How to waste a minute of your life – try closing a pop-up ad.

The UK’s online new media bulletin, published by Brand Republic, has two headlines within a few lines if each other.

“Vast majority of pop-up click-throughs are a mistake” and “Consumers more responsive as click-throughs hit 6.9%”

Some research done by the quaint sounding named company Bunnyfoot Universality found that click-throughs on pop-ups are accidental and it is taking users longer to close these ads because of 'hidden' close buttons. They found that nearly nine out of 10 click-throughs on one leading brand's pop-up ad were made by mistake because the close button was difficult to find. The average time taken for people to close the ads was 59 seconds. Just imagine how well disposed you are to a brand that has just wasted a minute of your life.

They concluded that the effect of pop-ups on brands was overwhelmingly negative.

The next headline then tells how the average click-through rates for email advertising in the UK grew from 6.3% in Q1 2003 compared with 6.9% by Q2. (Source: DoubleClick).

My experience of running a testing panel that evaluates web sites and web advertising confirms that older people are unimpressed (not exactly how they would express their feelings) by pop-up ads.

Far too little research is done in measuring the real benefit of pop-ups and virtually none with an older audience. Dick Stroud www.20plus30.com