Microsoft’s agency Avenue A | Razorfish has been developing a method to brainwash website visitors via banner ads. After 18 months of research, the partnership between Australian Advertising Amnesia Group (Part of Razorfish) and Professor Olaf Prilo PHD from the Mind and Brain Institute of New South Wales have developed a method of gaining consumer trust through high frequency (90fps) banner ads that stimulate specific regions of the visual cortex producing instant effects on consumers.
Research claims:
- 87.9% average increase of product desire in test subjects.
- 76.4% switched brands after seeing a single TrustBanner.
- 63% purchased consumable products within 7 days.
- No Click / CTA required. Can be applied to any banner ad.
The first live TrustBanner ads will be deployed7 into the Australian online marketplace at 12.01am on April 1 2008, and rolled out internationally over the following 24 hours. They also claim its not against the law (yet) because its so new.
Check out Trustbanners.com to learn more.
Aericon is a digital marketing and communications firm. We provide comprehensive web-based strategy and execution services as well as ongoing operations, support and maintenance. It can only be a solution if it solves the problem – we start with business drivers and key performance indicators to inform the solution and measure the results. 
Comments
Web 2.0 & Social Media at Bentley College
on April 25, 2008, 8:22 am
[...] really funny thing I learned was that 2 students fell for my April fools post about Microsoft’s brainwashing banner ads and wrote papers on it for this assignment. The credit for the actual prank goes to Amnesia Group [...]