We recently had a long back and forth discussion with a client trying to explain what makes an ad engaging. It wasn’t easy, but with some good examples and discussion, I think we were able to distill the concept so they could understand what we were talking about. Some of the key takeaways were that engaging digital ads:

• Need to give users a compelling reason to learn more
• If an ad is interactive (which is ideal), such as a rich media unit, there needs to be a clear value proposition for the user to expand / intereact
• Simple is always better – a good interactive concept doesn’t ask too much from the user, but offers a clear “pay off”

Whenever we see digital ads miss the boat in terms of engagement, it’s usually because either:

1. agencies approach digital creative as a literal extension of offline creative
2. digital ads are developed under the flawed assumption that the viewer has seen their offline ads

Basically, in developing online ads, agencies erroneously treat digital as an extension as opposed to a central part of an integrated campaign. As users spend more and more time online, and media consumption habit “fragment,” assuming a linear consumption of advertising misses the boat.

Jose Villa

The question arises, is this a sign of a trend away from online advertising to other media or is it just the result of the overall ad spend pie decreasing so much that online was unable to escape it’s effects?

I say the latter.

More than anything, it was the result of one of the most irrational pull-backs in media ad spend in advertising history, more a result of an overwhelming sense of uncertainty and anxiety than a concern about the ROI of digital advertising. 

Check out this LA Times piece discussing the news and my quotes on the news.