Are banners an effective ad medium?

Are you an unbeliever? Do you sneer at the suggestion that banner advertising is of any use to marketers? It seems to me there are a lot of unbelievers about. They remind me of people you used to meet in pre-internet times. People who claimed they never responded to ads – on TV, in the press or direct marketing. “Ads have no effect on me,” they’d say.

These days the sceptics say similar things about digital advertising. They claim never to have clicked on a banner. “Why would you click on them when banners just get in the way of your viewing?”

Notice how they always mention “click”, as though a banner’s only purpose is to get a direct response. Isn’t this being narrow-minded?  I think banners are an effective awareness medium. If people interact with them it’s a bonus.

The fact is, as we spend an increasing amount of time online, the virtual world of the web becomes a substitute for the High Street/OOH experience. Banner, skyscraper and MPU ads become posters in our online experience. Done well, they can charm and stick in your memory. Take the one for the UK government’s drug education campaign, “Frank”, from a few years’ back. Consisting of eyeballs that followed you around the page, wherever you moved your cursor, it was very engaging.

Added to all this, thanks to services like Dynamic Logic and Double Click, we can measure the brand impact of banners.

Do you remain unconvinced about the usefulness of banners? If so, please tell me why.