Declaring its “money back guarantee” on interactive advertising a success,
Forbes.com is launching an ad campaign to proclaim the positive branding
results achieved by campaigns on its site.
Forbes.com attracted industry attention when it instituted the guarantee
last fall, in an effort to lure advertisers to the site and increase the
industry’s
emphasis on brand metrics over click-throughs. The company
required advertisers to spend at least $100,000, so ads would run often
enough to have an impact. Advertisers like AT&T, Samsung, Acura, LG
Electronics and BearingPoint took the bait.
Through research with DynamicLogic, the conduct of which was a stipulation
of the guarantee, Forbes.com found that message association was boosted 28
percent by the Web ads, purchase consideration rose 14 percent, aided
awareness climbed 11 percent, and brand favorability got a 6 percent boost.
“This underscores our strong belief in the basic viability of Web
advertising in general, and on Forbes.com specifically, to build brands,”
said Jim Spanfeller, president and CEO of Forbes.com.
Forbes has invested a great deal of effort into attracting advertisers for
its Web property. Besides the “Brand Increase Guarantee,” Forbes.com has
bankrolled two major studies aimed at proving the Web is a good place to
reach C-level executives.
The online advertising industry in general has placed significant emphasis
on conducting research, and trumpeting the results of that research, in an
effort to win converts of traditional media buyers and planners. The
Interactive Advertising Bureau is currently putting on a seven-city road
show, during which it is showing off the cross media optimization studies
it’s been conducting with major advertisers. The Online Publishers’
Association, for its part, has been focused on promoting the Internet’s
ability to reach the at-work audience.
The ad promoting the Forbes.com program will appear in the April 14 issue of
Advertising Age, the May issue of MEDIA Magazine, and the May
14 issue of Forbes. Company officials said they were looking into employing online advertising as the effort continued.
