Brands take to skins for more impact, visibility

With the click-through-rates (CTRs) of traditional banner ads falling over time, brands and website owners are now increasingly looking out for ways to break the clutter and grab consumers’ attention. High-impact and high-visibility ‘branded skins’ are the best way to achieve the objective, say website owners and digital agencies.

Branded skins, a new format for advertising, branding and communication purposes, are essentially the margins on either side of a website. They provide a clutter-free advertising opportunity for a brand. Brands can use these skins as advertisements, which serve as a background visual.

Growth prospects of branded skins are significant, says Jagdeep Kochar, vice-president and business head of Mumbai-based marketing technology and services company EBS Worldwide.

“A typical skin media campaign budget ranges from Rs 10 lakh to Rs 15 lakh per day for a decent visibility ‘call-to-action’ campaign. As per our estimates, the growth rate for this kind of service offering is 40-50 per cent, growing year-on-year, with the key drivers being diversion of marketing spends to digital, which have increased from last year by about 15 per cent,” he adds.

Even small brands are going for these kind of services as the visibility is huge at a fraction of cost than above-the-line (ATL) campaigns, which are traditionally used for visibility. Currently, 2-3 per cent of EBS’ revenues come from customisation and skinning services. This will grow to about 10 per cent in the next 2-3 years, adds Kochar.

The advantage that skins have over conventional banner advertisements are that when a user scrolls down the page, the skin stays around the content, making it a clutter-free space to advertise.

If a brand takes the top banner and the skins (side panel), it controls the entire home page, giving the brand a 100 per cent SOV (share of voice – a brand’s percentage of media investment versus total product category) on that day.

“In the traditional banner ads, CTRs currently are at 0.5 per cent. Meaning, for every 1,000 people who saw the ad, only 5 per cent clicked on the banner. However, when it comes to branded skins, CTRs for such ad units are usually between 3 per cent and 4 per cent, creating impact for brands and monetising opportunities for website owners,” reasons Rajgopal Menon, director of Mumbai-based gaming company Games2Win.

When Games2Win ran branded skins for Samsung’s laptops, Idea 3G and Fox History channel on its website, on which 1.2 million Indians play casual flash games, their brands received CTRs of 4 per cent, 3 per cent and 3.5 per cent, respectively.

“Currently, about 25 per cent of our revenues come from skins, and our intention is to take it up a third by next year,” Menon adds.

“What advertisers focus on are CTRs. Since branded skins surround the main content on the website, it is eye-catching without being interfering. The concept of branding skins is definitely on the rise, with several international brands and domestic brands using this concept as part of their advertising mix. At Hungama, we have definitely seen an upward swing in the demand for skins. It's also a concept we have used to promote our in-house brands – Hungama.com and ArtistAloud.com,” says Carlton D’Silva, creative director of digital media company, Hungama Digital Media.