Full Motion Video Ads Annoy Fewer Than Expected - So Expect Plenty

from the never-going-to-stop dept

Here's the perfect example of how the bad marketer thinks. If you come up with an advertising technique that annoys fewer people than expected, it's considered a success. That's right, the bad marketers are now judging the success of advertising programs on how many people it annoys. Back in January, I trashed the idea of Unicast's 30-second TV commercials online, pointing out that the internet is not a broadcast medium, and people generally don't want to be interrupted and surprised by a 30 second ad while they're in search of something. Well, the initial tests have concluded, and the marketers are positively thrilled that only 28% of people found them annoying. Of course, that's a fairly simplistic way of looking at it. First, the study was conducted by advertisers, so there's a certain amount of bias built into it. They also don't say how the viewer satisfaction was rated. Second, only 30% actually watched the ads most of the way through (not even all of the way), suggesting that 70% shut it down completely. So, while 28% may have found them annoying, clearly another 42% weren't thrilled with the idea either. Even more importantly, I'm sure some of the initial interest in the ads are due to the fact that it's a novel idea, to see such ads online. Plus, all of the advertisers are big name brands that are used to creating fairly entertaining ads. Fast forward a few years based on these results when every time you close a webpage you're forced to watch a poorly produced 30 second ad for some product you don't want, and see how many people think it's annoying then. Unfortunately, the lazy marketer sees "less than expected were annoyed" and starts planning a big campaign of these ads to make sure that the annoyance level increases to a percentage they're more comfortable with.

5 Comments | Leave a Comment..


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  1.  

    Never underestimate the stupidity of corporate Ame

    identicon
    Mike, Mar 11th, 2004 @ 7:03am

    or our government, for that matter.
    Maybe they should find out how many Internet users are dial up, before they flood our bandwidth with crap we don't want.

    reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  2.  

    Not a fan....

    identicon
    dan, Mar 11th, 2004 @ 7:21am

    I've never watched any second of those ads... You see, I know exactly when they're coming -- despite what they say, every time my machine is loading one, it completely freezes up. Maybe that's a problem with some part of my setup, but regardless, it doesn't happen elsewhere.

    So on that note, has anyone found the precise sites they're coming from so I can block the adservers?

    reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  3.  

    Where's the statistics?

    identicon
    Joe Baderderm, Mar 11th, 2004 @ 11:53am

    I love that the article only passingly acknowledges the results of the surveys. I'm not really convinced that the results are terribly accurate. These ads (from the ones on ESPN) are pop-ups w/ video. And I thought we all hated pop-ups?
    The only long form ads I feel are worth watching are the ones for Salon's free DayPass. Because the content is worth it and I am not yet willing to upgrade to a paid subscription, I'll watch the sponsor's ad everyday.

    reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  4.  

    I just downloaded this product and I would defenet

    identicon
    Kris, May 12th, 2004 @ 9:14am

    It's FREE! Video Ads Blocker 1.0 Video Ads Blocker is designed to block the most annoying Internet ads that are almost impossible to ignore. It can block advertisement in the forms of: Inline videos Background sounds JAVA Applets Animated gif files Macromedia Flash movies http://www.synergeticsoft.com/products.php

    reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  5.  

    Re: Never underestimate the stupidity of corporate

    identicon
    Stoned4Life, Oct 27th, 2005 @ 5:56pm

    How long exactly would such vids take to download on a dialup? That's something to note.

    reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]


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