Ask HN: What kind of fresh ideas does advertising need?

[markbao]

Advertising on the web is declining.

I've had previous experience in advertising. Specifically, social advertising. That startup never got far off the ground. I plan on giving it another shot.

What's plaguing advertising? Ignoring advertisements, both in the brain (ignoring ads is second nature to many) and in software (adblock). Untargeted ads. Ads that are annoying, flashy, and loud.

But most of all, it's just that consumers aren't very compelled by advertising anymore.

What kind of fresh ideas does advertising need?

[JacobAldridge]

For me, the big shift is a contextual one. Advertising has always seemed to come from a 'Take' mentality - 'we are advertising XYZ so we can take money from you'.

Product Specials (Sales) as a marketing tool, and then specials (and, now affiliate links etc) through advertising, helped garner attention. They were 'Giving' me a special deal.

Viral advertising works largely because it 'Gives' as much as it takes. It 'Gives' humour, for example, or a gaming experience, or (if the morons on my mailing list are to be believed) a bottle of Veuve or some free cell minutes.

I can't wait until advertising is fully personal, in a way that AdWords touches upon. When advertisers know my wants and needs, they can Give me the opportunity or motive to buy their product. I win. They win. But most importantly, they focus on me winning first rather than their own needs (clearly within reason), and then benefit in the long term.

When that happens, I won't ignore ads - because I know they want to give me something I personally want.

How you make that happen is the difference between my day job and you featuring on the cover of Wired.

[apowell]

I question some of your underlying assumptions. Are you sure that consumers aren't compelled by advertising?

Is the decline of advertising really a result of declining effectiveness of advertising, or is it a symptom of the broader economic climate?

Ads are not ignored as widely as people like to believe. Many people claim to be immune to advertising, sales, and marketing -- and yet, they must base their purchases on something.

As an aside, I wouldn't spend a lot of effort worrying about ad blocking software. Accept that a certain percentage of users will run ad blocking software, and move on.

[mediaman → apowell]

Bingo.

Ads work. I work in advertising now and I see how the current economic climate has impacted the industry: ad spend always is one of the first expenses to be cut, and the trends I see in cutting today suggest to me that what we are seeing is not a long-term, secular trend.

And I do not understand why people keep talking about AdBlock. Statistically, few people use it. Most people see ads and react to them.

Generally, people are much more susceptible to non-rational psychological impact campaigns than they realize or admit. But it is true that advertising is slowly adapting to new mechanisms.

[swellular]

Working for a digital advertising agency, I've seen both sides of the coin. On the one hand, you experience a little disdain for ads. If you don't start off by analyzing them (what are they trying to accomplish? who is the audience? why is this relevant?) you generally ignore them with a pinch of disgust.

JacobAldridge, you nailed it in terms of the industry shifting towards a "give" approach, and as long as personalized ads aren't perceived as evasive by consumers, they will become much more potent and beneficial for both parties.

As for Mankhool's comment about the big corporate brands most are very familiar with, I think this idea is worth a shot: drop all current advertising and use the money towards donating public art. Paired with a great PR team, public art by Coca-Cola could make for a very broad and positive impression.

[Mankhool]

I want advertisers (especially the national/global brands that are already well known by most consumers) to start simply underwriting beauty in exchange for my time. I might not use Bing very often, but I go there every morning to see the image. I've emailed them to say I want to see the metadata on the images too! If you want to get my attention show me a beautiful image or video clip that makes me feel good about the world, and from which I might learn something, instead of the same old, stale, boring, predictable, mid-20th century garbage.

[jacquesm]

Try to advertise without annoying your users and to stay completely out of the way until the ad is relevant.

Sharpshooting instead of carpetbombing.

And I just might not block you then...