How to Put Viral Marketing in Ad Banners

It seems almost as if the ad banner was created in tandem with the concept of viral marketing. Both emerged in the post-modern environment of over-stimulation, where it takes more and more to get and keep the interest of a potential customer. To this end, creators of ad banners made use of the idea that "invitational" strategies will produce concrete results by "getting click-through" that they feel illustrates participation by a target group. Viral marketing, then, on the conceptual side, holds that those involved enough to click through will experience an emotional involvement in the message. Using both of these together seems like a logical result of new strategy.

Instructions

1. Create a relevant "setting" or image background for your ad. In the classic ad banner structure, what you have to work with is a thin, long rectangle that will appear at the top of a user's screen. Lots of ad banners use outdoor backgrounds and employ jumpy characters that move from one side of the screen to the other.

2. Set up a "storyline." It may be helpful for yourself or the target audience to create a kind of "conceptual context" for your ad to operate in. Usually, you won't do this with side text, but with some visual props or cues on the sides of the ad banner.

3. Add a "personal" message. Using words like "You" and "Your" personalizes the ad banner and draws the target user in. Using the present or future tense is recommended. For viral marketing purposes, you can even make use of a kind of "I/You" structure, simulating a direct discussion through the banner space.

4. Be activity-based rather than product-based. An ad banner with viral marketing is not a description of a product or service; that kind of advertising is prevalent in other contexts. The ad banner is an invitation to follow a message by clicking into other pages.

5. Continue viral marketing strategies in your "destination." Good follow-through is important in an ad-banner; while clicking through to a dead or unappealing link succeeds in getting that initial interest, it doesn't lead anywhere. Stay with the user through the destination page and include further invitations to really ramp up activity through your ad banner.