
WebReview.com regularly reviews banner ad design tools.
http://webreview.com/wr/pub?x-tb=a&x-searchall=animation
PC Magazine, June 21, 2000 reviewed web graphics tools.
http://www.zdnet.com/pcmag/stories/reviews/0,6755,2578666,00.html
They gave their Editor's Choice recognition to MacroMedia
Fireworks 3
CNet Download.com lists dozens shareware animation tools, with
it's "picks" near the top.
http://download.cnet.com/downloads/0,10151,0-10072-106-0-1-3,00.html?tag=st.
dl.10012.dir.10072
Of the shareware products, I've used Ulead GIF Animator with good
results, and it's CNet's most popular animation downloads by far.
http://www.ulead.com/ga/runme.htm
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