New banner formats: does this affect designers and developers?
(By Tom on 10 March 2009 | Posted in Advertising)
Silicon Alley Insider reported this morning that 27 of the largest online publishers, representing 66% of impressions in the U.S., have agreed to try out new, larger ad formats.
Here are the formats being tested:
- Fixed Panel
Recommended dimension is 336 wide x 860 tall, which looks naturally embedded into the page layout and scrolls to the top and bottom of the page as a user scrolls. - XXL Box
Recommended dimension is 468 wide x 648 tall, which has page-turn functionality with video capability. - Pushdown
Recommended dimension is 970 wide x 418 tall, which opens to display the advertisement and then rolls up to the top of the page.
Our stance is that most designers and developers are familiar with creating rich media ads, which is basically what these amount to, so this news isn’t earth-shattering. Further, we’ve argued in the past that it’s time for publishers to step up in order to increase banner effectiveness. This is a move in the right direction.
How would you feel if these became the standard formats?
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3 Comments
As a designer, I welcome the news of more real estate, so long as the publishers realize you can’t expect a 40k file size in a 970×418 banner. As a consumer, I’m looking for more ways to avoid advertising all together. Just think, at these sizes, how easy it will be to “Slap that Belly for a free iPod nano”.
The IQ tests will be even easier, too. :)
Excellent point about 40k — no one is talking about file weight. We’ll see if we can dig up some information.
Got the following response from the OPA:
At this point in time we do not have any further details. This is all something the publishers will continue to review and discuss and more details should follow as the initiative gets underway.
My guess is that there will be some maximum (40k - 80k?) range for the parent files, but that the children SWFs will be allowed several MB. If you’re using video, even larger.
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