Tag Archives: Online advertising

October 10, 2012 · 9:21 am

Inappropriate Brand Behavior

The folks at Lab42 put out a piece of research concerning how consumers interact with brands on Facebook.

Image representing Facebook as depicted in Cru...

Image via CrunchBase

I find it illuminating although not particularly surprising. Let’s see what you think.

As reported by the Media Post folks:

Nearly one-half of social media users have liked a brand without ever having intentions to buy from them. Among those 46%, more than one-half say they were motivated to like the brand by a freebie, and 46% simply wanted to associate with the brand, even though they couldn’t afford the brand’s products.

As they say on Facebook, OMG!  People have ulterior motives, although I’m not really sure that wanting to save a buck or seeing certain products as aspirational are exactly out of the norm.  In fact only 14% of social media users who like brand pages say they do so out of loyalty to the brand.  What’s even more interesting are the reasons people gave for un-liking a brand:

73% of social media users have un-liked a brand, citing a high frequency of brand posts, no longer liking the brand, or a bad customer experience as reasons for doing so.

In other words, the brand is using Facebook (and probably other social media as well) as yet another marketing megaphone rather than as a way to conduct conversations with consumers.  In fact, there is a segment of the Facebook base – 15% or so – who just don’t like brands at all, mostly out of privacy concerns and not wanting the clutter in their news feeds.  Of course, communication from a brand is only perceived as clutter if it has no value to the recipient (and for the record there are certain people who are guilty of doing the same thing to their friends’ feeds).

All of this makes sense.  Facebook and other social media are not where people go to interact with brands and brand messaging – that would be a brand’s website.  Obviously social media is a place brands need to be but they need to respect why users are there and interact appropriately.  Giving something of value is clearly appealing – cluttering up news feeds is not.

What are your thoughts?  Do you like brands on Facebook and other social media?  How is their behavior?  Have you un-liked any?  How come?

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September 13, 2012 · 9:25 am

First Impressions

I almost called today’s missive “Don’t Shoot The Messenger.” As a person who has had hundreds of meetings in which the efficacy of advertising is discussed at length I’ve noticed an ongoing theme.  Clients (or their agencies) sometimes complained that they weren’t getting any sort of decent return on their media investment.  In their minds, maybe TV or the Web or (now) Mobile just aren’t worth the investments and perhaps they’d be better served trying something different.  My response usually involved a reminder not to shoot the messenger.

A “medium” (and I’m not writing about psychics here) is an intervening substance, as air, through which a force acts or an effect is produced.  TV is a medium, as are radio, the Web, and others.  Their job is to deliver the advertising message.  To be blunt about it, if the message – the ad – is crap, so will be the response.

In the digital world, there is a lot of literature on the size of ads – size, format, content, design and type – and not surprisingly they generally find that bigger advertisements are more effective in attracting attention which increases response.  On the other hand, other research found that design and content of the
advertisement have an impact on Click-Through Rate (CTR) and increases the interest in Advertising.  The reality is if advertisements, regardless online or offline, don’t catch your attention within seconds they are considered to have failed.  I’d add to that if the intrusiveness of the ad pisses off the consumer, it’s failed as well regardless of the brilliance of the creative.

There is a movement in the digital ad world to move towards a “Cost Per Viewable Impression” model which I’ve said before I think is dumb on web sellers’ parts to encourage unless TV, radio, and other media can fall into the same model (good luck with that).  Regardless of impressions or medium, bad creative equates to bad responses.

You agree?  What creative have you seen lately – good or bad – that really got your attention?

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August 20, 2012 · 10:38 am

Racing To The Bottom

I was speaking with Don Antonio this morning.

English: digital hub Català: digital hub

(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

He’s a media maven who’s an incredible resource to me both personally and professionally. We were chatting, as we do from time to time, about the state of affairs in digital media and the topic of pricing came up. One needn’t think very long about how buyers and sellers interact before the realization that there’s a horrible misalignment of goals out there.  No, after 30+ years in the media business I’m not shocked that agencies want to buy things less expensively while sellers want to grow their revenues and maintain “rate card integrity.”  But it feels different now – let me explain.

It’s always been about the client – the advertiser – and getting results.  The problem now is that there’s no reasoning with a machine.  Real time buying, trading desks, and other “innovations” just push down CPM’s (which is why a lot of premium sites won’t deal in this space).  Meanwhile, a well thought out integrated promotion can’t get sold and activated because it doesn’t fit any models.  Many newer buyers (and sellers) learn  the tools but don’t understand the business.

Another thing.  comScore in particular (they sell the software) and others in general are making a big thing about not counting digital ad exposures unless there’s proof the ad was in a visible part of the page.  Nice idea – why pay for an ad that the user never saw even if it was displayed.  The problem for me is this – no other medium is doing that.  Oh sure – TV and radio can prove an ad ran – now let’s see the proof that even though the set was on someone was in the room and paying attention.  Magazines do research this but I’m not sure it’s used in rate negotiation.

We’re racing to the bottom, as The Don put it.  We use tools that drive down CPM’s and we impose delivery standards that make us work harder than any other medium to get paid.  I know – complaining isn’t a pretty way to start the week, but what are we thinking?  Your thoughts?

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