[opendtv] Re: Google is now out of the radio ad business
- From: Craig Birkmaier <craig@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Mon, 16 Feb 2009 09:38:51 -0500
At 7:16 PM -0500 2/14/09, Albert Manfredi wrote:
The problem with this logic is that we are talking about two
different types of media, and both of them have their place. (This
has been a long recurring topic.)
If you are browsing the web, you MIGHT be convinced to go off on a
tangent to pursue some on-line ad shoved in your face. Maybe,
depending how busy you are. Why? Because you are ALREADY involved in
interacting with the medium you're using.
If you are watching a TV show, listening to the radio while driving
a car, listening to the radio while doing your chores or while
eating lunch, or sitting in a movie theater waiting for the show to
start, you are hardly likely to stop what you're doing to do a lot
of interactive stuff with someone selling his product. At best, you
will try to remember what the ad said, and make a mental note to
check it out later.
I agree that when we are being entertained it is far less likely that
we will leave that entertainment experience and go off on a tangent.
In this respect, ANY TV ad is a tangent. In the theater you are held
hostage to what they want to show you, including the ads.
Unfortunately TV has depended on much the same approach - i.e. "Free
TV" interrupts the entertainment experience and takes you off on an
advertising tangent.
Now, more than ever, people are actively trying to avoid ads, and
becoming increasingly irritated when ads are forced upon them. We
avoid ads by paying for entertainment without them. We avoid ads by
pre-recording the shows then skipping the ads - as I did last night
while catching up on the last two episodes of 24. And we avoid ads by
going on tangents - to the bathroom or refrigerator - when they are
forced upon us.
We also have become accustomed to having a TV on as background noise
and/or to monitor a channel for information we are interested in.
Typically this is not associated with "entertainment," but rather
information channels like news, weather, etc.
But we are a nation of consumers of advertising and product
information. We depend on ads and now the Internet to learn about
products and make our buying decisions.
It is this last reality that I was talking about. The Internet
provides a FAR superior experience for both the
advertisers/manufacturers of a product and for the consumers of these
products. It can also badly tarnish a company if their product sucks
- MS Vista is a good example.
This probably had much to do with the rise of TV and the demise of
print and more traditional advertising vehicles, and now the decline
of TV.
Yes Bert TV is in decline, despite what Nielsen says about our
viewing habits. If this were not true, why are we seeing so many
broadcasters and media companies losing money, laying off employees
and now moving into Chapter 11 to deal with the fact that the
investment community views TV as a business in decline.
So clearly, ads have to be tailored to the medium they are being played on.
If the advertizers are still so dropped-jaw-fascinated with the
Internet that they ignore other viable media that people do continue
to use, the only logical conclusion I can come to is that this too
will pass. They will wise up eventually.
Companies have an arsenal of marketing tools at their disposal, of
which advertising in one. Advertising will never go away - but it
will evolve to deal with modern realities. The Internet provides an
excellent vehicle to make product information available to the
masses. Advertising is evolving to make it easier for people to
connect to that information. This is a major reason that a very high
percentage of ads include a URL.
You talked bout going back and viewing ads or product info after an
entertainment experience. One good way to do this is to literally
have your TV bookmark all of those URLs in the ads so that you can
easily go back and find out more about something you saw while being
entertained. This may ALSO include product placements within the
entertainment experience.
I can tell you that for me, in no way are Internet ads more
successful than other types.
If you are talking abot banner ads and first screen ads I agree
completely - they are interrupting an interactive experience just as
surely as a video ad interrupts an entertainment experience.
But you do not turn to your TV to seek out information about products
- you DO use web browsers to connect to this information. Advertisers
measure ad effectiveness in two basic ways:
Impressions - the number of people to which the ad was presented.
Responses - the number of people who actually acted upon the ad.
In direct mail advertising a few percent is a VERY GOOD response
rate. Specialty magazine ads are typically measured by the number of
people who request information via the "bingo cards" that are
provided to request more information. And increasingly, web hits can
be linked back to the ads that caused the person to go to a website
for more information.
True, people hang on to their cars longer. On the other hand, I'd be
mighty surprised if people aren't equally sick of annoying web ads
that block your view of what you're trying to see.
People are sick of intrusive ads EVERYWHERE. Unfortunately, it does
about as much good as growing sick of bigger more intrusive
government in our lives.
This economic downturn is caused by consumers behaving perhaps a
little too much as they always should have been behaving. Or rather,
becoming responsible too suddenly. It's a big shock to the economy
when people actually decide to save a tiny amount of their income,
for a change.
Sadly, the party is almost over. Rome is burning.
They'll tire of this new fad, as they tire of all other fads. It's a
crying shame that so many people are put out of work in the process.
What fad are you talking about? I hope you mean socialism...
Regards
Craig
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