Online+Ad+Design


 * Box Ad **

**bsurance: be sure - an insurance company**
Advertising is an integral part of letting consumers know about one's existence and products in the market. In recent times, the rise of internet has propelled the use of online marketing, advertisements and their various methods and is quite prevalent in today's society. There are a range of methods that are the staple to the online advertising world that include the omnipresent banner ads, the use of interactive box ads on different websites and even to the use of email ads. These days even the ever popular social networking tools such as Facebook and Twitter are used as marketing tools used to cater and market to the consumers.

**Banner Ad** __Background__

This assignment was heavily influenced by the insurance advertisements that are frequented on various television spots and websites. In implementing a strategy, I chose to come up with a fake client for my advertising campaign, aptly naming the entity bsurance. bsurance is a leading insurance company that supposedly provides insurance coverage and benefits for one's home, life and automobiles. The idea of bsurance was garnered from the real corporation esurance, as well as other insurance companies such as State Farm and All State. The common strategy that was utilized by most of these corporations in their online marketing and advertising was that they were very clear and concise in their message, i.e to sell insurance to the consumers, and that most of their ads were very simple and easy on the eye. For example, esurance's online box ads were written in simple font in white over a purple background, their slogan and provided information about the product they were trying to sell. This simple method of branding and marketing was the brainchild for bsurance's plain outlook and message.

__Methods of Online marketing__

The main techniques used for the advertising campaign for bsurance were the use of banner advertisements on various websites. According to Stoke, online marketing is used as a tool for branding awareness, create consumer demand and create a strong foothold in their online presence (Stoke, 205). With those ideas in mind, the main form of advertising used by the campaign for bsurance were the **box ad**, the **banner ad** and the **skyscraper ad**. The forms of advertising used had a consistent theme with the main colour being red and white. The logo of the corporation is utilized in all the ads since it is the recognizing factor of a company, thus the logo appears in all the ads. It is an important idea to use the logo to manipulate the minds of the consumers, therefore creating brand awareness. Also, the same font is used for the name of the company as well as the slogan "be sure" as fonts are sometimes associated with certain brands. Overall, special consideration was taken in making sure that all three advertising strategies followed a consistent pattern and imagery, thus making sure the consumers know that it was for the same company and was from the same campaign.

Consequently, keeping in mind that the imaginary insurance brokerage company bsurance is well established and already has a big consumer base, the marketing strategy was aimed at relevant websites. For example, these marketing campaigns would appear in only relevant websites, websites such as auto rentals, housing market websites and such. From Fig.1, we can see that the box ad for bsurance appears in a popular used car market website autotrader.ca. Since the advertisement is relevant (auto insurance) and appeals to this segment of consumers, it is viable to market on their website to attract applicable consumers. The same goes for Fig.2 where the banner ad is used on msn.ca, under their money and housing market section, thus catering to clients looking to purchase homes (home insurance). In Fig. 3 we can see the skyscraper ad is used on the popular video website, youtube.com. The viewer is watching videos regarding cars and this triggers the notion that the consumer may be interested in cars, thus advertising the car insurance.

**Skyscraper Ad**

__Payment Model__

According to Stoke, there are various payment models that advertisers can choose to pay to advertise online. For these specific ads for an insurance company which is well established, there are a few method of payments that can be used. The most appropriate models would be CPM (cost per thousand impression), where advertisers pay each time the ad appears on the publisher's page, the CPA (cost per acquisition) where advertisers pay only when the advertising has met its goal or the flat-rate or sponsorships where the sites sell the advertising space for a price of fixed rate each month (Stoke, 210).

Mock designs for appropriate website:

Fig. 1:

Fig. 2:

Fig. 3:


 * Reference:**

Stoke, Rob. //eMarketing: The Essential Guide to Online Marketing//. 2nd ed. South Africa: Quirk eMarketing (Pty) Ltd, 2008.