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.
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  • identicon
    Mike, 11 Mar 2004 @ 7:03am

    Never underestimate the stupidity of corporate Ame

    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.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

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

      Re: Never underestimate the stupidity of corporate

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

      link to this | view in chronology ]

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

    Not a fan....

    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?

    link to this | view in chronology ]

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

    Where's the statistics?

    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.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

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

    I just downloaded this product and I would defenet

    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

    link to this | view in chronology ]


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