Live Issue... Will sites suffer from the 'death' of the online campaign?

In their presentation at the AME Festival, they argued that the days of the online campaign, where a brand uses banner ads to generate interest, has lost value and given way to a more in-depth, experiential approach called participative branding.

“There is an enormous difference between including participatory elements into a campaign or building your entire campaign around a participant,” Eschenbacher says. “The former is nothing new and is a conservative approach to breathe some life and more relevance into a dead online campaign model. The latter is a holistic new approach that take some guts and a new attitude, and this needs to go beyond just one campaign.”

He continues: “The days of campaigns built on banners and emails and viral videos centred around a campaign site are numbered, especially when we want to achieve ROI, generate the highest possible impact with the lowest possible investment. A banner can only do so much to build a brand or sell a product.”

Yet if the online campaign has no place in today’s marketing world, what becomes of the digital media owners who thrive on banner ads?

Adrian Moss, group CEO of Deal Group Media, says the shift can benefit focused online media because their space will be more appealing for campaigns that have been built with a specific consumer base in mind. He notes that outsourced sales teams, such as his own company’s Aktiv Group, have become more prevalent in Asia-Pacific, specifically to facilitate the matching of richer ads to online spaces.

“There’s also the assumption that smaller media owners are at a disadvantage in this situation, but they have the ability to bend over backwards for a brand, and that’s appealing. They also have a highly defined user base which might be more appropriate than a portal with transient traffic,” Moss adds.

Nick Fawbert, managing partner of Third Space Consulting, believes publishers should be gearing up for a shift away from banners.

“A reduction in the share banner advertising claims in Asia is a reflection of the convergence of our markets and the improved skillsets that media planners are bringing to bear on the market. A well-organised website will already offer a range of integrated solutions alongside straightforward banner campaigns and could expect to see the balance of revenues shift as they increase the effectiveness of their proposition to advertisers.”

However, even in the brave new world of participation marketing, there be may still be room for the humble banner.

Pushkar Sane, chief digital officer for North and South Asia at Starcom Mediavest Group, argues that they will continue to be used - though website owners should note that banner campaigns may shift away from branding toward direct-response. “As long as audiences have a need to find something, they will find it, and display will continue to be relevant because of this.”

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