I haven’t. Not intentionally, anyway. But, hey, maybe that’s just me.

To find out, I did some in-depth research. In other words, I asked a few friends and colleagues. And no, none of them have either.

Perhaps it isn’t that bad. After all, the click-through benchmark isn’t 0%.

It’s 0.1%.

In other words, 99.9% of your audience isn’t doing what you’d like them to.

Yet, we still think of banner ads as a direct response tool. “Click here to find out more about this fund” we say.

And hardly anyone does.

Meanwhile, there are fewer and fewer places where you can build your brand. The specialist press is disappearing. National press, posters and taxis don’t come cheap.

As we’ve seen from our own research, brand recognition in the financial industry is dropping off a cliff.

And the power of a brand should not be underestimated. It’s a fact of life that people are more likely to buy from people they know, people they like.

Maybe it’s time to look at banner ads from a different angle.