My last post gathered quite a selection of comments with about half of them telling me I was full of ***... Which is fine, I have thick skin and at least the piece caused a reaction. But only one commenter picked up on my observation of how few social networking sites seem to have any kind of business plan for monetizing themselves as an advertising proposition.
Obvious as it sounds, many are questioning how to change the way effectiveness of advertising content is measured. And as the point of advertising on a social network is to get the attention of, and hopefully have an impact on users, existing forms of measurement, based on clicks and impressions, just don't do it.
There's lots of chat about awareness and consideration, meaning that ad messages have to encourage engagement, Sean Finnegan, president and chief digital officer at Starcom MediaVest, claims that multi-dimensional measurement will become inevitable, suggesting that a model will evolve that accurately makes every step of the interaction between the audience and the site quantifiable, from traditional metrics like reach and time spent to interaction rates.
I just don't think anyone has cracked it yet.
Engagement metrics are exactly right. The media agencies have talked about this for a couple fo years now, but haven't really achieved it. There are numerous black box measurement dashboards floating around, but they can only measure against datapoints available, like clicks and impressions. Measuring 'time spent with the brand' is tricky too, but a good goal. PS *not* on second life.
That's right George, nobody has cracked it yet because nobody goes out into the ether looking to be sold to. It would be like taking a ship into space and driving in a straight line hoping to hit a planet by chance. The human mind is focussed. Advertising interrupts that focus and replaces it either with a good or a rubbish idea. If the idea is different, it gets attention. If the idea is relevant and good, it generates a sale. Surfers are already thinking about what they want when they go online. They have already sold themselves on what they want to buy, so the whole process is almost the reverse of advertising. The more they are sold to, the more they lose interest, because they already know what they want. Advertising on the other hand delivers. It breaks into new markets, it sells to people who may not already be customers, and, done properly reinforces brand loyalty to the brand. I've just written on Dave Trott's site about ideas and executions that: 'The idea is King'. Online, Content is King. They are opposite poles of the same continuum. Peter Nash, an ex-colleague Creative Director of mine explained ads like this: he drew a VW car and asked people to mention the benefits. There were about 20. That's not an ad. That's body copy. Content. Every adman worth his salt knows hardly anyone reads body copy. So Online cannot possibly be king of the idea. However, it can be the King of content because it's a medium that flows more freely than a block of body copy. You see a list of benefits about a car, you click on the one you want to know about without having to read all the rest.
The only problem with this of course, is it's probably the rest, the stuff you don't know about, that is going to sell you the car. So yes, I agree with you, show me the money, but all they show you is the research. Research showed Cadbury's Smash advertising was never ever going to work. It was one of the most successful advertising campaigns in UK advertising history. It's not about research, it's about results, revenue, making money. That is what advertising is all about. Turning the wheels of industry.
Kevin...
Right on several points, but I will question you on your "no one reads body copy" statement. I think Howard Gossage put it best... "People don't read advertising, they read what interests them, sometimes it's an ad." Which plays back to your... "Surfers are already thinking about what they want when they go online." The one thing I've learned over the years is that there are no hard and fast rules. If there were, this would be easy.
Cheers/George
George Parker
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