IN THIS ISSUE: May 23, 2001 To Archive Index A Really New Approach to Online Advertising

Online Advertising Isn't Working: Here's A New Model That Will

by B.L. Ochman

Sure online ads are getting bigger, louder, faster-moving and more intrusive.  But the vast majority are not getting BETTER.  And that, folks, is why advertising isn't working online.

Conventional wisdom maintains that advertising can create desire. And that is true, in conventional media. However, the Internet needs a new way of presenting ads that really fit the new medium.

Ads online really are getting out of hand. The latest actually trap you by freezing the site you are on and pushing advertising in your face. 

Contrast all of this to the new BMW campaign at www.bmwfilms.com, a truly class act featuring short films by well-known directors, including Wong Kar-Wai, Ang Lee, John Frankenheimer, Guy Ritchie, and Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu. BMWs play prominently in each plot of course, but you won't mind. In fact, I bet you'll watch and read about all of the five minute films and the cars. Brilliant! 

Hint: It's not about being bigger or more intrusive
Alas, most of Internet advertising is experimenting with larger, more attention-grabbing formats like the new "takeover ad." This platform literally takes over the screen and doesn't let the surfer continue until the ad is done. With creative presentation this can be cool the first few times you see it and annoying as hell after that. 

Recently, for example, on Yahoo! several crows perched on a Ford banner and flew across the page to a pile of birdseed. As they ate the seeds, a Ford Explorer banner was revealed. Soon your screen started to shake and you heard the sound of engine ignition. A split-second later, the entire Yahoo! page was replaced by an animated Flash ad for the car. The good news is that this ad was actually creative and Ford had the sense to run it on Yahoo only once. Does it sell cars? Who knows? There is yet no meaningful way to measure. But that is another story.

Another relatively new ad delivery method is used by Rising Tide Studios, publisher of Silicon Alley Reporter and several other e-zine and print publications. In exchange for free subscriptions, readers are asked to accept one ad-filled e-mail a week from the publisher. Advertisers never get your e-mail address, so your privacy is respected and protected. You trust the publisher not to send you ads that are complete trash and they don't.

A new product sales model
I think Internet advertising needs to look in a completely different direction. Advertisers should band together to form sites containing all the promotional materials about specific categories of goods. For example, my sister wants to buy a set of pots and pans - the kind that are so good she can give them to her daughter 25 years from now. So she wants information about all the different brands of high-end pots. Why can't she go to a site about pots and see all the manufacturers' promotional materials and special offers? She could do her research and then place an order. Notice I am not suggesting that she be able to view ads. I am talking about product information. 

Sure a site like this would require extraordinary levels of cooperation between competing companies. But it would sell pots. And the idea would work for cars, clothes, and all categories of products.

I'm talking about in-depth information, not just a descriptive paragraph or two. How about online demos, how-tos, endorsements - everything that will help people learn as much as they want to know before they buy. Sure the information will be subjective. But would-be customers can cross-reference with ePinions and other sites that let consumers rate products.

Can't tell them too much
The point is: when someone wants information about a product, you can't tell them too much. If manufacturers were smart about it, they would leave out the heavy-handed hype and stick to products features and benefits. Online, consumers are not going to sit still for hard-sell harping.

The Internet can indeed be used to sell products. It just can't be done by screaming. Like Wendy's Clara Peller, online shoppers want to know "Where's the beef? "

Otherwise, the rise of ad blocking software like AdKiller, AdSubtract and WebWasher will continue unabated. Advertisers will be scratching their heads wondering why consumers are so resistant to Internet advertising. And of course they'll keep coming up with bigger, nastier, more intrusive ways to get out attention. Ways that won't work.

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