The World’s First Talking Banner

That’s the world’s first banner ad. The date was 27th October 1994 and the first publisher was HotWired (Wired Magazine’s website). It garnered a click through rate of 44%.

To publish an ad in those days, an advertiser just gave the publisher an image and a link. “Targeting” meant choosing the right websites.

Today, advertisers can specify the audience and behaviour, test headlines, key images, layouts and colours, and retarget at set intervals. And yet, average CTRs remain stagnant at an underwhelming 0.1%-0.2%.

It seems in its current form, adtech has hit the law of diminishing returns. Finding the right audience, surely, is no longer the problem that needs solving. 

The AT&T “You Will” banner ad would not look out of place today!

What needs solving is the customer experience. In 23 years, the experience has not evolved. The AT&T “You Will” banner ad would not look out of place today! So, we’re proposing a solution.

We’ve just launched the world’s first talking banner. An AI chatbot powered banner that can have conversations with the audience. And the AI can choose whether the best course of action is to lead the user to a website, to have deeper conversations about the product or to collect a lead that a human can connect with later. All of this engagement happens on a publisher’s website ensuring advertisers get the maximum bang for the buck.

Instead of looking for advertising space, advertisers should be looking at starting conversations where it matters. Ad targeting technology can bring the right person to the ad, just say “hello” to start.

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We’ll be sharing case studies from clients that are rolling out these ads. Look out for them soon.

Digital News Asia was the first publisher to run the talking banner! Huge thanks to Karamjit. If you don't already read them, you should here https://www.digitalnewsasia.com

In 2016, digital advertising expenditure matched the GDP of Finland (around $200B), so it’s crucial that efficacy is addressed.

In our opinion, to qualify as the world’s first talking banner, the banner should comply with IAB standards and must be compatible with major DSPs and Ad Exchanges, which we are.

In 2016, IBM Watson powered a few “ads” on The Weather Channel. We don’t feel those qualify because they only ran on properties IBM owned. They would have had much more freedom on how to code and deploy those banners. Sorry IBM, we still love you! :)

CTR report by DoubleClick.

Worlds First Banner Ad has it’s own dedicated fan site, click here. https://thefirstbannerad.com/

Cover art a homage to Max Headroom - read a nice piece from The Verge about how we pictured AI infiltrating media in the 80s. https://www.theverge.com/2015/4/2/8285139/max-headroom-oral-history-80s-cyberpunk-interview