Hasta La Creative!

It’s easy to fall prey to the lure of so-called “premium” advertising. Fancy awards are given out in the south of France every year commemorating the largesse and beauty of big, flashy ads. Brands looking to increase awareness and brand lift often think that bigger is better. Regrettably, this is rarely the case, especially when it comes to advertising.

With traffic sources increasingly uncertain, paying a higher CPM for large-format advertising hasn’t translated into guaranteed human audience or effectiveness for modern marketers. While ad size was once considered a leading determinant of campaign success, the data tell a different story: Larger ads are more likely to be avoided or flat-out ignored, significantly decreasing the likelihood that consumers will pay attention, let alone remember the message.

What’s more, larger ad units should deliver enhanced viewability, but mostly they don’t — bots eat up as much as 60% of the impression load that advertisers spend so much of their budgets on every year, wreaking havoc on effectiveness metrics and creating lasting inefficiencies. To add insult to injury, big ads that are, in fact, seen by real living, breathing people typically fail to achieve cognition.

Continue reading at AdAge.com