Comments on: Ads By Themselves Won’t Cut It http://www.ethomaz.com/?p=95 everyday thoughts on technology, design, media, collaboration and start-up life Tue, 27 Jul 2010 16:52:16 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0 By: admin http://www.ethomaz.com/?p=95&cpage=1#comment-230 admin Fri, 02 May 2008 02:16:37 +0000 http://www.ethomaz.com/?p=95#comment-230 That's exactly my point. I don't know if there's room for a whole lot of game dominating players. It's a bit like, 'sorry guys, too late, game's over'. BTW, the two ads that you link to are very well done. But as you said, they are completely non-actionable. There's nothing I can do other than watch them. It's all about brand awareness. That’s exactly my point. I don’t know if there’s room for a whole lot of game dominating players. It’s a bit like, ‘sorry guys, too late, game’s over’.

BTW, the two ads that you link to are very well done. But as you said, they are completely non-actionable. There’s nothing I can do other than watch them. It’s all about brand awareness.

]]> By: Mike http://www.ethomaz.com/?p=95&cpage=1#comment-229 Mike Thu, 01 May 2008 11:38:25 +0000 http://www.ethomaz.com/?p=95#comment-229 Ads are really strange, to the point that i really don't understand the whole concept sometimes. For example, watch an hour of television, and you'll see ads for all sorts of things that you <i>can't buy</i> -- ads for how awesome <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x60pWzJvb9Q" rel="nofollow">Cisco networks are</a>, or ads that tell us how innovative the men and women of a <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8MU3og1rT_4" rel="nofollow">defense contractor</a> are. And the pharmaceutical ads -- which you can't buy unless a doctor can be convinced to prescribe it for you. Crazy. So it's not sales of product they're after, it's lifestyle and corporate image. They may generate goodwill and maybe some bump in their stock price -- but it's really bizarre to me if that's the goal of primetime TV advertising. Google's innovation was that they had a great search algorithm, and figured out how advertising could generate revenue based on that core competency. Though ads in general are annoying, Google's ads are, for the most part, pretty non-intrusive, but apparently the targeting of certain search users is valuable to the companies that buy ads. What Google does <b>not</b> prove is that advertising is the magic bullet for all web companies to stay afloat. What does AOL have to offer here? What's their core competency that they hope advertising can leverage? The days of AOL being the major ISP are gone, and with it, the eyeballs of its once huge pool of customers. Why would a company rather advertise through them than through Google? Ads are really strange, to the point that i really don’t understand the whole concept sometimes. For example, watch an hour of television, and you’ll see ads for all sorts of things that you can’t buy — ads for how awesome Cisco networks are, or ads that tell us how innovative the men and women of a defense contractor are. And the pharmaceutical ads — which you can’t buy unless a doctor can be convinced to prescribe it for you. Crazy.

So it’s not sales of product they’re after, it’s lifestyle and corporate image. They may generate goodwill and maybe some bump in their stock price — but it’s really bizarre to me if that’s the goal of primetime TV advertising.

Google’s innovation was that they had a great search algorithm, and figured out how advertising could generate revenue based on that core competency. Though ads in general are annoying, Google’s ads are, for the most part, pretty non-intrusive, but apparently the targeting of certain search users is valuable to the companies that buy ads.

What Google does not prove is that advertising is the magic bullet for all web companies to stay afloat.

What does AOL have to offer here? What’s their core competency that they hope advertising can leverage? The days of AOL being the major ISP are gone, and with it, the eyeballs of its once huge pool of customers. Why would a company rather advertise through them than through Google?

]]>