Woohoo! Good to see a report that says it's not just about the click on a banner ad that matters, but

I'll still take clicks on Prefix banners though!!!

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...Advertisers have long known that placing ads in front of people is effective even when they don't click them, which is why (until recently), they've shoveled $50-odd billion into newspaper and magazine ads every year, $50 billion into TV ads, and another $10 billion or so into radio and billboard ads.  The myth of the online display-ad click, however, has held fast, and advertisers have thus not really taken advantage of the messaging and branding benefits of them.

But that is finally changing!

Why?

 

In part because people aren't reading newspapers or listening to radio much anymore.  In part because advertisers and ad agencies are learning more about what display ads can do (disclosure: we sell them). 

 

And in part because new research is showing that display ads are, in fact, effective even when people don't click on them.

 

OPA and Comscore recently teamed up on a study of 80 big brand campaigns.  You can see their presentation here.  And here's what they told Citigroup's Mark Mahaney on a conference call for clients recently:

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1) The Click Isn't Everything - Currently, rich media CTRs average about 0.1%, with entertainment sites having the highest CTRs at 0.17% and Fin. Services having the lowest at 0.06%. Also, 80% of display ad clicks come from less than 20% of the Internet population, indicating that clicks are not necessarily as relevant to brand advertisers.

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http://www.businessinsider.com/henry-blodget-hey-online-display-ads-dont-suck-after-all-2009-7