Rumours of the standard ad unit’s imminent demise are greatly exaggerated

Dominic Finney, director at digital consultancy FaR, says standard ad units remain the bedrock of the majority of digital advertising campaigns – and there is now a strong argument to say that spend in these standard units is set to grow…

Up until very recently the market’s view of standard ad units has been negative at times, with a number of industry figures citing Doubleclick display statistics, which stated that only 16% of the online universe ever responded to display ads in any given month that they had viewed.

This, coupled with low industry average click rates, meant that people were debating the effectiveness of these ad units. Effectively pointing out that standard ad units were more akin to wallpaper, rather than dynamic creative spaces through which to actively engage online consumers. With the view being that standard ad units would become less prevalent and could even be replaced by more integrated ad units.

In fact, rather the opposite point appears to be occurring, as standard units remain the bedrock of the majority of digital advertising campaigns. And there is now a strong argument to say that spend in these standard units is set to grow. The two core reasons, beyond simply the ubiquity of these formats, is the ad units themselves have evolved and, that the changing dynamics of the market will require ad units that are standardised and ubiquitous.

This evolution has come about because, rather than the creation of new ad formats and placements, creative companies and media owners have simply re-invented the content and apps that you can place within standard ad units.

This, (on the face of it) seemingly simply solution, has enabled advertisers to achieve the best of both worlds through ad placements that deliver credible reach and targeting, coupled with formats that deliver increased levels of creativity and flexibility within the ad unit, which therefore enables brands to improve the way they communicate online.

A good example of this is the Project Devil format, which is effectively a doubleskyscaper ad unit, but with the key difference that the advertiser has the flexibility to select the content and apps they place in the ad unit.

Project Devil is therefore a creative space that allows advertisers to place and combine; content, dynamic feeds, apps and video, that can really engage the audience. What makes the ad unit so smart is that it allows advertisers greater flexibility to place the brand content they require into the unit and by splitting the unit down into sections, the advertisers can combine key elements of brand content. This enables advertisers to develop a richer, more relevant and ultimately engaging communication with their target audience.

This type of ad unit is part of a trend among the major digital players with MSN having released their Filmstrip ad format that allows multiple communications within the ad unit. And advertisers are now directing greater spend into these units as they enable an advertiser to deliver a much more effective and engaging brand experience within tried and trusted ad units and media owner environments.

They also address the market demand to deliver more content rich and dynamics ad units that enable advertisers to deliver effective communications within digital.

From a market wide perspective, the reason why standard ad units are set to continue their growth is that the market is set to become more, rather than less, commoditised. And therefore in a market driven by commoditised, scale based buying, there is a fundamental need for ad units that can be bought and sold against the majority of media owner site.

The drivers of this continued commoditisation is the role of automated buying. The rise of ad exchanges and the role out of agency trading desks will simply fuel the demands for more standardised ad formats, whilst more dynamic formats within standard ad units will support the need for greater creativity.

And therefore the smart solution is to leverage the emerging creativity within standard ad units to deliver smarter, more effective brand campaigns.

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