Online Ad Banners Have Short Life Spans 31/08/00 The majority of all online ad banners have short life spans, running on average three weeks or less, according to a new report from AdRelevance, a division of Media Metrix. With few advertisers running large online campaigns, an overwhelming majority of advertisers have less than a 0.01% share of all online advertising impressions. Key findings from the latest AdRelevance Intelligence Report, which analysed standard banner ad campaigns on the top 500 websites between July 1999 and June 2000, include: Although most banner ads run for three or fewer weeks, the average banner runs for five and a half weeks. The automotive industry schedules online ads to run the longest, an average of 7.8 weeks. This is almost twice as long as the average banner duration for a hardware and electronics ad, which typically lasts 4.1 weeks. The consumer goods industry uses the most targeted ad approach, with only 40% of online impressions appearing on broad reach sites such as portals, search engines and community destinations. At the other end of the spectrum, Web media, financial services and travel advertisers appear to be targeting the least as they run an overwhelming majority of ad impressions on broad reach sites. According to Charlie Buchwalter, Vice President of Media Research at AdRelevance, "While most advertisers are running relatively short campaigns, shorter campaigns are not necessarily better campaigns. Although shorter campaigns may concentrate banner impressions, thereby increasing the share of voice and share of market for an advertiser, only longer campaigns can bring about a change in consumer attitudes and behaviour. The latest AdRelevance findings suggest that automotive, financial services and travel advertisers are out to change behaviour because they are running banners the longest, when compared to other industries." The AdRelevance Intelligence Report also analysed ad impression distribution strategies for campaigns running four, eight and 12 weeks - revealing that banner impressions, on average, are heavier in the beginning of four and 12 week campaigns. On the other hand, campaigns running eight weeks tend to feature higher impression levels in the middle. Impressions for the average banner in an eight week campaign peaked in the fifth week. "There is no golden rule when it comes to campaign continuity, but it appears that advertisers are adopting two weighting approaches - either front-loading for shorter campaigns or pulsing for longer campaigns," added Buchwalter. "The conclusions from this AdRelevance Intelligence Report support the fact that the online advertising market is still in its infancy, and has a way to go before analysts can accurately determine what constitutes an effective and successful online ad campaign. We'll know things are changing when more companies commit to larger, longer and more targeted online campaigns." For further details on the report, visit http://intelligence.adrelevance.com