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'The Future of Advertising is Fewer, Better Ads' (recode.net)
For more than a decade, the online advertising world has been dominated by "display ads," served up to consumers alongside web content, search results or social media posts. But they're not the only game in town, one digital ad exec says. From a report: "I think the advertising world going forward is going to be filled with fewer, better ads," Deep Focus CEO Ian Schafer said on the latest episode of Recode Media. "The display advertising market is going to crater. By giving away stuff for free for so long, we've created an ad economy that is bigger than it should be," he added. Schafer says there's a untapped value in "nonstandard" ads, meaning branded content and other forms of advertising on platforms such as Snapchat, Musical.ly, WeHeartIt and Imgur.
I think the point is that you do not see it. Between ad blockers and just training yourself to ignore the distractions, ads have little to no meaning now, and advertisers are recognising it. The first reaction (force people to whitelist) is having little to no effect, and so advertising has to change. And if it becomes less obnoxious, people might actually start noticing them again.
My adblock current reports having blocked 1.6M ads -- 1.6 million! No one looks at 1.6M ads, they are just clutter.
I loaded my RSS feed yesterday. 1,200 ads blocked from a single use of my RSS reader. No one looks at 1,200 ads from a single use of an RSS feed. These ads are just clutter to be ignored and blocked.
And I truly hate autoroll video ads with sound. Good way to guarantee I will never buy your product.
The McRib is a classic example of something that is really popular, but limited term item on the menu. It is that way on purpose, because scarcity creates a subconscious desire. I know people who do not eat at McD's at all, except when McRib is out. Then they eat there all the time, not just for McRib. It is really weird when you think about it.
Agent K: A *person* is smart. People are dumb, stupid, panicky animals, and you know it.
Entertainment and information is what people want. Until now, ads invariably did one thing: Interrupt our access to entertainment and information. And guess what: People don't like that.
Your key to getting your ads not only seen but actually associated with something good and something people want is to tie your ads into entertainment and information. Don't interrupt it, accompany it. Red Bull has really understood that. Know that Red Bull Air Race? Some crazy people flying around at breakneck speed and giving the onlookers the thrill of their life. And everyone knows that it's Red Bull that makes this thrill possible. That's cool! That's what people want! And they associate that sugar water with daredevil action and having a good time.
Have you ever seen a Red Bull ad? I haven't in the past 10 years.
So sponsor entertainment! It needn't be something huge, go and see what YouTubers have tons of followers and ponder how you can become part of their show. Note, this is important: DO NOT get them to endorse your product, YOUR PRODUCT has to become part of their show. It has to be part of the "cool". But, and this is also again important, it must not take over the show. Else that Youtuber is considered a sellout and his followers will leave. Your job is to find out how your product fits into his routine and your product must not break his routine, for that's why people are watching him!
If you prefer something more "serious", try to sponsor something closer to documentaries. That is a mostly uncharted land and I really wonder why. Because people doing serious documentaries are usually considered credible and trustworthy by their viewers, so why not use them for your product? Again, the product has to match the person, the style and the documentary (it's kinda pointless to have an archaeologist drink a cup of coffee from fine porcelain on a digging site, but he could hold a cup whenever he's talking to the camera and take a sip whenever he's in the picture but not talking while showing some ruins or something). And again, subtlety is key. People love finding stuff out themselves. Let them! Maybe even make it some sort of game.
That's where you can thrive. And people will actually love you and your product for it instead of considering you an invasive nuisance. Because yes, you can force us to endure your ads. But you cannot make us watch. And you cannot force us to like something that we consider obnoxious and invasive because it interrupts what we're looking for: Entertainment and Information. Become part of that entertainment and information and we'll actually love you. And your product.
And we buy what we love.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
Pay close attention to Car commercials on TV... everyday cars like Ford, Chevy, etc., will try to sell you on their specs (value, toughness, awards won), but high end luxury cars (Lexus, BMW) try to sell you on a FEELING. The feeling you get driving it. The feeling you get just sitting in it. It's completely subjective and unable to be measured.
Know any computer manufacturers that use that technique? (Apple)
If there was some easy, anonymous way to support sites as an alternative to advertising I'd be happy to use it. Maybe there could be a browser plugin that tracks usage of sites that accept that form of payment (all data stored locally) and at the end of the month shows some stats and allows me to distribute my budgeted amount fairly with a couple of clicks.
Sadly no-one has come up with a good way to do microtransactions. Crypto currencies are getting there, but the hassle of exchanging with fiat currency is probably enough to put most people off.
const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
If they include a store on the site and sell branded items useful to visitors, lots of people will buy them just to support the site. You don't have to try to replicate or distribute the advertising payment model in order to find alternatives.
When they measure the responses, even though people respond differently after seeing the ad those people don't believe it is because of the ad. They will almost always be able to identify better-sounding reasons. That's actually the whole point, and why the advertising is typically so stupid. If it was a logical response they were targeting the ads would look very different.
Maybe we just need a mod for spam. Then we can identify the spammers, and they might be filtered out to not be able to post anymore. What do you think about Ads for hosts file engines, and how we go about blocking such ads that are both offtopic and misplaced?
APK likes to ask for responses to the same things over and over. Maybe he just likes the responses?