Blog Project - Week Five

Websites

Ciara Smith

DeVry University

Abstract

            In today’s blog post, we will be taking a closer look at the three websites and how they compare to the Interactive Advertising Bureau’s (IAB) standards.  IAB is a company that empowers the media and marketing industries to excel in the digital economy. They have a membership composed of 650 leading media companies, brands, and technology firms that are responsible for selling, delivering, and optimizing digital ad campaigns. They are committed to professional development and improving the knowledge, skills, expertise, and diversity of the workforce across the digital industry. Due to their standards and policies they basically set the standard for digital advertisement compliance. So, let’s take a closer look and see how their guidelines are being represented for these three companies. The companies and websites I have selected are Ford, McDonald's, and Amazon. Enjoy!

Websites

When I looked around on the IAB website I found so many different articles and links to select that break down the different guidelines and policies they stand by. They have a podcast measurement guideline, digital video ad serving templates, automate and programming, and all sorts of articles and links to select that lead you around their site. Some key guidelines that I am going to be looking for are optimization of ads and content. Do the ad units have images and texts? Do advertisements have simple animations? Do ads have video engagement that plays in the banner? Also, how does the content of the site translate on the computer versus a mobile device? Let’s get started.

Let’s first take a look at Amazon. When I first enter the site on my laptop it takes a few seconds to load everything because there are so many links and photos to look at. Amazon’s website has everything (literally) from interactive ads, automatically played videos, advertisements with images and text, and guided categories to help you find what you need. Amazon’s website is very inviting and immediately gives the consumer a lot to look at. One could even describe it as overwhelming if they didn’t know what to expect or what they wanted. If I go to the mobile version of Amazon, I would consider the website much more
simplified.” A lot of the content on the mobile removed or reduced to give the mobile version an easy to interact with page. However, you can scroll and scroll for days on the mobile version of the Amazon website where the desktop version minimizes the number of pages. Overall, I feel like they are in compliance based on the article I found on IAB. Amazon could even become a member to represent an example of website design.

Now, let’s go to Ford next. They have a nicely displayed site that has a variety of content. The first advertisement is a picture of the new 2020 Explorer and a link to take you to the Explorer website and product and purchase information. What I like about Ford and most other vehicle websites is it allow you to be interactive and allows the consumer to design their perfect model from the color of the vehicle to the color of interior and the material of the seats. Below the Explorer there is a video play button for one of Fords’ newest commercials. Below this, at the bottom of the website they offer safety information about some airbag recalls. Now to go back to our key points, I do feel like ford could optimize the advertising on their home screen just a little bit more. They offer so many styles of vehicles, so just put the emphasis on the Explorer seems like they are cutting themselves short. What about the mustang, focus, edge? All great cars that consumers would like to see links to without “digging” for them. The ads technically do have pictures and writing but not necessarily combined. So far, no animations however you can click and play that video. When I went to the website on my phone, I noticed the websites are almost similar. A few of the pictures on the mobile were different. This could be due to sizing preferences on the movie versus the computer or just to make use of other pictures they have taken, and they didn’t want them to go to waste so they found a way to still incorporate those photos. I would consider Ford to be in compliance with IAB.

Last, we have McDonald's. My first impression of the McDonald's website is that it is very basic. It is almost too plain. There is a scrolling advertisement towards the top that you can click through or allow it to autoplay for you. This interactive advertisement does incorporate photos and text. The information the consumer gets from the home screen of the McDonald website is some discount offers, nutrition links, menu links, job opportunities, and how to download the mobile app for online orders. I was kind of expecting something a little more vibrant. I know McDonald's has been around for quite some time and I expected to see some fundraiser and community philanthropy adventures that the company would have recently been at. Maybe a photo of a fundraiser or a race that they maybe recently sponsored. Compare to Amazon and Ford, McDonald’s was the most “underwhelming”. When viewed on the phone, it actually seems to look like a lot. The advertisements fill the screen on the mobile version. If I had to guess, I would say the McDonald’s website is best viewed on a cell phone. When it comes to IAB, I feel like McDonald’s could optimize their website a little better. Maybe they should consider some services for website optimization.

Overall, I feel like between the three, Amazon was my favorite to view. They hit all the points with interactive advertisements and good content. They really maximized their websites between mobile as well as desktop. My least favorite was McDonald’s. Their lack of usage on the desktop version was too plain. I feel like they have a lot of potentials to improve their home screen. A company with so much history and connection with their local communities, they should be implementing this in their advertising.

References

Amazon. Retrieved October 3, 2019, from https://www.amazon.com

Ford. Retrieved October 3, 2019, from https://www.ford.com

IAB. (n.d.). Our story. Retrieved October 3, 2019, from Interactive Advertising
     Bureau website: https://www.iab.com/our-story/

McDonald's. Retrieved October 3, 2019, from https://www.mcdonalds.com/us/
     en-us.html

Nescamoney, D., Tilds, C., Kuo, J., Rao, K., Sakthivelu, S., Lo, P., & Zobel, G.
     (n.d.). Dynamic content ad standard version 1.0. Retrieved from IAB
     database.