Banners
have been a major part of the World Wide Web world since its early days.
Copywriters burn the midnight oil looking for new designs that will grab the
visitor’s attention and compel him to click on their banner. This article
discusses some of the most successful banner designs.
Teasing
your curiosity
“Do
Not Click Here”. How many of you have seen this slogan in a banner? What did
you do when you first saw it? If you are like most people, when you first saw
it, you clicked on it. What makes this simple sentence so powerful that it
compels the visitor to click on it? The answer is curiosity !!!
Copywriters
and web designers are always looking for ways to arouse the website visitor’s
curiosity. As banner designers their goal is to attract the visitor to the
banner, usually completely ignoring the other elements on the web page that are
more important to the website owner. However, because the “Do Not Click Here”
slogan tells us nothing about what is on the next page, it arouses the
visitor’s curiosity and makes it almost impossible not to click on this banner
to see what’s behind it.
Simple
integrated design
When
Larry Page and Sergey Brin first introduced their product, “Google”, to
potential investors, they mentioned Adwords as a backup option in case they
didn’t make any money. We all know how lucky they were that they eventually
needed to use that backup plan. What made these “boring” ads such a great
success?
Unlike
other ads, Adwords neither arouse the visitor’s curiosity nor disturb the main
flow of the web page. In fact, the opposite is true. Adwords are meant to look
like part of the search results giving the user the feeling that those ads are
there because he asked for them. No one has any doubt that this simple design
helps Google to promote both their search engine and the Adwords advertising
program.
Take
part in the action
Banner
designers wisely used interactive technologies like Flash to develop type of
banners that invite the user to take part in the action. Drawing the user into
the action can be accomplished in many creative ways. Some web designers use
popular old games elements as part of the scene. You all know the famous game
pacman. One of the banners that I like the most is the one where the user is
allowed to let pacman “eat” few dollar signs. At the successful completion of
this mission, a nice slogan is revealed asking him to open a saving account
that will earn money with a fixed interest rate. The idea behind those
interactive banners is simple: Let the user take part in the action and then at
the right moment when his mind is less resistant, show him the sales message.
Those interactive banners proved to be very efficient. Their biggest
disadvantage is that most webmasters will not allow that kind of banner because
it distracts too much from the web page content.
Back
to Black and White
Website
designers are always seeking to be different with their design ideas. One
banner fashion trend that can be found lately is Black and White banners.
Although research shows that blue and yellow are the most efficient color to
use in a banner, Black and White banners have been seen a lot lately. It’s
probably something that will eventually vanish, but the idea behind it is to be
different and to make the user wonder what’s up and hopefully click on the
banner to find out.
Get
Out of the box
Have
you heard about the www.gexton.com? If not, check out this
website before continuing to read this article. This website has proven that
creative thinking not only can bring you money but also create a whole new
trend. Right after the milliondollarhomepage.com got the internet community’s
attention, many designers used this idea to design a banner on which they sell
a 10x10 pixel area. Like the original concept, this banner design had its
impact. Advertisers are investing money on these ad spaces while at the same
time visitors are curious enough time after time looking at those unorganized
pixel banners to click on them.
What about
the next trends
What
the next trends of banner design will be is something that probably no one can
accurately predict. It’s up to some web designer to come up with a new concept
that proves to be efficient. There is no doubt that in the future we will see
new ways of designing banners, especially when more and more advertising
budgets are being spent on the internet instead of commercial TV and other
types of advertising media. I guess we will just need to be patient.
