Every time a web service decides to include advertisements on their screens, people seem to get up in arms. It happened to Facebook with Sponsored Posts, it happened to Google with Shared Endorsements. It also happened with Instagram when they indicated that ads would start appearing in the stream of photos.
Typically, the way this goes is that people scream and holler about how free services are getting overly commercial and messy with all of this marketing content. After a week or two things die down. After a little bit longer, people even stop noticing the ads.
Which, I guess, is a good thing for users if they can easily just ignore the marketing on a given page.
But from a marketing standpoint, the easy ability for someone to ignore ads is a bad thing. So much time and effort is spent to get a marketing campaign noticed. So much work goes into finding ways to place ads in the "right" spot on a webpage.
Well, there are a few ways to help avoid this pattern of users simply ignoring ads:
Make the ads relevant and/or useful. I've written about that a numberoftimes so I won't belabor that point.
Make the ads really interesting. There are some TV ads that you just want to watch. You'll even pause/rewind your DVR to watch them. Believe it or not, those types of ads can even exist online.
And Point #2 is where I think & hope Instagram marketing is going. Take a look at some ads that Instagram hopes will pique its users interest and draw attention (and taps) to the sponsors:
Skimming through the featured images, I think they fit well with what Instagram users are used to seeing. I mean they fit REALLY well. They look great in the square composition. They're thematically similar to what people tend to post on Instagram anyways (eg, vacations, food, fashion, selfies, or just cool lines/angles). Granted these are just initial examples and not every ad is going to fit so well, but I'd say that if Instagram works with marketers to help ensure this fit for the service, then users WILL notice them and they WILL care about them.
We're all too familiar with people picking fights online. The latest iteration of that is twitter fights with people trading short jabs with each other.
A couple of weeks ago, Kevin Durant and Dwyane Wade traded barbs over the Top 10 players in the NBA right now:
http://mashable.com/2013/09/25/dwyane-wade-kevin-durant-twitter-feud/
This was barely a feud, but it did cause some waves. Personally, I thought it might be related to some Gatorade marketing campain since both Durant and Wade were in a Gatorade commercial last year.
The whole idea of twitter marketing campaigns is really interesting since, well, it's happening! I've listed a few great examples of online marketing, but the idea of using twitter to create a more interactive campaign seems to be gain hold.
The latest has to do with the latest Honda Odyssey minivan which features a built-in vacuum that's meant to pick up all those crumbs that kids leave behind after eating their snacks. Their TV ads have been kind of lame actually:
But the twitter fights have been much more fun! Honda's twitter account tweeted at other snack or food brands...the types of brands that are commonly eaten in the car. Here's a nice summary:
The best thing about this is the replies from the other brands. That's what makes twitter a very different environment. It's easy to create an open dialog. And especially when smart brands are doing it, it turns out to be a fun thing which can create a little buzz in a very different way than can happen through TV ads.
Have you seen other good examples of this type of online marketing? I'd love to see more of it.
A couple of weeks ago I wrote about different ways that touch screens are being introduced to and used by kids. Along the same line, I see new and interesting ways that people in general are using their smartphones. One of the key trends is about having the right information presented to you without having to hunt for it or even explicitly ask for it.
Google Now was one of the first big things that came to my attention where a person doesn't have to ask things, but is presented information that will likely be helpful. It has been available on Android for a while and it'll automatically pop up notifications about traffic, meetings, flight status, etc based on context of time and place. It's more than just neat, it turns your phone into a really helpful tool without having to dig around in different apps. The iOS version of this just added notifications so it should become similarly useful for iPhones.
With the recent launch of iOS7, there are some similar features built in which will automatically add in useful info about traffic, weather, etc. I see similarities with what Google Now is providing, but perhaps not as useful. It was definitely nice to see traffic info pop up on my lock screen over the weekend telling me how long it would take to get home.
The area where I think we'll start to get a little creeped out with "Right time, right place" info is when "factual" info is mixed in with customized marketing. The movie Minority Report was famous for taking the idea of "predictive info" and presenting it in a jarring way. We all remember when Tom Cruise was confronted with dozens of customized ads as he walked down the street. While marketers may not be planning to confront us with such over-the-top ads, the day is not far off where we can quickly get customized real-time marketing without having to check for it. Groupon, Yelp, and Foursquare have all implemented some sort of notifications alerting users of deals nearby, but you frequently hear about how those notifications are more annoying and mis-guided.
So I think the charm in this is going to finding the right balance of presenting this info when people are more likely to want to see it or find it useful. Just like search ads on google or paid ads on facebook, if the ads are relevant to what the person might already be interested in, then the marketing message will go over a lot better.
Now all that being said, here's a really interesting piece about where this might all be headed:
This piece really talks about the smarts and planning that needs to go into location based info. In this case, Major League Baseball is taking a hardware and software based approach and it seems like it could be a real winner. It relies not just on people who are likely interested in the info...everyone at a ballpark is likely interesting in baseball, obviously. It relies on figuring out what the person might actually want and turn that potential desire into a transaction. It's a marketers dream in that sense. Find people who might want to buy a team sweatshirt, and get them to actually buy it by giving them a small discount. Or get them to buy an extra hot dog or soda when they might not really want it.
This isn't just about building an app. It requires connecting a lot of dots between the marketing department, the app builder, as well as the network and other hardware.
I'm really interested to see how this plays out. If this is done well, I fully expect to see this implemented at shopping malls throughout the country. There are already apps which different mall owners have, but I've never seen a reason to download them. If these apps turn into shopping services which can not only help guide shoppers around the mall, but point them to great deals, it can be a win-win. Again, the charm here is going to be in finding the right balance between the marketing message and the non-marketing, but useful information that shoppers may need. And that balance will be different for each shopper young, old, window-shopping, or ready to buy.
What do you think about this stuff? Is it heading too fast to that Minority Report marketing hell? Is it something you'd find useful?
Every time a web service decides to include advertisements on their screens, people seem to get up in arms. It happened to Facebook with Sponsored Posts, it happened to Google with Shared Endorsements. It also happened with Instagram when they indicated that ads would start appearing in the stream of photos.
