For those who have been following me of late on Twitter, you will know I have been wrestling for some time on the measuring of online advertising – especially heightened in relevance due to recession and demands for greater accountability. Steeped within a false notion of “display advertising is dying”, argued by the misinformed who are quoting declining click-thru rates, and materialized through falling CPMs of display media – which will undoubtedly kill off some ad networks over the coming months. We have shown that any intelligence around online advertising over the last ten years plus has been reduced by some to ‘kiss-me-quick’ instant ideologies propagated by code-junkies and barrow-boy buyers.

Clicks originally seemed to afford us an innate intelligence into the future of media, but that was yesterday – and that was all we had. To limit advertising to such simple gratification is to grossly miss the systematic behaviour that results in perception changes and heightening desire afforded by greater stimulation of senses – the nature of true engagement.

Youth take note, you are out of touch with reality seen within a bigger holistic media picture formed through the fires over time, yet we welcome your continued challenge of the status quo. Grandparents your esteemed intellect and knowledge is admirable, yet under question as your reasoning for resistance and reluctance to ask why is being superseded by a tsunami of consumer change that will leave many swept away.

Yet the desire of all of us on both sides of the media fence is to hone our craft and perfect our art form; something we once termed ‘commercial art’ as it was not merely aesthetics alone, but with a duty to inform and educate – and as such had a price-tag of value. It is this pursuit which we try to measure in some kind of simple an tangible way – and offer touch points of an indication of intent – in a manner that is transparent, scalable and portable across all media.

Between the no-mans-land of GRPs and laborious but insightful web funneling there may well be an indication of exposure that seeks to satisfy just that. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you “Dwell” – a measurement for modern media.

“Online Display: The demise of Click, the rise of Dwell“ is a study into measuring the intrinsic value of online display media and investigation to the nature of advertising and consumer engagement in general. The document is based around a calculated argument for shifting away from historic response-based metrics into a more natural measurement of consumer stimulation.

Online Display: The demise of Click, the rise of Dwell 12.8MB .zip file

  • Word PDF – The paper submitted to Bournemouth University exploring the current practice of advertising measurement
  • Word PDF – Pre-Analysis document used for courting the press to the highlights of the findings to be subsequently published.
  • PowerPoint PDF – The presentation shown at a variety of seminars globally, used to illustrate measuring online display

Download, digest and dispute. I welcome the debate.
And I hope you too will come to Dwell in the land of opportunity.

Dean Donaldson August, 2009.