Study Confirms Effectiveness of Interstitial Ads

By Beth Cox

A new study of interstitial advertising confirms the effectiveness of such ads despite an apparent lack of consumer acceptance.

The Interstitial Advertising Intelligence Report, released by Boulder, CO-based MarketAdviser, outlines consumer friendly how-to action plans for publishers and advertisers seeking to implement the power of interstitials and provides a proposed set of guidelines for defining standard interstitial units.

Interstitials are nearly twice as effective as banner ads for increasing ad recall and conveying the advertiser's main message, according to the study. Click rates are, on average, five times those of banner ads. However, consumers find interstitials twice as irritating as banners.

"As the power of television advertising merges with the Internet, and we witness declining ad banner performance, both advertisers and publishers are looking for better performing and greater revenue-generating alternatives," said MarketAdviser.com Market Strategist Keith Pieper.

"Advertisers and publishers find interstitials attractive for their stellar performance and revenue-generating abilities, but have been apprehensive to aggressively move forward, fearing consumer backlash towards this intrusive ad type," he said.

The report profiles a typical interstitial advertisement configuration and provides actionable guidelines for advertisers and publishers to overcome these obstacles, the company said.

Interstitial media spending will grow over 2,000 percent from 1998 to $1.4 billion in 2003, predicts the 62-page report. The report may be purchased at the site of MarketAdviser.com, which specializes in e-business intelligence services and products for Internet advertisers, marketers, publishers, merchants and technologists.