Look VideoEgg, you’re a cool dude, but why don’t you sit down and be quiet for a change.
Your new advertising scheme is NOT brand advertising.
Brand advertising is inherently anti-action. It’s about building awareness. It’s not anything resembling cost-per-click or cost-per-action. It’s an ad on the Superbowl or Desperate Housewives. It’s sponsoring the X-Games or a Music Festival.
Brand Advertising is associating your brand with another brand and hoping the coolness rubs off.
Let’s look at the magazine ad that you so fondly fondle in your demo. Is Jeep paying for everyone who touches the ad? For people who buy Jeeps? Take a test drive?
No they are not. They are in that magazine because their target demo reads it and thinks the content is cool. Jeep wants that coolness to be transferred to them. And they pay tens of thousands of dollars for that privilege.
Also there’s a lot of sketchy assumptions and black magic in the way that magazine circulation numbers are calculated.
There’s something called the pass-through rate. Which basically means that for every one magazine, it’s assumed that four people will see and, *cough*, engage, in the ad. Not sure how that works.
TV ratings have similar shadiness.
All we as new media people need to deliver is something better than what currently exists for brand advertising: a quality audience, good metrics, and a space for the advertiser to make their case.
Then let the agencies figure out how to engage the audience once it’s on their site.
The biggest thing is don’t turn off your audience with this trinkets and doodads. If I roll over something in my chat window and then it takes over my full screen, I don’t care if it’s comedy goddess Amy Sedaris or not, I’m probably never going to use that chat client again.
Let’s not turn the webernet into the wasteland that basic cable has become (over advertised and annoying).
7 Comments
February 20, 2008 at 6:41 pm
That’s a great point. I just bought a new kitchen floor and bought it from Lumber Liquidators because I’ve heard 1,000 ads from them over the years. So then when it was time for me to look into flooring, I looked at Lumber Liquidators because Bob Villa bought his Bellawood floor for his own kitchen there.
February 20, 2008 at 7:09 pm
Thank you for reciprocating on the linkage! Also, do you want to write my thesis? It sounds like you know a lot about the things I am supposed to be saying.
February 20, 2008 at 7:17 pm
you know what? this is a good blog. you always take a point of view on the stuff you bring up and defend it.
the most frustrating thing about dealing with advertisers and ROI/engagement concepts is the variation in viewership from show to show. a million for this show, and the next has 250,000. it’s annoying to explain why that is to a sponsor or agency.
February 21, 2008 at 12:17 am
kent,
thanks for the post.
the ad world needs innovation. its fun to mix things up. that’s our mission.
branding is telling a story. we help you do it.
drop me a note sometime and we can discuss in more detail.
troy
February 21, 2008 at 1:12 am
I also think that there are different types of video content, some with little pre/post and others with consistent brand, format and intent. There are types of content that are inherently difficult to monetize and advertisers are looking for measurable ROI. On the other hand, advertiser’s desire to be associated with brands, such as Ask a Ninja, may outweigh having measurable interaction.
Excellent post, Kent.
February 21, 2008 at 3:39 am
I’m not sure a pass-through rate for magazines is shady, although four seems a little optimistic to me. Magazines are read in doctor’s offices etc. by many people although most probably don’t read the whole thing, which should be taken into account too.
I’m certain that our viewers are watching our knitting demonstration episodes more than once after they’ve downloaded them, so “one download equals one view” is not quite correct for our show. But what should it be? I’m not sure you can really know but I think any podcaster should still somehow be able factor it into ad sales. I hope we can all eventually come up with some kind of agreed upon standard for things like this.
And Steve’s right. You’re kicking some serious butt with this blog. Keep it up.
February 21, 2008 at 6:32 am
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