May 21, 2007
Don't Call It Advertising
An article after my own heart, by Jeremy Lockhorn from Clickz.
"Consumers have long expressed annoyance with TV advertising and are now showing the same feelings toward pre-roll and other interruptive ad formats online. The discussion has reached a fever pitch over the last few years as DVRs have become the great disruptor and the raw amount of advertising that people are exposed to has increased.
We all understand advertising underwrites the content, but there's a point at which the value proposition breaks. And the situation is all the more annoying when most of the advertising is completely irrelevant to most of the audience.
... Innovation around video advertising is absolutely critical to its long-term success online. Why be satisfied with annoying but effective? Why not experiment while the audiences are ramping up and clamoring for new and different experiences?
I can't tell you the number of calls I get from technology vendors or publishers who are proud to exclaim that they've invented a new way to force people to watch advertising. "Thanks but no thanks," is about all they get from me. We have the technology and the energy to completely reinvent these ad models. Let's not accept "good enough."
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