THE ULTIMATE GUIDE TO AGILE MARKETING IN DISPLAY ADS Flite Inc. Copyright 2013 by Flite Inc. Smashwords Edition THE ULTIMATE GUIDE TO AGILE MARKETING IN DISPLAY ADS Table of Contents Chapter 1: Why Adopt Agile Marketing? - Benefits Of Agile Marketing Chapter 2: What Are The Key Concepts In Agile Marketing? - Prepare To Act Quickly - Keep A Pulse On Trends - Build Nimble Teams - Make Updates In Real-time - Iterate In Short Cycles Chapter 3: How Agile Is Too Agile? Chapter 4: How Do You Overcome “Banner Blindness” With Agile Marketing? - Causes Of Banner Blindness - What Makes A Good Display Ad? Chapter 5: What Are Examples Of Agile Marketing In Action? - When Preparation Meets Opportunity: How To Stay Agile During Unexpected News - How To Test Ideas To Optimize Display Ads Conclusion Agile marketing is about taking small steps, minimizing risk, and failing fast—all in an effort to figure out what works as efficiently as possible. As a methodology, it focuses on an iterative approach to planning and executing, learning quickly, and having a bias towards action. Agile marketing means listening to what your customer wants, programming your ads to reflect relevant topics, updating, and measuring. So why does agile marketing matter in display advertising? Because display is growing and marketers can’t afford to rely on static text and image ads to meet ROI objectives. Forrester Research predicts that interactive display media in the U.S. will double between 2012 and 2017 to become a $28 billion industry, one that is ripe to adopt the flexibility and real-time nature that marketers have grown accustomed to with their social media. With agile marketing in display ads, brands can update their ads in real-time with the same ease that they update their Facebook pages and Twitter feeds. This incremental approach allows marketers to create relevant, timely marketing that matches the pace of the evolving digital landscape. Popular forms of online media—social, search, display—continue to unfold at a lightning pace. Agile marketing is especially salient in display advertising due to the broad reach, multitude of formats, and endless variations in content type. In this guide, we’ll examine the who, how, and why of agile marketing, and demonstrate the enormous potential of adopting an agile approach to display ad development. Let’s dive in. [...]... reap the benefits of agile marketing The point of Agile Marketing isn’t just to get more done, it’s to get the right things done so that we can hit our goals and ultimately generate more business.” Jim Ewel agilemarketing.net CHAPTER 4: HOW DO YOU OVERCOME “BANNER BLINDNESS” WITH AGILE MARKETING? Agile marketing gives marketers the flexibility to take advantage of new techniques and tools as they... of the buttons Visitors didn’t want to interrupt their browsing experience by clicking on a URL that would lead them to a new page, so they avoided interacting with the ad altogether So Wikia started iterating They changed the click behavior to mouse-over, and updated the language in the ad from “Choose your favorite team” to “Hover on your favorite team.” Wikia’s iterations paid off big time, boosting... only doubling in that time Consider how display marketers who use the web’s best technologies and agile mindsets can overcome these common complaints: CUSTOMERS SAY: • Cause of Banner Blindness • Agile Marketing Solution • These ads don’t appeal to me They’re not fresh and interesting like the content on the website they run on • Cloud-based ad services allow ads to easily be updated with emerging content,... audience targeting But be careful not to invade user privacy; there’s a fine line between being surprisingly relevant and creepy Interactivity Good ads are as interactive as the web itself, allowing the user to explore the creative and learn about the product Use smartlyplanned navigation to showcase the kinds of content you might have otherwise put on a landing page or other larger ad format, then optimize... Networks Targeting Frequency CONCLUSION Today’s digital landscape requires marketers to keep up with quickly changing trends and memes To engage audiences, marketers must learn to experiment and evolve, or risk being left behind Agile marketing provides the opportunity to take small steps that minimize the risk of innovation In this guide, we examined the who, how and why of agile marketing, and demonstrated... boosting the interaction rate 9fold and more than doubling the click-through rate, transforming the ad into a smashing success Read the full case study and experience the ad here Wikia.com is a Flite customer, making it easy for the company to create interactive display ads that can be optimized in real-time all in one platform See more information about Flite’s SaaS platform here ITERATE IN SHORT CYCLES The. .. the onset of new initiatives, it’s okay to resist the fail-fast mentality in order to encourage creativity Execution should wait until the optimal strategy becomes apparent, but that won’t happen until your team has leeway to think freely and creatively When brainstorming, there are no bad ideas But when acting, there certainly are Refining, Not Defining Agile s iterative approach is great for refining... campaign during the NCAA basketball tournament The ad allowed users to skin the Wikia basketball site with images of their favorite of the final four teams during March Madness by clicking on the ad But when Wikia first launched the ad, interactions were far below expectations Wikia quickly realized that the ad creative didn’t clearly indicate that the skin of the site would only change if the user clicked... like these: • P&G: In the final laps of a Daytona 500 race in spring 2012, an accident caused 200 gallons of jet fuel to spill onto the raceway When truckloads of Tide detergent were used to clean up the mess, P&G spotted an opportunity, and launched ads featuring the popular story Read Article ⊲ • Charles Schwab: When the investment market was shaken up after the US credit rating was downgraded in 2011,... reflect the memes and news of the day Here are four critical aspects of successful display ads that can be maximized using an agile marketing approach Relevance Audiences are more likely to enjoy getting ads that feel relevant to them In the agile marketing framework display ads can be quickly updated with content and messaging that are meaningful to your audience For an uplift in performance, use personalized . THE ULTIMATE GUIDE TO AGILE MARKETING IN DISPLAY ADS Flite Inc. Copyright 2013 by Flite Inc. Smashwords Edition THE ULTIMATE GUIDE TO AGILE MARKETING IN DISPLAY ADS Table. one of the buttons. Visitors didn’t want to interrupt their browsing experience by clicking on a URL that would lead them to a new page, so they avoided interacting with the ad altogether. So. When brainstorming, there are no bad ideas. But when acting, there certainly are. Refining, Not Defining Agile s iterative approach is great for refining a concept, but it isn’t an excuse to fumble