That's Rich
The Internet has always been home to the weird and the
wonderful, but in the past few weeks I've discovered some
strange new phenomena that left me slightly perplexed.
Going online a couple of weeks ago I came across an animated
mouse on a motorbike speeding across the webpage I was visiting.
At first I tried to take no notice of it because I've come
across stranger stuff on the Net before. However, as I scrolled
down the page, the mouse followed me until I got bored of its
presence and escaped to another website.
As I was later to find out, my monitor was not possessed and
neither had the website been defaced by fiendish hackers. The
rodent on wheels was merely a new type of online ad informing me
that a telecom operator in Ireland had launched a new high-speed
Internet service that would make it quicker to surf the Net.
This wasn't the first time I had come across such an ad. A
second website I visited seemed to disappear from view, only to
be replaced by an animated motor car saving planet earth from
alien attack, while yet another site bombarded me with the
moving image of a new mobile phone that prevented me from
viewing the page properly.
Welcome to the world of rich media ads, a relatively new online
advertising format which features video or animation that float
or walk across web pages as you surf.
If you've not come across such a format yet, then be warned, you
will do soon. New research from Nielsen-Netratings indicates
that advertisers are wising up to the fact that Internet users
dislike traditional forms of online advertising such as banners
and pop-up ads and so are coming up with new formats to tempt us
into clicking through.
Nielsen-Netratings latest report reveals that traditional
companies such as General Motors and Procter & Gamble are
increasingly turning to rich media online ads because they're
seen to cut through the clutter of general online advertising,
and result in more selective placements for advertising. In
fact, nine out of the top ten rich media advertisers in the US
in Q1, 2002 were traditional companies, rather than dotcoms,
according to Nielsen-Netratings.
Unlike formats such as pop-up or pop-under ads which deluge the
poor Internet user with a thousand and one links to sites they
don't want to visit, rich media ads seek to hide the fact that
they're trying to sell you something by dazzling the consumer
with smartly designed concepts and groovy looking graphics.
However, in order to do this, they tend to interfere with your
viewing by following you around the page and generally making a
nuisance of themselves. While Internet users have become used to
being bombarded by ads whenever they go online, the annoyance
factor associated with rich media ads is worse than any other
format I've come across.
What makes them particularly galling is the fact that there
seems to be no easy way to close them. Most of these ads are
delayed for a few seconds until the full ad is shown, meaning
that Internet users have to sit through them whether they want
too or not. Internet users are by their very nature, an
impatient bunch. They don't have time to waste waiting for
webpages to load, and neither do they have the patience to put
up with distractions such as ads that can't easily be closed.
A study released by Taylor Nelson Softres confirms this. It
found that word of mouth recommendations were more important
than driving traffic to a website than search engines or links.
It also discovered that Internet users would only recommend
sites that they found enjoyable to use. The report concluded
that most websites were still failing to recognise the
importance of user satisfaction in encouraging both new and
regular visitors.
Perhaps websites should keep this in mind when accepting rich
media ads from clients because while Internet users may
appreciate the fact that sites need to earn an income, anything
which impacts on their enjoyment while online is going to have
serious repercussions.
Perhaps the majority of Internet users will follow my example
and stay away from sites that bombard the user with ads that
can't be easily shut off. That way websites might wise up and
start respecting the wishes of Internet users, and concentrate
on welcoming users, rather than annoying them.