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June 16, 2007
Online Advertising: How Software is the New Darrin Stephens
Great piece in the Saturday Washington Post on the ongoing upheaval in advertising markets. The article touches on why the 30-second spot is imperiled, why the Cannes ad festival is irrelevant, and how software has become the new Darrin Stephens. But parts are starting to fall off of the decades-old [advertising] industry machine."Agencies now need math guys". That line strikes you, doesn't it?
Consumers are spending more time online and less watching network television. When they do watch, more viewers have the ability to use TiVo to bypass ads. Consumers demand more from their advertising -- they want product information, consumer reviews and purchase options, not just a glib message pitched by a celebrity. And they want information tailored for them, not a mass audience.
"I don't have children, so I don't need to see [ads] for diapers," said Darin Brown, chief strategy officer for Avenue A/Razorfish, owned by digital ad company aQuantive. "I get that the diaper is going to be effective, and the ad entertained me, but it's not going to cause me to buy because it's not relevant to my situation."
... "I believe that search[-based] and other online advertising is taking away from the off-line [or traditional] budgets of marketers, and one reason is it's more accountable," said Karl Siebrecht, president of Atlas Enterprise Solutions, which aQuantive also owns. "You can send your message out there and understand if people click on it downstream, and if they click, do they purchase? If you're selling Toyotas, you can see if they asked for a specific dealer location."
In other words, the art of advertising is turning into the science of advertising. Agencies now need math guys.
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So sad (yet predictable) that many of the agency guys will be among the last to "get it," comfortable as they are in their shrinking cocoons.
Oh, a big part of my income is slipping out of their pockets as they snooze...
Thanks so very much for taking your time to create this very useful and informative site. I have learned a lot from your site. Thanks!!
I use tivo to forward thru most (but not all!) ads, but I also use adblocking software to automatically block most internet ads. For example, I see none of the ads you are running on this page, except for the amazon links.
Almost nobody I know serfs the internet without adblockers. Perhaps you can link to articles discussing click- and impression- bot networks in a later post? Most modern ones click on "legitimate" ads to foil discovery efforts.
Also, the article quotes are all from aQuantive guys. And you are a blogger/ web 2.0 investor, where valuations are almost completely determined by advertising projections. Isn't one of your standard tongue-in-cheek disclaimers appropriate? :)
>>> Almost nobody I know serfs the internet without adblockers.
So there is an entire segment losing touch with web advertising.
Well, ads will just have to get much better to bring you all back into the real world. :) Go ahead, laugh--it will happen, you don't know what you don't know.
Andi, you can't have it both ways: the same arg can be used for the "tivo problem". Plus, my adblocking occurs automatically, whereas with tivo I have to work a bit.
We are at a real Upton Sinclair- moment for web-based advertising, as you all can see :)
We can have it both ways, in fact we are having it infinite ways. This morning I received an email from Amazon which recommended a purchase based on my earlier purchases--I was astonished at how well targeted it was and clicked the "buy with one click" button.
And that's my point. When ads are targeted well enough they cease to be noise. And when they reach that level those who block ads are cutting off their noses to spite their faces.
Granted the ad blockers still get it right most of the time, but that will change and the ad blockers will be at a disadvantage.
It may be hard to imagine, yes. But superior imaginations rule. Eventually.
Yeah, that line does strike me a little. A big part of what I do is search marketing related and I'm definitely not a math guy.