Complement the Splash, Reinforce the Ad

Developers evaluating the latest tools for adding flashy advertising and multimedia capabilities to their Web sites may want to consider this sobering statistic: About 20 percent of users surf without graphics. That means you may want to complement an ad campaign that incorporates splashy banners with text that communicates your message.

A recent study made by Jumbo ( http://www.jumbo.com ), a popular Web shareware site, indicates that about 20 percent of on-line users visited jumbo.com with the graphics capabilities of their Web-browser programs disabled. Jumbo officials reckon the 20 perc ent figure is conservative, because many visitors to its site are repeat customers who know that jumbo.com typically eschews fancy graphics. However, the 20 percent figure was high enough that Jumbo, which accepts advertising, decided to start charging its advertisers half price for each ad banner page accessed by users with their graphics turned off. The company has also made a program called GraphicTrak available at no cost. It tracks the number of no-graphics visitors to your site.

"If you look at a banner with the graphics on versus off, they just aren't the same," says Will Margiloff, national sales manager at Jumbo. Margiloff says the company decided to lower its rates for nongraphical hits because "we're already grateful to our Web advertisers, and we want them to keep advertising."

Margiloff says Web designers should be sure to remember that a fair percentage of users will visit a site with their graphics disabled, especially if they happen to have low-b andwidth connections. "Color banners are great, but if someone goes in with the graphics off, the message underneath the banner has to be just as compelling."