Right, that is how brand advertising works. But given the structure of the web, you can get an estimation of how effective it is by how users respond to it (cl

Right, that is how brand advertising works. But given the structure of the web, you can get an estimation of how effective it is by how users respond to it (clicks). Put yourself in the position of an ad exec who has $n dollars to spend on his campaign and has to present to a superior how effective it was. If he has a web ad placement, the execs in charge of the money are going to immediately query him on what they got out of it (how much traffic they got from it). Adsense has spoiled companies into being far more demanding on number metrics on effectiveness. I can't think of 1 flash ad, branding or not, that does not have the option to click and learn more about the product. They are measuring the ad resonance, transaction driven or not. The fact of the matter is, companies want a return on their web ads they can quantify. They measure using stuff like this: http://www.vizu.com/ http://www.vizu.com/ When they don't get it, branded or not, they leave: http://mdurwin.wordpress.com/2007/07/25/corporations-leave-second-life-we-never-knew-you-were-there/ http://mdurwin.wordpress.com/2007/07/25/corporations-leave-s...