Those of you just getting home from summer camp might put aside the calamine lotion and consider that Gannett Co. is already exploiting its recent $100 million acquisition of PointRoll, and
simultaneously debasing the future of rich media as we know it.
In short, Gannett's USAToday.com said last week that its online advertisers now have access to PointRoll's rich media formats
at no additional charge, provided they pay a minimum cost-per-thousand impression rate.
Their expressed hope is to give marketers an added incentive to advertise on USA Today's site, and a
reason to use PointRoll's ad-serving tools when they do. (Gannett eventually plans to extend the program to all of its 130-odd local Web sites in the United States.)
Laryssa Kundanmal,
USAToday.com's director of marketing, went a step further and described the offer as a godsend for "all advertisers who might have been limited to conventional banner ads before this partnership."
First thoughts?
Not cool. Even though my heart clogs up for those poor marketers who can't even afford a floater or two, I'm not at all sure Gannett's altruistic gesture bodes well for
the future of rich media.
Innovation is already under attack. The strong rates that online advertisers pay for premium ad products are already threatened by a competitor glut, along
with the waves of "one-stop-shop-ism" and standardization that accompany it.
Site owners say they're able to decrease the management fees they pay rich-media companies even as demand grows
because competition is so fierce. As a result, many an analyst has predicted that as rich media volume soars, management revenues for the companies serving the ads will remain flat - the same thing
that's happened to other forms of ad serving over the past few years.
But ain't competition swell?
Well, if Gannett's encouraging marketers to weigh their rich media options on the
open market, then the newspaper titan definitely has its finger on the proverbial scale.
To be clear, this new trading-up-on-the-cheap policy isn't limited to Gannett's own Web sites, nor is
the program restricted to less than cutting edge ad formats. On the contrary, PointRoll's clients are getting the best technology it's got. A perfect example is Celebrity Cruise Lines' summer ad
campaign, which is using a PointRoll peel-away this week that has never been used before - at no extra cost!
Unlike standard peel-away ads, which drag from one direction, PointRoll's new
version tears a users' screen in two from right to the left, revealing fantasy locales along with Celebrity's pitch: "Do you dream of destinations?"
(Advertisers who choose PointRoll also have
full access to its analytics tools, which extend beyond direct response rates to include interaction and engagement rates.)
Once word gets out, advertisers would be silly not to question the
money they're setting aside for premium ads. Why would anyone pay more if PointRoll's clients are paying banner ad prices for premium products? And if marketers don't draw a clear cost differentiation
between non-rich and rich media, I can't imagine they'll be willing to shell out the cash needed to sustain healthy innovation.
The solution?
Obviously, some other force is
necessary to rein in these outwardly anti-competitive developments.
Any suggestions?
Seems like a proper subject for next week, actually.