We’ve discussed the disconnect between marketers and consumers here on the screed more than once and I had set aside a research study a couple of weeks ago to do so again. It’s a document from the Adobe folks called “Click Here: The State Of Online Advertising” and it makes for a brief, interesting read. As one might expect, consumers don’t exactly rave about their love for advertising. That said, they do seem to recognize the need for advertising and prefer professionally created ads over user-generated marketing:
Consumers and marketing professionals agree that marketing is valued, strategic to business and paramount to driving sales. Professional advertising is the most effective form of advertising, but 27% of marketers believe that user-generated content is the most popular form of online advertising.
Of course, 53% agree that most marketing is a bunch of B.S. (the study’s term, not mine). The key to me is, as eMarketer reported:
Marketers and the consumers they are trying to reach disagreed on the effectiveness of a wide variety of ad types, according to the survey. Though both groups thought the best ads were those created by professional marketers, nearly half of marketers said this, compared with just 36% of internet users. There was large disagreement about the effectiveness of paid search ads (touted by marketers, played down by web users) and outdoor advertising (the reverse). Internet users were also much more likely to say there were no good or effective ads—positions which marketers were extremely unlikely to hold, for obvious reasons.
Why are the senders so out of sync with the receivers? As the study shows, people prefer to get information from people they trust. The issue, then, is how does a brand penetrate that circle? Does anyone believe it’s through fake “likes” on Facebook where we see friends (even dead ones!) shilling for stuff they wouldn’t ever use? Maybe we need to be less lazy – tell better stories, do better creative – since 68% of consumers find online ads “annoying” and “distracting” and 54% say banner ads don’t work. I suspect this dichotomy has ever been so to a certain extent. For people in the market for various products, marketing messages are important and welcome. For everyone else, they’re an annoying fact of life.
Here’s the thing – EVERYONE is in the market for something nearly all the time. Food and entertainment, for example, are daily “purchases”. As the research shows, until we on the marketing side do a better job of connecting, our ability to influence those decisions will always be less than it could be. You agree?
Consult Keith 
I understand that advertising is a necessity.
What I dislike:
Ads that freeze all user actions until they complete loading and run. Yahoo Hotmail has it set that you can’t automatically click to get into your account until the advertisement, if it’s a video, runs completely. You can enter your information by hand, which is what I do which means I don’t watch the video at all.
Time Warner’s email sucks too. They run the ads at the top and I pay absolutely no attention to them whatsoever. Why? Because while they are loading, I can’t keyboard. Plus, the cursor is gone since they started with the ads. Their online programming schedule is messed up as well. Click once or twice to move further into the day to see what’s coming up and the time above doesn’t change so you may think a program comes on at 3 o’clock in the afternoon when it actually doesn’t show until 7 that night. I should watch ads that are making Time Warner big bucks when they screw up my computer time and cause me hassles? I don’t think so!
The best ads I’ve ever seen and actually watch are on MSN. Why? They are too cool. The action happens outside the box which is innovative and entertaining. And most important, they don’t take forever to load.