Headline FeedsE-Commerce Times Talkback
|
|
See Full StoryThe worlds of e-commerce and online advertising are going through a bit of a phase, it
seems. Experimentation is the name of the game, as e-tailers and others try to break free
of "old" formulas in an all-out effort to re-stoke the growth engines that hummed so
powerfully for a while.
The problem is what two of these recent experiments have in common: They are intrusive.
They are in-your-face. And they are annoying. The two innovations, if we can call them
that, are the X10.com pop-under advertising campaign and the Half.com "Price Patrol."
Both foreshadow a much less user-friendly Web experience in the not-too-distant
future.
It is important that Portals stay alive and they have to do their best efforts to make it. They tried better methods, but hasn't worked ($). The solution goes by doing context advertisement, that way the costs of weight and intrusive information get compensated by the value of the contextual ad information the portal gives me.
Let's progress on applications that administrate ads in a more contextual way!
Regards
Rodrigo Edwards M.
E-Agency
www.vmanagers.net
I long ago did the simple things you can do via browser Preferences (turn off GIF animation, disbale plug-ins, etc.) to limit ad annoyance , jsut short of turning off graphics altogether. I've also looked into various ad-deleting solutions, but by shutting off animation and plugins (to kill Flash-based ads and their ilk), one could make most sites tolerable.
Now, with "skyscrapers" and "4-by-4s" more screen space is covered with ads that I *never* click on. The pop-under/over ads are also quite annoying and the advertisers have to be fools to think that people aren't going to immediately click the close box!
I have no problem paying for ad-free content. I think new media firms are missing the mark here re: subscriptions. You could have three levels of subscription: (1) free content with lots of ads, (2) low cost subscription with very few ads, (3) higher-cost subscription with NO ads.
Advertising in the US has become a blight on the population -- it's gone too far in the real world and will quickly go too far in the cyberworld. I fight back against companies whose advertising I find too intrusive by simply not buying their products!
How much would you be willing to pay a good site each month?
$2.95?
$29.99?
49.99?
Think about it.
I for one love contextual Ads on a page of content. Ad Banners, Sweet Spots, 4x4s are all great if they target me with things I have a interest in.
These pop-unders are just plain wrong. What if a television advertiser turned your TV on after you just turned it off every time you finished watching? (TIVO, AOLTV, WebTV just might be able to do this). What if you turned your radio off in the car to listen to your CD and a radio advertiser made you listen to an Ad first before the CD played? What if your wireless PDA forced you to see an Ad before every time you check your email even if you were paying for wireless service? What if your ATM forced you to watch a 30-second commercial about home loans before it spit out your cash?
These Ad intrusions will not stop until the consumer pushes back and says "That's enough". The author is correct when he says that if consumers don't respond it is a tacit signal of acceptance and there will be no limit.
Instead of coming up with thousands of useless ways of blanketing ad messages, Advertisers should develop intelligent ad delivery and targeting. Here's a thought, work with the content providers to come up with intelligent/contextual ad targeting.
