Banner Blindness

Jacob Nielson has come out this week and said what I think a lot of people suspect: That not only do people not LIKE banner ads, they don't even see them.
It's a pretty strong statement, and one that I happen to agree with. Even if I see a banner that has a cool image or slogan, chances are I won't remember what company it was associated with. What worries me about this statement is it's implications for us in social media, our friends at agencies, and those in the web design business. What exactly is making people "blind" to banner ads? In my opinion, I suspect it's the placement of the content as well as the messaging. People are just getting wise to where we are placing ads and are ignoring all content in those areas. General audiences may not be familiar with the terms "leaderboard" or "skyscraper ads" but they do know where they sit on a web page. Think about it, if you click to just about any site it's obvious almost immediately what content is advertising and what is the meat of the site.
The solution? Advertisers will have to change messaging and placement if they want to get back in the line of site of their audiences.

~ Caitlin