The case for interruption

The first story I wrote about Internet advertising was in 2002. I just began covering the online ad industry for Internet Advertising Report (now ClickZ). My first assignment: cover a speech by Google CEO Eric Schmidt at a conference. Google’s success – this was before its IPO – was just becoming apparent. Schmidt told a roomful of ad types what I thought was a nice, simple message: Stop scaring users. I even used it as a headline.

Ever since, the trend in online advertising has been to emulate Google. After all, it is the shining success story with its simple, unobtrusive targeted links that “act like content.” That’s all good when you’re harvesting demand, but brand advertising is about creating demand. This is where the model falls apart. Creating demand probably requires a degree of interruption. Instead, it seems like all the energy in the industry has gone into using data to target users better and “drive efficiencies” via ad networks. That’s landed display advertising in the pickle it finds itself: a commoditized product that’s nearly universally ignored. Only now, it seems, has the issue of creative gained steam.

Display ads, the presumed vehicle for brand ad messages, have actually gotten less interruptive over the years. In the early days, pop-ups and pop-unders were all the rage. Then we all got pop blockers. Advertisers went momentarily nuts with Eyeblaster rich media ads flying across the page. But those seemed to fade. Instead, display ads have mostly behaved, staying in their little areas off to the side where they can be safely ignored. Facebook, the new darling of the digital world, treats advertising as a necessary evil. The concept of interrupting users appears abhorrent to its executives. As a user, I applaud that.

I also think it’s stupid. The economy sucks. Display ad rates are in the toilet. It’s probably time publishers treat their users like grownups. That means interruption. Troy from Videoegg lays out a compelling case for interrupting users, along with more rich media and an attention model. I'll leave the last two for another time to concentrate on interruption. This is a sensitive issue when we debate “digital creativity.” The notion that Internet publishers can attract brand advertisers with the current little IAB formats is far-fetched. Troy believes ads need to get bigger and flashier. They need to get users’ attention. Maybe they need to start scaring users.

We’re already seeing publishers go in this direction. Witness ESPN’s prestital takeover and the New York Times running gargantuan Apple ads. Hulu is doing just fine with a smart interruptive ad model. The economic pressures on publishers will accelerate this. There is too much supply out there. Ads are not staying on the periphery of content. It’s simply inevitable. The social media gurus will say companies should leave behind this legacy approach and make things worth talking about and sharing. Agreed, but I don't see brands giving up on interruptive advertising. TV is still pretty strong after all. I'm not sure if it's an either-or proposition. It may feel good to say interruptive advertising is dead, but it's probably wrong.

Comments

[Irv Remedios]

The interruption model can be more effective for both advertisers and consumers under certain conditions. From the advertiser's perspective the message should be targeted, timely and in context. From the consumer's perspective - and especially with mobile text or voice messages - an opt in to receive the message indicates a strong willingness to engage with the advertiser.

[Keith Richman]

The key to making intrusive ads effective is to make them creative. Executions that are cool, unique or lrverage new technologies go over well with the audience. This is different than a pop-over, etc.

[tom troja]

Good play to Evolution. Google has dumbed down the creative juices with its success in text. Troy is on to something. But....beware of aspiring to TV and the one spot for everybody thinking... the campaign and great idea being the driver. This digital evolution has also empowered the people..the user truly is in control and we have developed the mindset... that I am in control of my attention. If you put that one spot up for everyone...odds are you are missing many people who just don't connect...see/feel it.... your one idea just not for them.

How about we take this targeting technology we've been developing and put a piece of it towards informing us about the emotional person....so we know what kind of world this person wants to see related to the brand and have 3 types of different creative treatments that gets a greater response for that brand. Round out the thinking here so that it is not just interuptive but effective. Use the targeting know how we've been developing to serve the most appropriate of the 3 ads to the taste of that person .... what imagery and words they respond to. Been working on this at EmotionEngine.com for 10 years.... interesting stuff...put the lens on the people.... if you are going to interupt... you'd better be pleasing.

So more work for everyone... better creative... beter displayed with better results....no turning back.

[tom troja]

Good play to Evolution. Google has dumbed down the creative juices with its success in text. Troy is on to something. But....beware of aspiring to TV and the one spot for everybody thinking... the campaign and great idea being the driver. This digital evolution has also empowered the people..the user truly is in control and we have developed the mindset... that I am in control of my attention. If you put that one spot up for everyone...odds are you are missing many people who just don't connect...see/feel it.... your one idea just not for them.

How about we take this targeting technology we've been developing and put a piece of it towards informing us about the emotional person....so we know what kind of world this person wants to see related to the brand and have 3 types of different creative treatments that gets a greater response for that brand. Round out the thinking here so that it is not just interuptive but effective. Use the targeting know how we've been developing to serve the most appropriate of the 3 ads to the taste of that person .... what imagery and words they respond to. Been working on this at EmotionEngine.com for 10 years.... interesting stuff...put the lens on the people.... if you are going to interupt... you'd better be pleasing.

So more work for everyone... better creative... beter displayed with better results....no turning back.

[michael maurillo]

what i struggle with in Troy's (videoeggs) position is that it is not taking into consideration the user. sure, advertisers would love to run bigger disruptive ads, publishers would love to charge more for big disruptive ads, agencies (some) would love to make bigger disruptive ads and vendors like videoegg would love to serve them on their platform, but do users want to be disrupted? hell no. do they want to be entertained by useful messages, some times. but not at the given moment when advertisers decides to.

i'm all for creating standards that provide a better vehicle to deliver a message on, bigger banners might be one of the options. but it is unrealistic to hold up Apple on NYT or Ford on ESPN as examples of how it works. these are some of the best brands working with the best agencies. what happens when we give the mortgage lenders of the world a bigger stand to perform their CRAPPY dancing banners on? users mind will explode, and worse yet, they won't want to come back to the site that you are running your ads on!

balance is the key here, and i think we all know that. i've been a big fan of videoeggs approach since i first ran a campaign with them over a years ago, but "disruption" is the wrong word here, worse yet, the wrong approach. if we start leading our strategic thinking with disruption, it will only end with louder shouting at our users.

[Ethan Bauley]

Brian,

John Hagel had a killer insight on the points you're making:

"Search distracted us from the real power of the Internet: enhancing the ability to attract and influence people"

I serendipitously stumbled upon that b/c we're "friends" on Facebook...he expands on the thought in a pretty mind-blowing way, but you'll have to surf to my blog to read the rest (it's a screengrab):

http://www.ethanbauley.com/post/70328095/and-that-my-friends-is-why-its-awesome-to-be

He sums it up with: "The most valuable experiences are the ones I wasn't looking for."

What a genius!

[David S.]

Hi Brian,

I must say that you and the fellow from Videoegg have thought this out quite thoroughly, which I am always pleased to see, but I must disagree on this point. Sure, advertisers made very small pokes into the advertising world, mostly inspired by Google's "less is more" strategy I would imagine. They have certainly regretted this decision and are finally starting to turn up the annoyance meter to points where I would consider the user just slightly below being perturbed. However, I agree with Michael that the diversity of content of the web 2.0 revolution has given user a very dangerous weapon: a self-awareness about the direction of his/her attention. I love Clay Shirky's concept of the "cognitive surplus" that has generated so many wonderful technological and cultural advancements (Wikipedia, open source software, Flickr, etc.), but the absolutely overwhelming number of channels have given users, I think, a much better understanding of how precious a currency their time and attention is. As a result, when consuming content infused with advertising, a consumer is now more aware than ever before that "I can go do/watch/read something else." When you combine this with technology's oft-proven adaptness at overcoming barriers of inconvenience (DRM, Pirate Bay, etc.) you are more likely, I think, to send users somewhere else with in-your-face advertising, even if the somewhere else is *in a different medium* like reading or playing games.

Let me summarize this way: Hulu is a great service. Almost universally adored by its community of users. One of the reasons I think that they have a great model of advertising which is short, simple, forced, and to the point. I don't mind their ads as much because of a sort of transparency that the directness of the ads communicates. However, should Hulu decide to pursue the track of the obnoxious, I'll gladly find another place. Ultimately, I think that unless the market is unduly influenced to consolidate, holes will always appear when advertising companies, at least, give the appearance of not caring about their customers.

Thoughts?

[Brooks Jordan]

The Apple ad on the NYTimes isn't interrupting us, it's entertaining us.

[Brooks Jordan]

Brian,

I have Troy's (from VideoEgg) PDF open on making the Web friendlier to brands from his post that you talk about above.

Do you really think this about interruption? I don't, and I don't think Troy does either.

If we're going to make the Web friendlier to brands, it also has to be friendlier to people. The move has to be one and the same.

Sure, this doesn't mean people won't put up with ads that mimic what they're used to off the Web (like TV). For example, I love the big Apple ads on the NYTimes you refer to, but I simply put up with most of the prestitial ads on ESPN because I want the content.

Every time ESPN does that to me on the Web, it's eroding its own brand as well as the advertiser's, just a little every time.

Why not be as committed to me as the consumer as they are to the brand? It's not even harder to do. Then, if they showed me "a big fun ad" as Troy talks about in his PDF, not only would I accept it, I'd welcome it.

In order to have "a media currency that measures discrete engagement," which is Troy's fourth idea to make the Web friendlier to brands, first you have to get people to engage, right?

Definitely, size and let's call it "presence" (i.e., the banner does not disappear from the page as one scrolls down) are key to being noticed, but if engaging people is the goal - the very currency it all starts to be measured on (and therefore how the industry makes money) - then an ad's size and presence has to be an integral part of making it happen, right?

In other words, the way the ad is presented can't work against the goal of engagement or, really, the distributed, open structure of the Web.

ESPN is welcome to put an ad in front of me in a way that it's hard for me to ignore, they should realize, though, that winning my full attention is the game. The NYTimes and Apple win this game every time, and the size/presence of the ad helps them to win it.

[Ben Kunz]

Interruption works. But @David S. nails the risk of too much ad interruption when he comments "should Hulu decide to pursue the track of the obnoxious, I'll gladly find another place."

The risk for online publishers is if they go too far with interruption, their customers will quickly flow somewhere else. The radio network Clear Channel learned this the hard way when a few years back it pushed radio spots to 12 minutes per hours. Ratings declined, and Clear Channel was forced to cut back to just over 9 minutes of spots with a PR campaign called "Less is More."

The web moves very quickly, content consumers have millions of options, and publishers who adopt new aggressive ad formats better watch their bounce rates closely. When the supply of interruption exceeds consumers' demand for tolerance, the market will quickly self-correct.

[slowmo]

Here's a good example of interruption that may work, if the target audience is hardcore games:

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/7.90892

http://creativity-online.com/?action=news:article&newsId=135012

Given that there is a multi-player version for the downloadable advergame toolbar, you can round up your gamer friends by sending a shout-out through Twitter or IM for a surprise gun-fight against Killzone's villains, the Helghasts.

[slowmo]

Check out this great ipod touch banner on this site:

http://pitchfork.com/

[slowmo]

Case for interruption:

http://www.vision6.com.au/em/message/email/view.php?id=459709&u=15616

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