Agencies: do you want to learn how to innovate more in your online campaign executions? Here's a guide to ditching the interruption model to improve your creative delivery.

Traditional advertising agencies have had more than a decade to embrace the internet and are still mostly falling short. Their insistence on trying to adapt their outdated interruption advertising techniques to this interactive medium has led to billions of pounds being wasted on banner ads, pop-ups, pop-unders and, of course, possibly the most irritating weapon in the advertising agencies' armoury -- the eyeblaster format.

At best, these interruption techniques go largely ignored by internet users, and at worst become a major aggravation. With the amount of research and thinking that goes into the emotional impact of the creative behind an advertising campaign, it seems odd that the psychology behind annoying a consumer with something as crass as an eyeblaster format apparently goes unchallenged. Common sense would tell you that forcing someone to shut down an interruptive advertisement -- or worse, unintentionally clicking through -- goes beyond a poor brand experience and ventures into the realm of negative reinforcement.

A traditional advertising campaign is easily identified by the budget breakdown. A standard formula is 10 per cent of the campaign budget on 'creative' and the remaining 90 per cent on buying space where the target market might look at it. Historically, traditional agencies have made the bulk of their revenue from media buying and, unable to shake a century of reliance on this cash cow, it shapes their thinking from the moment the client brief hits the desk. Even a forward-thinking digital phenomenon such as the online 'viral campaign' has been reworked into the traditional model, becoming the antithesis of its actual description. It's now widely considered as a TV ad on the internet supported by 'seeding' with a massive media buy. 

As traditional agencies have spent the past decade applying their heavy-handed advertising techniques to the internet and largely ignoring its interactivity, some digital content producers have finally stepped in to fill the void.

These production-led interactive specialists have embraced the planning and strategy techniques employed by traditional agencies and applied it to the world of interactive entertainment, leading to the advent of the 'digital engagement agency'. This new hybrid can legitimately be considered the progeny of both the advertising and entertainment industries. The digital engagement agency sees no real difference in the process of planning and creating successful content for either industry, and so is just as comfortable producing an interactive advertising campaign as it is crafting interactive entertainment for large broadcasters or e-learning.

These may seem initially to be vastly different disciplines but they are in fact underpinned by the same ideas:

• Understand the audience/consumer;
• Engage with the audience/consumer; and
• Educate the audience/consumer

Applying these to produce engaging digital content has created documented successes including:

• An advertising campaign for Bowman's Poker that increased a client's sales by 127 per cent month on month.
• A viral campaign for Stan James that engaged with more than 60 million consumers.
• An educational tool for the School Food Trust that explained the benefits of healthy eating to over 25 million people across in excess of 300 websites in one year.

These were three completely different executions for three completely different purposes. The only constant is total dedication to the 'principles of digital engagement' -- including the most contentious idea of reduced media spend. In these productions there was a traditional media buying spend of £0 (nil).

In today's digital age, traditional advertising models at best cannot deliver all they promise and at worst are damaging brand reputation. At Kerb, we have proved that digital engagement delivers far greater ROI and consumer loyalty, and is the most sustainable model for successful online advertising. As social networking grows, people will become increasingly blind to interruptive advertising formats and will engage with content that entertains, informs and educates them. These interactive experiences enhance their time spent online and give them a real reason to share brand-driven content with their friends and communities. Welcome to the world of digital engagement.

Jim McNiven is managing director, Kerb.