Commentary

No One WANTS To Watch Your Advertising

People tolerate advertising because they get something out of it, period. I am a little tired of hearing the argument "if it's the right ad in the right place, then people will be engaged." I am a huge fan of relevancy, but you're not going to convince me that it's possible to achieve perfect relevancy and solve the issue of advertising on the Internet.

I have a number of issues with the utopian "relevancy is all we need" argument:

1.  How do I know an advertisement is relevant until I give it my attention? There is a bit of a chicken and egg problem here: An advertisement might be relevant, but I'll never know it unless I have a good treason to give it my attention.

2.  I'm not even interested in paying attention to ads that are relevant to me most of the time. For example, I buy soda, but it doesn't mean I'm actively giving my attention to Coke and Pepsi whenever I come across their advertisements on the Internet.

3.  Achieving true relevancy is a lot more complicated than just the right product offer. Think of this as having the right product message, but the wrong delivery. I use soap when I shower (you're surprised, I know), but most soap advertisements aren't all that interesting/funny/entertaining/emotional. Perfect exception that proves the rule: this recent, brilliantly funny Old Spice commercial. But maybe you don't find the commercial funny. This gets into the argument of whether marketers need to just make "viral" ads. And for every advertisement that goes viral, I'll show you 1,000 that don't. Like those odds for keeping your clients' business?

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4.  Marketers would like the ability to deliver their message even to those people who don't think their product is for them. Actually, I would go so far as to say that marketers should especially covet the opportunity to engage with people who might not think this is the right product. Good advertising creates positive product association over time, or at least that's the plan.

So if relevancy isn't going to suddenly solve the challenges facing advertising on the Internet, what will? That's the reinvention of the contract between people and content producers (publishers). People have been willing to give a LIMITED amount of their attention to advertising, even without some utopian, perfect relevancy, in exchange for free or cheap content. So what are you giving people in exchange for their attention? That question goes to marketers and publishers. Pepsi has realized that it has to give people something in exchange for their attention, and so we have Pepsi Refresh.

People need incentive to engage with advertising, and it's publishers' and agencies' job to work together to find the proper incentive to engage people's attention with advertising. Then, if the ad is relevant, all the better ;-)

This post in 140 characters or less: No one WANTS to watch your ads online, what reason will you give them? Why relevancy is not the answer. http://bit.ly/5PPZbV@joemarchese

14 comments about "No One WANTS To Watch Your Advertising".
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  1. Jim Courtright from Big Thinking By The Hour, March 3, 2010 at 1:16 a.m.

    Not just an Amen to this article. A Mormon Tabernacle Choir-style Amen.
    This is a new world. People can choose to watch your ad or not. To make them watch it, the ad has to resonate with humans. Not just with the environment.

  2. Jason Krebs from Tenor/Google, March 3, 2010 at 6:42 a.m.

    It's not an all/nothing world here. Increased relevancy also means simply removing a percentage of obviously wasted media, which will have dramatic, positive effects for marketers.

  3. Gian Fulgoni from 4490 Ventures, March 3, 2010 at 7:38 a.m.

    Excellent post, Joe. This speaks to the importance of great creative in capturing people's attention -- sonething traditional media has known for years but something which is only now beginning to be realized by the digital world. In fact, research conducted by comScore's ARS unit has shown that the advertising creative is four times as important in determining sales outcomes as the amount of media spend.

  4. Mike Einstein from the Brothers Einstein, March 3, 2010 at 8:03 a.m.

    In reply, please allow me to refer you all to a trade article by my brother, Jeff: http://bit.ly/b7dYIp.

    Jason, time to learn the difference between prospects and customers and what brand reach is all about.

  5. Roy Perry from Greater Media Philadelphia, March 3, 2010 at 8:53 a.m.

    It's a "new world" where people are free to ignore advertising? Maybe if you were born yesterday. Did the "discovery" of "relevance" fail to save us all? Add it to the lengthening list of similar breakthroughs. Getting people to engage with your marketing is different, and easier, and more fun, and more fun to talk and blog about, but far less important than getting people to engage with your product. Interactive engagement "success" stories are often negative - hating on the new Tropicana package, hating on a disrespectful image of Moms, or women, or cats, or Brazilians, or whatever. Want to be the new "Snakes On A Plane"? You can buy that. And get cool press for your effort. Ticket sales? That's someone else's job.

  6. Paula Lynn from Who Else Unlimited, March 3, 2010 at 10:04 a.m.

    1000 to 1 for going viral? Wouldn't that be more like 10,000 or 100,000? Relevancy has to start by letting the audience know what you are selling. For starters: "Tell them what you are going to tell them, tell them, tell them what you told them." There's got to be some creativity in them thar hills for a :30 and a :10, even for a direct message. Remember, too, ads are made for to inspire interest (there are degrees) and direction; the actual sale is made through another source, e.g., the online checkout experience or the salesperson in the showroom.

  7. Mai Kok from So What, March 3, 2010 at 10:33 a.m.

    I HATE the Axe commercials. "Double pits to what the frak ever". I hate it. Doesn't speak to me. I rush to shut that crap off (can't do it in Hulu, so I turn off the sound).

    I agree in principle. However I disagree with Gian Fulgoni (comScore?)'s takeaway.

    This article does NOT prove "the importance of great creative". Case in point, if Hulu's audience is full of ppl like me and HATE the goddamned AXE commercials, Axe's media spend on creating those damned "double pits" commercials are wasted. From Axe's POV, those commercials are great! Wow - so "funny". But they're not.

    "Great creative" is relative. What is "great" to you isn't to me. In this day and age - it's about transparency and options.

    I might hate the Axe commercials but I dont necessarily hate the product. If Axe is transparent enough, allow me to disengage from the ad but stand by passively. And if offering a free sample, let me try it or let me download a coupon - but give me a choice to either actively engage (if the commercial is funny) or passively engage

  8. Nelson Yuen from Stereotypical Mid Sized Services Corp., March 3, 2010 at 10:59 a.m.

    "So if relevancy isn't going to suddenly solve the challenges facing advertising on the Internet, what will? That's the reinvention of the contract between people and content producers (publishers)."

    ... wow Joe. I was working on a resume/blog and I was going to talk about that. Unfortunately, I only bought my domain yesterday. Wow...

    Responding to Al.

    I think in context you may have neglected to give Gian (ComScore) a chance to give you some context. I'll make an attempt.

    "Great creative is relative." You are absolutely right. It's because of that relativity that we now have more transparent and boisterous niche audiences. So if it's all about "transparency and options" as you said, then ad agencies and marketers display that transparency by trying to CUSTOM CATER creative to specific niches. Yes, Joe is right, relevancy is not the GOD SEND to getting the end user to pay attention to you. BUT understanding the end user, gives marketers the ability to speak to them on a niche basis. The end goal is to be able to communicate with the person behind the box. So when Joe is saying there is an exchange between end users and marketers - that there is a value exchange for audience's attention - what he's implying is that there is a paradigm shift in how people consume content both syndicated and marketing. Before, I sat through a commercial to get to my show. Now we have to give end users an ulterior incentive to get them their attention - and the end result is to BE relevant.

    i wonder if I worded that right.... in a rush

  9. Jonathan Mirow from BroadbandVideo, Inc., March 3, 2010 at 11:41 a.m.

    The headline says it all.

  10. Steve Levy from Hype Circle Ad Collective, March 3, 2010 at 12:17 p.m.

    I think its more a question of context and relevance. I'm blind to any advertising when I'm on Facebook--I'm there to communicate not consume--and I'm sure this is the case for most everyone. But if I'm reading a blog on something I'm interested in and a relevant product is being advertised I'm likely to check it out or at least register it. Obviously the creative also has to resonate somehow.

  11. Jim Burnette from FreeAllMusic.com, March 3, 2010 at 12:43 p.m.

    Hi Joe. The AXE link is actually an ad for Old Spice. LOL!!!

  12. Joe Marchese, March 3, 2010 at 1:34 p.m.

    @jason agreed that it's not "all or nothing" just that relevancy alone can't sole the issue without figuring out the new contract between people and publishers.

    @jim ha! added the links pretty late at night, had another Axe ad on my mind. There must be another story in a mix up like that ;-)

  13. Richard Monihan, March 3, 2010 at 4:33 p.m.

    Relevancy and immediacy.

    One thing that facebook does is put ads on the side which are relevant to my interests. Sadly almost none are immediately interesting. Ads for scuba, coin collecting, clothes for my favorite sports teams, etc.

    It's all good if I'm in the mood to take a look at something - but utterly useless if I'm not.
    ON THE OTHER HAND, one of the reasons these ads are useless is because they are text ads. Were they more memorable, when the time comes to go looking for scuba gear at some scuba shop, I'd know where I'd go first - that really snazzy shop whose name I keep seeing on Facebook. But these useless ads that say "get scuba gear now" or "book your scuba vacation" are without value.

    Relevancy matters, but only if it's done in a fashion that relates to memory, and doesn't have to rely on timeliness.

  14. Douglas Ferguson from College of Charleston, March 4, 2010 at 11:27 a.m.

    Nice to read this truth in the trades. Time for advertisers to retreat to the few places they can ambush their customers: gas pump videos, outdoor billboards, 15-second pre-rolls

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