Marketo-DG2DA

PART I: WHAT IS DIGITAL ADVERTISING AND WHY IS IT IMPORTANT?
HOW HAS DIGITAL ADVERTISING EVOLVED?
Digital advertising has evolved considerably since we saw the first banner ad in 1994. Now we see
advertising everywhere—on websites across the internet, on mobile devices, on smart watches, and
on other items that we wear. We see them on social media, and we can now even see connected
billboards that change based on traffic conditions.
Just think about how quickly digital
advertising has progressed! Do you
remember surfing the web with
Netscape? Do you remember how
slowly the pages loaded? Do you
remember how much slower the
pages loaded when there was a
banner ad to display?
A Brief History of
Digital Ads
In 1994, the banner ad took over the
web. According to Wired Magazine,
the company HotWired launched
banner ads from 14 companies.
Each banner ad was 468 pixels wide
by 60 pixels deep. And legend has it
that the very first one of these ads
was from AT&T. The ad asked, “Have
you ever clicked your mouse right
HERE? You will”. And they were right.
From there we saw the first ad server
NetGravity in 1996, the first Google
AdWord in 2002, the first YouTube
ad in 2005, and the first Facebook
ad in 2007.
The Rapid Evolution
of Digital Ads
We may joke and reminisce about
the early days of Netscape and
banner ads, but digital advertising has
experienced a rapid transformation in
the past two decades. Why? Well,
people love content and they love to
consume it at a rapid pace.
Consider how you consume content.
TV is no longer the primary screen
that you or your audience uses to
consume media—now you spend
almost six hours online vs. four and a
half hours in front of the TV. You are
constantly moving from screen to
screen, media to media. You click on
one BuzzFeed article and quickly
click on other articles on the page
that interest you.
So how have ads evolved alongside
today’s buyers’ insatiable appetite for
online content? Let’s take a look at a
few advancements:
First Banner Ad: AT&T