What If Ads Were Content? Redux
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Transcript of What If Ads Were Content? Redux
What If Ads Were Content? Redux
Heath Row
PodCamp NYCApril 25-26, 2008
This talk has littleif anything to dowith podcasting.
It also has everythingto do with podcasting.
What we talked about last year
• A brief history of advertising
• A briefer history of online advertising
• Leading indicators of content-based ads
• Online examples to date
• Proposed ad actions
Leading Indicators
• Historic example of the advertorial (1970s, Mobil Oil)
• The television infomercial, introduced in 1984
• Sponsored micro-sites online
• The embrace of “user-generated content” for the 2007 Super Bowl
• People appreciate informative ads, especially when they’re in market
• People appreciate ad-supported media
(I used this slide last year)
Leading Examples
• Daily Jolt’s one-time ability to rate and comment on ads
• Federated Media blog content ads (Symantec)
• DoubleClick’s real-time streaming video ads (The Number 23 campaign for New Line Cinema)
• The Innovation Lab’s cube format (and its similarity to Frog Design’s super-modal ZUI)
(I used this slide last year)
Challenges
• Ongoing concerns about the blurring of advertising and editorial
• Are advertisers prepared to become content creators?
• Content has a shelf life; ads do not
• Content can be shared and tagged; ads cannot
(I used this slide last year)
Proposed ad actions
• Archiving
• Bookmarking
• “Send to a Friend”
• Tagging
• Commenting
• Discussing
(I used this slide last year)
What’s new?
377 days of an idea
• Widget-based advertising and marketing
• The rise and fall of Firebrand
• Social media missteps
• The advent of Web ad awards culture
• Where you can watch ads online
Widget-based advertising and marketing
• eBay offers ToGo auction widgets in late April 2007
• Tumri and Mpire launch in May 2007
• Google Gadget ads launched in May 2007
• Clearspring moves from widget syndication to advertising in November 2007
• DoubleClick partners with Gigya to add rich-media widget ads
• MediaForge offers rollover widgets to advertisers in April 2008
Whither widgets?
• Widget advertising is similar to standard content syndication (video, RSS) and doesn’t really change the content game
• Still an awesome opportunity (eMarketer projects $40 million in widget ad spending this year)
• The ability to share a widget ad is a key component, but they largely neglect other participatory opportunities
• Widgets might jump the shark soon, if they haven’t already, perhaps for this very reason
Firebrand burned brightly, briefly
• Basic idea: Cable TV program and Web site that featured commercials as content
• Launched in October 2007
• Shut up shop in March 2008
• The reason: They were unable to find sponsors and... advertisers
• My take: Too limited content online, too controlled
Social media missteps
• Facebook Beacon program
• Rumor of Twitter ads
Harris v. Blockbuster Inc.
• April 9, 2008
• Cathryn Elaine Harris sued Blockbuster because her video rentals were shared via Facebook’s Beacon program
• Beacon shares rentals unless participants opt out
• Claims it violates the 1987 Videotape Privacy Protection Act
• Harris did not sue Facebook; Blockbuster intends to defend its privacy safeguards
One promising example• MoveOn solicited user-generated 30-second videos
promoting the Obama campaign
• They received more than 1,000 entries
• Voting began April 21 to select the best submissions
• 15 finalists will be judged by a panel of film pros, artists, and Netroots activists
• One will air on national television
• Social ad creation and selection, but not necessarily a social ad
Advertising awards culture
• The Clio Awards began in 1959 to recognize excellence in print, radio, and TV ads
• Other awards: Addy, Cresta, Golden Lion
• Accepted embrace of the fetishization of ad creative
• Some award winners never air or see print; little consideration for performance metrics versus pure aesthetic measures
Online ad awards
• Web Marketing Association’s WebAwards launched in 1997
• Internet Advertising Competition run by the Web Marketing Association first started in 1999 (relaunched in 2003)
• The Webby Awards incorporate interactive advertising in 2008
• Still no discernible impact on the quality of online advertising
Ads as online content
• Adflip features classic print ads ($204/year)
• Superbowl ads have legs online
• Very Funny Ads promotes a TBS program
• AdForum features 80,000 ads by 20,000 agencies -- for $299/year
• Lurzer’s Archive boasts the “world’s biggest online archive for outstanding advertising” ($99/year)
• Visit4Info focuses on British ads (as well as movie trailers and other videos)
• RetroJunk offers classic TV commercials
Back to the future of TV?
• In May 2008, Jimmy Kimmel Live is expected to start incorporating live ads in each episode of the late-night TV show
• This practice dates back to the earliest days of television and fell out of practice in the ‘70s
• You know these ads are going to be funny
A token mention of podcasting
• Podtrac ran four advertising effectiveness studies with TNS between February 2006 and March 2008
• Results indicate that podcasts have a three-fold ad effectiveness increase over traditional online video and a seven-fold effectiveness increase over television
• Host-read audio and video ads were included in the studies
Discuss
(I used this slide last year)
Thank You
Heath [email protected]
This presentation will be made available at http://www.slideshare.net/
h3athrow/