by Think about this: What if you could find specialists’ opinion about online advertising, best practices, current trends and tips for starting a good online campaign in one place?
It would be excellent, right? We though about this and today we’re introducing Bannersnack Ad Talk – a series of interviews with online advertising specialists, designers and social media marketers.
Our first guest – Bogdana Butnar.
Who is Bogdana Butnar?
Bogdana Butnar is currently Senior Strategist at Poke/Publicis London. Previously she was an Industry Manager for Google, Managing Director & Head of the Strategy MRM WorldWide Romania. Bogdana holds a Master of Arts in Advertising from London Metropolitan University. Way way before that, she was a brand manager for Rompetrol Romania, a planner for Headvertising and McCann’s Creative business.
Blog: www.bogdanabutnar.ro
Twitter: @bogdana
1. What’s the role of online advertising in today’s acquisition strategies?
“I am always confused when people say online advertising because I think if there’s one thing that digital has done wrong is make the name of things we do to market products more complicated. I will make an assumption, which is that what you mean by online advertising is display advertising (based mostly around what your company does) and say that, if we speak about display advertising, it depends as it does with most other channels. In theory, display plays an assist role to the ultimate conversion (the sale) but in practice you will find industries where display is primary lead generator (or acquisition driver, to preserve the lingo).
In general, though, we think of display as something that assists in the path to conversion/acquisition and as something that is more akin to awareness driving channels. But when you consider how programatic is changing the way we deliver display and also when you look at more advanced formats of display ads (like rich media ads with lead-gen forms embedded in the format)
I feel it’s safe to say that the smarter you’re willing to make your advertising the bigger the role it will play in your acquisition strategy.“
2. What’s the ideal ratio to achieve between organic, referral, social media and advertising as acquisition channels?
“I am sure there is no such thing, meaning an ideal ratio in general. I am convinced there is an ideal ratio for certain industries, audiences and even briefs. That’s why we have media planners to tell us what that ratio is. But I also think there is virtue in iteration, meaning trying something out and then if it works, keeping at it or, if it fails, changing the ratio so it gives better results.”
3. What’s the most important thing in banner advertising, in your opinion? Are there any secrets that you would like to share with us?
“In theoretical terms, for me, the most important thing in banner advertising (which, BTW, is not really a category :) is the same as with any form of advertising: how do we make it work better? Banners are presented as the scourge of the world wide web. You will find zero consumers who say they love banners and also you will find few people who work with banners and who are willing to say that banners are awesome. That being said, most of our media investment goes towards display, which begs the question why do we do it if the general sentiment is it’s unpleasant.
So, in theory, I would like to be able to find a middle ground where banner ads are useful and non intrusive and deliver. And there is something to be said about this race to make each banner as personal as possible as if that was the solution to our “hatred” of them and whether we should be focused on something else.
But unfortunately, people smarter than me have tried to find the answer to that, and failed. I think currently, the best we can hope for is that there is a polite way to create, serve and display banners and when I say polite I mean a way which takes into consideration the spirit of the brand and of the consumer. As for secrets, I am not sure I have any.
I have empirically found that simplicity sells :)“
Thank you Bogdana!
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