Traditional media is becoming extremely effective in generating web-driven retail sales. More so than online advertising. 
     The number of consumers who click on any online ad at all has declined 300 percent over the past five years—from 86 percent in 1995 to 27 percent in 1999. On the other hand, 29 percent have gone to a web site after seeing an ad in a newspaper, 39 percent have visited a site after seeing an ad in a magazine, and 28 percent have gone to a web site based on TV advertising. 
   All of these numbers have doubled in the past year. And the simple reason for that is because advertisers are now starting to use them. Two years ago, you would rarely find a dot.com address in a newspaper or a magazine or a TV ad.
    In terms of the TV ads one of the things that they’re not doing--and I’d say this is a wakeup call for the TV sales industry--is they’re not voicing over the dot.com, like you do with an 800 number. If you don’t it goes by so quickly that I can’t write it down. But if you voice over it I can hear it and remember it better. So you want to do both.

     Content and content sponsorship on portals are almost twice as effective as poor little banner ads. Forty-seven percent of web users visited new web sites as a result of content on a portal versus 26 percent from a banner ad.
    The key to success is strategic placement. You want to make sure that your product has an affinity with the site and the content you’re sponsoring. And you want to make sure that the content is not self-serving.

      Sixty-four percent will not only ignore but get angry at self-serving content. Originally the advertisers were putting content on their own site, which people actually like to an extent. But when it gets to be self-serving, then you’re driving customers away. Because on the internet you’ve got a more educated, sophisticated population, and they can see through that in a second.
     What they’re looking for is helpful content, not content that brags about the wonders of your product. They’re not going to sit through a infomercial. The content should have a real perceived value for me. 
     I should learn something because I’m going online to learn. I’m going online to solve a problem. I’m not there to hear about your technological breakthrough. I don’t care about that. When I go online I’m going online to solve a problem.
    And so what many advertisers are now doing, very wisely so, is they have shifted from an in-house model of content development to an independent model where they’re doing content sponsorship on third-party sites as opposed to their own, because they have a built-in audience there—for example on a women’s site or a financial site, or on sub-sections of sites like AOL, where there are different content areas. 
   Advertisers have to remember: I’m going there to solve a problem, I’m looking for information, and then I will use the hyperlinks to get to your site to find out more details about your product in the context of my problem.

    I view the internet as the bull’s eye in the media mix. And how does that work? 
     Okay, you start with TV. You use TV to create awareness, where you hope that the consumer will walk away and say, "Oh! I never heard of that before." And then you use your magazine advertising to supply additional information. In this case, the consumer can walk away and say "Gee, I didn’t know that." So in the magazine ad I’m getting additional information. 
    As for the newspaper and radio—well, in the old days they were used to drive retail traffic, where you’d see or hear something and say "I think I’ll check that out and see it for myself." But now the internet can virtually close the sale, either online or at retail by acting as a surrogate salesperson. 
   We’ve never seen anything like this in the history of advertising, where an advertising medium can virtually close the sale. In the case of high-ticket products—well, I think of e-commerce as the gold dust, while the real mother lode is web-driven retail sales. While consumers may not buy online, this is where 81 percent make up their minds.
    What I mean by that is instead of driving from store to store, now they are clicking from site to site. Nineteen percent of internet users now say they’re doing less retail comparison shopping. That’s up from 11 percent a year ago.

  Well, the first thing that has to happen is it has to exist before I can tell you what people think about it. I will say that as of 1999 31 percent of internet users say they would be willing to pay $35 a month for broadband or high-speed access.

     Absolutely. But in any case, I believe the internet is not an impulse-purchase medium for the most part. It’s about planned purchases. So the people who are likely to click on that sweater are probably going to be a niche market no matter what. Because I’m trying to get informed. And I think the main value of the internet from a consumer viewpoint is that it moves the consumers from the passenger’s seat to the driver’s seat.
    And instead of worrying about all the bells and whistles what the advertisers and manufacturers have to do is make sure they are responding to the new consumer mindset.
     Because consumers are in control. We are entering a decade of consumer empowerment. The leaders in this new economy will be those who go out of their way to get an in-depth understanding of consumer psychology and put technology as a really distant second. The key to success is psychology, not technology.

     Certainly the early users in 1995 were all hepped up about the technology. I mean, they would go to any web site in the world just to see a web site that could do something cool. But now what is happening in terms of web sites is they’re really dumbing down the technology, because the technology often interferes with the delivery.

   Eight-three percent of users say that they leave web sites out of frustration. The primary frustration is slow downloading—93 percent of those 83 percent leave because of slow downloading.

   Well, 73 percent—again, of the original 83 percent who leave out of frustration—say they just couldn’t find information they wanted. Sixty-eight percent were frustrated by too many clicks to get to the information. Fifty-six percent said the content was boring. Fifty-four percent said they got lost. Thirty-eight percent said the site wasn’t interactive. And 37 percent of those who left in frustration said they left because they were going to need to use a plug-in.

   That’s a significant number, over one-third. Ultimately web sites are going to have to make these things more transparent.

   Well, rich media does improve banner ad performance. But in general rich media has to be used judiciously. In terms of banner ads, it can be a great idea, but you have to ask yourself: is that your best idea? 
    Instead of focusing on rich media, let’s focus on banner ads that are motivating because they have a compelling offer. Like "free"—offer me something free, that’s compelling. 
    Rich media isn’t always a good thing. In fact in focus groups consumers say they quickly get away from rich media ads them because they can literally get dizzy looking at them. Having things moving and blinking next to text can be jarring.