Not very long ago I’ve asked myself whether text can grab attention by itself, and I’ve gave you an example. Now, that example still contains some visuals. Not many, but it does.

The following banner is entirely based on typefaces (surely, you might argue that the subtle gradient background is an image after all):

Replay

Anyway, after a long and interesting discussion on LinkedIn on this subject, I came to the conclusion that text and visuals are mere tools and what matters the most is the concept behind the ad.

Creative people are a special kind of animal. Not that they’re not human. They are. But they are very different. So we expect them to behave differently, dress differently, think differently and have special – sometimes awkward – preferences.

The guys from JumpeyeComponents look to get inside the creatives’ heads by asking a simple question:

Which are the most important 10 things you can’t live without?

Creatives are invited to answer this question by commenting on this blog post.

So if you’re a creative, help these guys out by naming some of the things you love and couldn’t live without, like your Mac macaroni macaw machine mackintosh mackerel… you get the idea.

Seth Godin on banner ads:

It turns out that this [building brand awareness] is an overlooked benefit of banner ads. Banner ads are fairly worthless in terms of generating clickthroughs… you have to trick too much and manipulate too much to get clicks worth much of anything. But, if you build ads with no intent of clicks, no hope for clicks… then you can focus on ads that drill your name or picture or phrase into my head. 100 impressions and you’re almost famous.

Read the whole blog post here.

You probably already know that BannerSnack and banners created with BannerSnack work only with Flash Player 9 or 10. This compatibility problem made some of our members worry about their banners not being seen by the Internet users who have older flash players installed. Ad networks that don’t accept ActionScript 3 banners fear the very same problems.

Your concerns are fully justified. Their concerns are fully justified. So this must be of our concern too.

Let’s see what the surveys say about the Flash Player versions penetration:

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We have written a lot about the IAB and its practical and time-saving standards. And we can hardly say we exhausted the subject.

A couple of days ago, IAB launched a new set of best practices for social advertising.

IAB defines a social ad as “an online ad that incorporates user interactions that the consumer has agreed to display and be shared. The resulting ad displays these interactions along with the user’s persona (picture and/or name) within the ad content.”

In other words, social ads can use user profile data, such as name, photo, age, preferences, connections etc. in the ad unit itself. Moreover, the social advertising can use profile data for targeting ads and may enable users to interact within the ad itself or in the landing page.

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There are a lot of customers asking for tips on how to make their BannerSnack banner ads smaller in file size (Exported SWF only). But firstly, before throwing some advanced tips, we need to understand how BannerSnack banners are built and how their file size is actually build-up.

1. Base engine

An empty banner will always include the main BannerSnack engine. The one that controls the slides, the objects and the animations.
This can’t be avoided (6KB charge)

2. FlashEff engine

When you add an effect (Build In/Build Out/Filter), BannerSnack will automatically include the FlashEff base engine (optimized for BannerSnack), which weights 16 KB. It sounds a lot, but it is an unbreakable piece of code that needs to be there for each of those cool effects to take place. This base engine is optimized byte by byte and includes over 10,000 lines of code that will make your effects become eye-catching. FlashEff base engine will be included ONLY ONCE per banner and ONLY if you have at least an effect within the banner.
This is the piece of resistance, the most impressive part of BannerSnack banner ads. To avoid using the FlashEff effects you have to make sure that you’re NOT using any effects/transitions at all. (save about 16KB) – NOT RECOMMENDED

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