In Just a Chicken Sandwich, a recently published post by Ari Rosenberg for The Online Publishing Insider, the author touts “an online advertising breakthrough.”
What’s this breakthrough, you wonder? It’s a non-clickable banner ad.
The ad, for Wendy’s new spicy chicken sandwich, features an image of the sandwich and reads “There is no web site for it. It’s tender and spicy and you just go eat it.” They just hope you’ll notice it, be hungry, and head on over to Wendy’s.
Well I’m not so sure this a breakthrough, but it’s certainly abnormal (i.e. uncommon). I sure wish I could sell my clients on that. It’s almost all media buy. No clickthrough metrics, no landing page optimization, no ROI to track. Sounds like a dream.
Rosen praises Wendy’s for deciding “not to ask for any more of its consumer’s time,” declaring it “strikingly refreshing.”
Wendy’s also decided not to further engage or entertain consumers, coupon them, get their permission to tell them about the next new sandwich, ask them to tell their chicken sandwich loving friends about the new product, close the loop on ROI (e.g. with the afore mentioned coupon), and so on.
What do you think? Is it a breakthrough? Is it even a good idea? Sound off below.
TL
P.S. Perhaps more interesting than the non-clickable banner (though certainly not abnormal) is that Wendy’s is totally out of the conversation:
