Case Study: Map Banners
Role: Creative Director
Role: Creative Director
As banners go, the FriendFinder Map Banner is a stand out, both in terms of click-through prowess and in its ability to convert web traffic to paying site members. It has become the dominant banner in the online dating space.
Prior to the map banner, the most effective ad unit was the simple member profile thumbnail stack. This banner continues to be a strong performer, but click-through has continually dropped over the last few years. It was clear a new type of member display banner was needed.
While the standard member profile banner features "geo-location" it lacks visual impact. We decided to give the new banner graphical punch, as well as imply member localization, by overlaying member images on a map. This was achieved by using the Google map API. The results where amazing. We saw up to a 300% increase in click-through over standard member image banners.
The Map Banner became so popular that it was quickly deployed across FriendFinders advertising networks promoting multiple sites. As banner impressions approached over 100 Million views per day, we quickly became Googles's top user of maps. In order to improve banner load speed, we decided to engineer our own map API.
Our competitors soon began using the map design. They say imitation is the highest form of flattery...
Our competitors soon began using the map design. They say imitation is the highest form of flattery...
