CReATION: Banner ads effective only on sites with relevant content targeted at specific people

<p>L. Gordon Crovitz, senior vice-president of Dow Jones Electronic </p><p>Publishing, has attempted to put an end to the debate over whether </p><p>banner ads work. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>He said that banner ads were effective when there was a great deal of </p><p>qualitative information about people visiting certain sites. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>At WSJ.com, for instance, he said: "We have the largest subscription </p><p>site on the Internet and from that we can obtain very detailed </p><p>demographic and psychographic information which we can share with </p><p>advertisers in aggregate form. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>"As a result of this, we are able to charge twice the rate of other </p><p>sites." </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>He added that the success or failure of banner ads depended on the </p><p>quality of the traffic through that site: "whether it was your target </p><p>group of people coming back to your site on a regular basis or your </p><p>target group of people who went to the site just once and never </p><p>returned; the former means success and the latter failure". </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>One reason why WSJ.com has been so successful has been because editorial </p><p>content has been made relevant to its readers and delivered in a timely </p><p>fashion. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>"People subscribe because they see that this is for me and since they </p><p>are subscribers they will visit our site every day to get the </p><p>information they need. Under this scenario, we can safely say that the </p><p>banner ad works," Mr Crovitz told MEDIA. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>In 1999, WSJ.com pulled in a revenue of about US$31 million on a </p><p>worldwide basis, with 60 per cent of that figure accounted for by </p><p>advertising and the remainder by subscriptions. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>The Asia portion represents a small part of the whole. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>Mr Crovitz predicted that worldwide revenue would double this year from </p><p>1999. </p><p><BR><BR> </p>