“Persistent ad formats” persist with a wrongheaded approach to online advertising effectiveness

Today in Adweek Brian Morrissey writes about the latest attempt to infuse online display advertising with value. Video Egg and Meebo have come up with something called “persistent ad formats,” which means they now have ads that consumers can’t scroll away from. The ad units stay on the screen in front of them no matter what. Here’s the problem: It’s 2009 and advertisers are still trying to shoulder their way in front of unwilling consumers.

Perhaps Video Egg and Meebo’s numbers are true, and the “persistent ad formats” are performing well. It doesn’t matter; it won’t last. Consumers will adapt and become just as good at ignoring these new formats as they are at ignoring standard banner ads.

We are in a world where consumers increasingly can choose the marketing they see. Forcing them to look at ad units they don’t want to see merely provokes them. The answer isn’t to come up with new, clever ways to ensure consumers cannot avoid your ad; it’s to come up with ads that exert magnetic force on the marketplace. Brands must draw customers to their communications by delivering some form of compelling value. It could be a smile, a piece of information, an application that will make their life just a little better or something else entirely. In 2009, barging onto their screens as an uninvited guest is simply bad manners.