Kevin Salwen of Worthwhile Magazine shares this advertising nugget:

What ads get your attention online? Probably not what you think. A new study of online advertising by behavioral marketing firm Tacoda shows that people tend to look at ads if they are not contextually connected to the rest of the information. In other words, if you want your pizza ad to stand out, put it into a technology story, not a food piece.

First exposures to ads for cars, computers and TV displayed out of context generated 17% more looks than when those ads were shown on pages where the content related to the ads, the research showed. And after the first exposure--when consumers are expected to tune out ads--out-of-context ads generated a stunning 54% more looks than in-context ones.

Still paying for that full page ad in the “lawyer” section of the yellowpages?