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- Adam Lashinsky, The true meaning of Twitter
No clear reason for existence? Perhaps. Clueless profit centers? Absolutely.
The eyeballs equals ad dollars logic doesn’t hold the weight it once did, but this is a good thing. Web entrepreneurs and their new entrants to the interwebs will have to rely on making money outside of advertising. Consumer and corporate spending on data mining, e-commerce, digital goods, and other non-advertising activities has a higher tangible impact on the real world. As these more tangible models replace ad models the intersection of the web and the real-world will become further intertwined and clear-cut. This dose of reality should make the web a better, more clutter-free, meaningful place. The advertising that does survive on the web will have to provide the same level of entertainment of super-bowl ads or be aligned with consumers’ goals, not competing for their attention.
(via davidhoffman)
Agreed. But I can understand the pain thats involved with creating ads on the internet that provide “the same level of entertainment of super-bowl ads.” When an ad airs on the superbowl, its the first time millions of people have seen that ad. Internet ads are the same everywhere. They’re ineffective because you see the same thing on every website you’re on. Here’s a thought: what if a brand’s internet ad changed depending on what site you’re visiting. Rather than trying to target the users that view the ad, target the website the ad is displayed on.
Let’s take Mastercard for example. They could run an ad on Facebook with the following taglines: “Kanye West album: $12. Facebook gift: $1. Getting tagged in a photo: priceless.” The first tagline could be directly taken from something in one’s profile (favorite music). The second tagline could be something generic about the service they’re using (facebook). And the third line taken from a common action that the user makes or enjoys (lots of tagged fb photos).
Ads during the superbowl already follow this model. Most of the ads you see have a football involved or people at a party drinking—which is exactly what people watching the ad are currently doing. This is why superbowl ads are so effective.
This might only make sense for Mastercard and Facebook, but either way its worth looking into. I’ll do a follow up post at some point.
(via thecool)
