

Is This The Future of Advertising? - dsarle
http://www.arcticstartup.com/2014/01/24/is-this-the-future-of-advertising

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jeremysmyth
Absolutely not.

The future of advertising, such as it is, should _absolutely not_ involve
intrusive content of _any_ kind. This includes what the article states as "It
does not give me five different messages, it gives me one message. It is
actually asking me to do something." I do not want to be asked to do anything.
I want to see what I've asked for, and no more.

Users do not want popups, inline ads, redirects, overlays, or anything that
gets in the way of the content they explicitly request. The arms race
mentioned in the article, where users constantly find ways around ads and
advertisers have to find new ways to push content to them, is going to
continue. There will always be ways around intrusive content, and finding new
ways to intrude is not going to solve the advertising problem. Rather, finding
new ways to intrude is the same thing as finding new ways to annoy potential
customers. Sure, it'll increase brand awareness, but wouldn't it be better to
do so without them thinking "Oh come on not another freaking ad" in the
process?

What _will_ work, and _has_ to work for advertising to remain relevant and
continue into the future, is to integrate marketing into content that I
explicitly request.

In practice, this means that companies should make products that are liked by
people I respect, so that when they mention it on twitter or facebook I pay
attention. This does _not_ include "share and like this", because I hate that
stuff, and it's obviously a stunt.

As a distant second place, I'm also happy to see ads that consist of well-
crafted and entertaining or educational content. This is very difficult, and
is what we know as "viral marketing". However, it's such a common trope these
days that it's easy to see a viral ad as an ad, and that feels like it's
cheating. The article says "The very best ads are very emotional and funny. If
you make advertisements that one can relate to, that changes the ads. People
will allow it." While that is true, it's also true that they're still seen as
ads, and that provides a psychological hurdle to people who have grown to
dislike advertisements for what they are.

Rather than advertise blatantly, provide some sort of supported content that I
want to go to see that _happens to include_ product placement or a
demonstration of features as an _incidental_ characteristic of the content,
rather than as the key point.

In short, to get the attention of future customers, give them content that
they want to see so much that they _explicitly request it_ , and don't intrude
on other content.

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nkcmr
No. Advertisements are trying to be more and more subtle whilst still being
noticeable. The advertisements demoed in that video are no better than pop-
ups.

And God almighty, if I hear another startup video with a ukulele playing as
background music, I'm likely to go into a homicidal rage.

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pwpwp
No.

