Advertising on the traditional banner ad does not work anymore. Back in early 90’s, curiosity and novelty pushed people into clicking and hopefully into buying but those days will soon be over; or are they? 

Back in the “good ol’ days” of the internet advertising the click-through rates were around 50%; no-a-days they are closer to 1%. What is even more interesting is that people who stay more on line click less on ads. It’s almost as they have built special glasses designed to ignore any kind of banner, pop-up or gimmick that splashes on their screen asking them to click and buy. 

So the question is – What is the next big thing advertisers will have to come up with to entice people click and buy over the web? The old banner ad doesn’t work anymore no matter how distracting is designed. So what’s next?

Parallel with the development of websites and banner ads, humans have evolved into ad-ignoring web surfers and developed selective vision going for the stuff that only matters to them; immediate and in concentrated form.

Unless the advertising world is willing to open a value based proposition, consumers will just ignore, block or mute any form of advertising. Unless you can grab their attention in 5 seconds or less you’ll be kicked to the curb faster than you can say “pop-up”. Just look at the Super-Bowl commercial and understand what I am talking about. Look at the YouTube videos and I guarantee you you’ll be bored in about half a second by non-interesting deals offered by shady “money-makers”.

Advertisers have to understand, again, that it’s always about the consumer; it’s always about:”What’s in it for ME?”

Enter behavioral marketing. Consumers want to buy when they are ready to buy. The rest of the time they want to be left alone and not bothered with “in your face”, pushy banners or pop-ups. Unless that’s something in it for them, unless you offer some kind of incentive – don’t even bother talking design with your creative team. Instead grab your marketing director and simply ask: “What can we give away so we can engage the consumer?”

Maybe that’s where the solution might be – treat web surfers as advertising partners and gear them towards becoming willing participants in this marketer-consumer game.

If all advertising companies would share some of their profits with the consumers who are willing to promote on their behalf, both parties would have something to gain.

I am waiting for these programs to be available on line and I’ll signup as soon as some creative mind comes up with the right incentive in order for me to get a piece of the bounty. Until then – I’ll continue to ignore “Obama wants you to go back to school, Shoot the duck cartoon, Cash for clunkers, etc.” silly ads like that.

 Claudiu Geanta is a successful online business owner and founder of Design by Satori Inc. & ProIncome Marketing, LLC. He teaches businesses how to build an optimum online presence. He is also and accomplished web designer and photographer. You can follow him on twitter.

Read more from this author