BUSINESSWEEK ONLINE : DECEMBER 11, 2000 ISSUE
BUSINESS WEEK E.BIZ -- NEUBORNE ON E-TAILING Beyond the Banner Ad With a shot of creativity, there are lots of ways the Internet can bolster brands The latest study on banner ads is out, and the news is not good. Banners, the kind that sit like a valance atop your screen, are still the most popular form of Internet advertising, though not a very effective one, reports AdRelevance. The only I-ad delivering fewer eyeballs than the horizontal banner ad is the vertical banner ad, which runs the length of the screen. The worst part of this news is that it's not news. Everyone in marketing and advertising already knows that banner ads stink. They are a pale imitation of their richer television and magazine cousins. People's eyes slide over them easily. And if they dare to get uppity and try to wave at us and get our attention, we complain. Banners can't win. Yet marketers cling to them, unwilling to take risks and venture into other tactics. That's a shame, because there is a smart way to advertise using the Net, which only a handful of companies have figured out. Instead of plastering ads on Web pages in the same old way, savvy companies are launching branding campaigns that tap into what the Web stands for--tech-smart folks who fancy themselves as hip. Take Kmart Corp. (KM) The discount chain has a new tech offering, the BlueLight True Blue Personal Computer, your basic $499 PC. It will do little in the way of big league profits. But that's fine, because what it loses in margin, it will make up in marketing. The key is in its name. It's branded with the moniker of Kmart's hot new online store, BlueLight.com. This gives Kmart a link to more affluent, techie customers--the Web's bread-and-butter. Yule buzz. After years of searching for a Web strategy, Kmart is starting to get some traction with BlueLight. Among online discounters, BlueLight's site traffic is strong: More than 4 million consumers have signed on for its free Internet access. And, while rival Wal-Mart Stores Inc.'s (WMT) latest online incarnation has drawn yawns, BlueLight.com has buzz heading into the holidays. The new PC borrows on that buzz and boomerangs it back home to the discount aisles, elevating the Kmart image by connecting it to the Net, according to Heidi Gibson, director of product marketing at BlueLight. ''We leverage that brand to serve the master brand--Kmart,'' she says. Volvo (VOLVY) also is taking a stab at leveraging the Web for what it does best. To attract younger consumers and inject a little pizzazz into its safe-and-boxy image, Volvo this month is launching its new model, the S60 sedan, entirely on the Net. Volvo is funneling its marketing for this car into the Web, primarily into real estate on America Online (AOL)--with everything from informational Web sites to sweepstakes. By doing this, Volvo not only reaches key customers--company research shows 80% of its target market is online--but also gives its brand a lift by breaking from traditional ads and making a cutting-edge statement online. These marketing efforts are exciting because they stray from the beaten banner path. Instead of trying to make the Internet into a computerized TV, they reach out and use what works about the Internet. That's crucial. E-tailers will draw record numbers of shoppers this Christmas. It remains the medium of the out-of-the-box and the adventurous. These are worthwhile brand attributes. AdRelevance suggests that marketers try other ad shapes and technologies, such as the button or the form ad, which includes text boxes or drop-down menus. That may not solve the marketing problem. Creativity gets more attention than a fleeting mix of pixels. Quit banging your heads against those banners and find the ways the Web works. By ELLEN NEUBORNE, ellen_neuborne@ebiz.businessweek.com _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ BACK TO TOP					e.biz Contents for Dec. 11, 2000 issue INTERACT E-Mail to Business Week Online

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