From M/Cyclopedia of New Media
- The first most important task in designing an advertisement is to decide what to put in it.
- Where ever an advert is positioned, it has to compete with opposing advertisements to be seen. Often the more straightfoward the message and the clearer the design, the more chance there is for the advertisement to stand out amongst the clutter.
- Advertisements need to attract attention, say what the product or service is, say who's offering it, sell a benefit, and then suggest a course of action for the viewer.(Adams,2004)
- Approximately three quaters of advertisements have some form of curves or other organic shapes featured. Big name companies such as Weight Watchers use organic shapes, arcs, circles and rounded edges to appeal to target audiences. Heather Conary, from Sitepoint, comments on the recent increase in popularity for the design feature.
- The recent proliferation of these particular shapes is a sharp contrast to the hard-edged, square styles favoured previously. In an effort to appear more comforting, approachable and appealing to their target audiences, companies have used the current economy to shed their "hard styles" in favour of these "softer images". (Conary,2004)
- Colour is an essential element in advertisement design. Bright colours attract the attention of viewers, while subtler, blended tones can lend class and restraint to the design.(Adams,2004)Often a colour scheme will be laid down by an existing brand identity; many products are recognized intstantly by the colour combination they use. Coca Cola's red and white colour scheme is a good example of an effective colour scheme. It is important that the colours chosen for online advertisemetns gel with the image the company wants to project. If strong imagery is a starting point for your advertising design , it's common to use colours sampled directly from the image,to ensure the final artwork functions as a whole and does not dazzle the user unneccessarily.(Adams,2004)
- Pictures are ideal to incorporate in online advertisements because they grab viewers attention. The power of images derives from the fact that people don't need to read pictures.Onlookers are able to view and absorb and advertising message by simply glancing at it, without having to read large amounts of text. One problem with incorporating text into online advertisements is that they take up a lot of kilobytes. The larger and more complex the picture is, the longer it will take to download. (Adams,2004)
- The most common and most-used advertisement size is the banner advertisement, measured at 468x60 pixels. Skyscrper banners are also popular, which measure at 120x600 pixels. Many banner and skyscraper advertisements follow the "thirds" formula. Two-thirds of the advertisement contains a picture and the main advertising points; the remaining third is devoted to minimal copy and clickable buttons.(www.asiaone.com)
- Other sizes and shapes gaining popularity include:square advertisements(most often seen in technology websites), pop-ups(losing popularity due to web browsers and toolbars being equipped with a pop-up blocker), pop-unders, interstitials(a nearly full-page ad that loads between the page you clicked and the one you want to see),and finally overlay ads(gaining populrity due to the decline in pop-up advertisemets).(Conary,2004)
Back to Online Advertising - History
Reference List
- Adams, R.(2003) www.advertising, Broadway, NY.:The Illex Press Limited, ISBN 0823058611
- User:Skye Salleras|Skye Salleras]] 07:50, 29 Oct 2004 (EST)
