Whilst perusing GreenBiz.com, I came across a 728×90 banner ad for Michigan, Economic Development Corporation.

It’s actually an expandable, rich media ad…which is alright. Now, I don’t really want to go into it too much, but the tagline below the company name is so small, nobody in the world can see it. It talks about a battery and charging ahead…see below.

Original:

Is this Jeff Daniels on the ad?

Expanded:

Above ad expanded; video auto-plays.

Now once it’s expanded, you get the message. By why should I go over it in the first place, why bother? Maybe they are banking on the fact that it’s at the top of the page and your mouse cursor, at one point or another seemingly will past over this 65,520 square pixel plot of screen.

Here is the landing page involved. Frankly, I don’t really care about all that. What I do wonder – is why Jeff Daniels is on the ad? Does Jeff Daniels have a high click-through rate (CTR)? I mean, it’s really the only reason I clicked it. I don’t see Jeff on the expandable ad and I don’t see him on the landing page.

Jeff D., why you there?  Is it supposed to be Joe Biden?

Domtar Paper Products

I saw this Domtar EarthChoice® ad (shown on the right) the other day on a green news website.  While I think it’s a quality product and respect the promotion, I am not sure the promotion is taking full advantage of the medium and I feel improvements could be made to increase ROI.

160x600 Green Internet Banner Ad

I’ve been in Internet marketing and advertising for some time now, so ads tend to grab my attention, but not necessarily for their color scheme or imagery.  In this case, the green does pop off the page and the font size of “green” drew my attention along with the tagline “The new transparent.”  But the top graphic is pretty stock and generic.  The main issue I have with this 160×600 is that the actual product is ambiguous.  Why is green the new transparent?  In an 8 size font I see that the product is “high quality paper with a conscience.”  Why should I have to squint to figure out you sell paper?

The destination page of the ad is also a problem – as it takes me to the homepage on the website…so I land in the middle of nowhere — still a little confused.  Please take me directly to the Domtar EarthChoice® page.  I clicked the ad because I am an environmentally conscious paper buyer (if I noticed the bottom of the ad), so take me to the page for your environmentally conscious product.

Certainly the ad is properly targeted, on a green news site with a business end executive readership.  However, I cannot imagine this ad having a great click-through rate, given the ambiguity of the message…maybe a .03%.  Just a guess – and I could very well be wrong!

While this particular online campaign could use some improvement, keep it up Domtar with a quality, environmentally friendly paper product.