Driving to work yesterday I noticed a billboard that was hung upside-down. I glanced at it out of the corner of my eye and wondered if the outdoor advertising company hired idiots to hang their boards. Later that day, I saw the same billboard in another location, also upside-down. I felt sorry for the guys who had to hang it, because they probably have more sense than the people who told them how to do their job.

Advertising is effective when you send the right message to the right audience using the right method of delivery. The billboard in question is for a car dealer, and their message is OPEN SUNDAY. Outdoor advertising is the right medium because the signs are placed where people who drive will see them. The message was good, the delivery method matched the audience, yet they took a simple formula and screwed it up. They disrupted the delivery and damaged the message.

Outdoor advertisers struggle with the same problem that online advertisers face. How do you insure an ad gets noticed in an ad saturated landscape? Bright colors, drawing outside the lines, adding dimension, and yes, flipping things over are all effective ways of getting noticed. It is commonly recognized among the outdoor advertising community that turning a message upside-down increases its noticeability. But that doesn’t mean it’s good for the brand. In theory, everything you do contributes to brand resonance. If a device for getting noticed doesn’t also reinforce the message, it’s not resonant; it’s disruptive.

Online advertising is chock full of attention-grabbing opportunities. In the end, it’s not about being noticed, it’s about being heard. And if the message resonates, it will stay in the mind. I got the car dealer’s message, but it didn’t resonate with me. It wasn’t persuasive, it wasn’t clever. It might have even turned me off a little. Mostly, it was a squandered opportunity to make an enduring impression.

Do something resonant, and your impression will endure. At the very least, make sure the message you want your audience to hear isn’t tripped while walking down the aisle.

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They’re ubiquitous, obtrusive, and sometimes excruciatingly annoying, but banner ads have been the primary advertising vehicle of the web for more than a decade. Most are seen and ignored by the viewer. Some are as irritating as a carnival game hawker, trying as hard as they might to get your click-through. We’ve all learned, either from confirmed suspicions or experience, to avoid them at all cost, and as a result, they’re not the most effective vehicle for getting your message out.

But if you don’t advertise, you don’t get seen. Banner ads are one of the easiest ways to rent a piece of property on someone else’s high-traffic url. As a business model, it can be valued, tracked, and measured for success. If you don’t spend a dime on banner advertising, your internet marketing campaign may never get off the ground.

The first problem with a banner ad is that the viewer is usually interested in driving to their destination, and they see your banner advertisement as a distraction. The viewer has more interest in what they’re trying to accomplish than in what you’re trying to sell, so they don’t give the banner ad much value unless it appears to be a more direct route toward their intended destination. That doesn’t happen very often, which leads to the second problem. The result of clicking on a banner ad almost always leads to disappointment. It’s like someone changing the channel during your favorite television show to make you watch the commercial on another channel. Yuck.

The solution is simple–promise and deliver. Promise the viewer that when they click on your banner ad, they’re going to find exactly what you tell them is there, and when they click on it, give them exactly that, and exceed their expectations. Inform and delight them. Entertain them. Reward them. Make them glad they clicked on your banner ad. Be consistent in never failing to delight and reward the viewer. Do that, and people will look forward to finding your banner ads when they surf the web. Can you imagine that? An advertising campaign where people look forward to being distracted every time they see one of your banner ads?

Banner ads are an invitation to party. If you have a reputation for throwing the best parties in town, everyone will want to come. If you are known for the lamest parties, who’s going to bother? Banner ads without a pay-off are a waste of money, and they squander your credibility. If you can’t deliver the goods, stop spending your cash. Get your marketing campaign on track. Create an advertising vehicle that rewards the viewer when they visit your landing page. Then start advertising. The results will be slow at first, but once you gain a reputation for consistently rewarding your visitors for banner click-throughs, you will be astonished with the results, and the return from your investment in banner advertising will make you a winner.

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