In the stream, ads masquerade as content

There’s part of the Google story that doesn’t get enough attention, believe it or not. Here it is: Google’s success is based, in part, on people not knowing its ads are ads. AdWords placement looks a hell of a lot like the other links that weren’t paid for. Google of course discretely labels the ads, although it wouldn’t use that term – sponsored sounds much more benign.

Switch over to display. Here, there’s a different story. Many display ads don’t fit with the environments the live. This is for many reasons, but it’s just a fact. And so they’re not only clicked but we actively avoid those areas. This kinda sucks for advertisers. So we’ve seen some taking a page from the old playbook and just making their ads bigger and “more impactful.” (This means LOUDER.)

Social media presents a different challenge. The adjacency model, built for editorial and entertainment content, isn't a great fit. Fred Wilson thinks marketers need to be part of “the stream,” the persistent ticker of information the flows by us daily in Google Reader, Facebook and Twitter.  When ads are part of the stream, they can’t look too much like ads. This can be obvious with the popularity of those pay per post, er “sponsored conversations,” programs. Brands will use other methods, I’m sure, including the cover of charities to get people to market them to their friends. Sometimes it’s a matter of subtle placement of regular ad units. The Facebook redesign is taking a step in this direction, I think. Facebook is dead set against having ads overwhelm the experience so they’re weaving them into the experience, which is centered around the news feed. They want to make advertisers part of the stream of conversations. Check out the new Facebook and look at the most prominent ad placement, the ad for a movie called I Love You, Man. That’s an ad? I had to look three times before I could tell.

Other changes at Facebook make this direction clear. Brand pages will imitate personal pages, so their actions can get into the news feed easily and (Facebook hopes) more naturally. My guess is any Twitter ad model will go this route, not banners. One company I know is working on a model to beam brand endorsements, on an opt-in basis, to a friend’s Twitter connections. The idea is these sponsor messages appear seamlessly with the stream of updates. Is this a good thing? I have no idea. I firmly believe advertising messages will get more integrated with content experiences. The adjacency model increasingly looks broken, from newspapers to magazines to display to broadcast TV. Ideally, marketers will earn their way into the stream be doing something remarkable, but they’ll still need to buy their way in sometimes. How this is done in a way that makes people comfortable is the big challenge.

Comments

[amanda]

It's kind of inevitable that advertising will winnow its way in. I thin the natural evolution of establishing guidelines and unspoken consensus regarding acceptability will eventually help regulate this. Unfortunately these mediums we enjoy personally and professionally are in for a tidal wave of, "You going to let this fly?" marketing audacity.

[Brooks Jordan]

>"How this is done in a way that makes people comfortable is the big challenge."

I think the way to do it is not just make the ad look like content, but to actually approach it creatively as content - or insist that the advertisers do so - and then it's really going to fly.

But this would take a big commitment by Facebook. They'd need an ad manifesto of some kind or a set of principles to guide them. Unfortunately, I don't see any signs of such a thing.

And if the ads remain as bad as they've been to date, but now camouflaged in the UI as content, users are going to become very uncomfortable over time, not knowing what they can trust.

Facebook doesn't want to go down this path . . . they can change the UI, but the ads themselves have to actually *be* content in order to be in the flow of content. Ultimately, this means Facebook has to be thinking about what users really want.

[raivo pommer-]

Raivo Pommer
[email protected]

AIG-krise

Die US-Bevölkerung ist ob der teuren Renovierung ähnlich empört wie bei den AIG-Bonizahlungen für Versager-Banker, hatte doch der Staat in drei Tranchen rund 45 Milliarden Dollar in die Citigroup gepumpt, um einen Kollaps der Krisenbank zu vermeiden. "Es ist das falsche Signal“, sagte Charles Elson vom Weinberg Center for Corporate Governance der University of Delaware zu Bloomberg. Der Staat will seine Anteile an der Bank auf bis zu 40 Prozent aufstocken.

Das Institut selbst kann die ganze Aufregung um die Millionen-Renovierung nicht nachvollziehen und rechtfertigt die Ausgaben mit dem Argument, dass langfristig gespart werde. "Unsere Topmanager ziehen von zwei Fluren in kleinere, einfachere Büros auf einen Flur um", teilte die Bank mit. Weltweit will die Citigroup in den kommenden Jahren 15 Milliarden Dollar durch die Verknappung von Büroraum sparen.

Für die Citigroup ist die millionenschwere Renovierung nicht der erste Fauxpas. Erst vor wenigen Wochen war bekanntgeworden, dass die US-Großbank für 50 Millionen Dollar einen neuen Firmenjet Typ Dassault Falcon 7X kaufen wollte und trotz der Finanzkrise an der Bestellung aus dem Jahr 2005 festhalten wollte. Erst die Kritik von US-Präsident Barack Obama veranlasste die Bank zur Stornierung des Auftrags. Die Bank habe "keine Absicht, sich irgendein neues Flugzeug liefern zu lassen", hieß es in einer Mitteilung.

[raivo pommer]

Saarbrücken ist diese Woche erste Stadt des fairen Handels in Deutschland geworden, weil sich Fleurance Laroppe in den Siebzigern für die Revolution der Sandinisten in Nicaragua engagiert hat. Die Französin arbeitete als Dolmetscherin für die Nachrichtenagentur "Stimme des Südens" in dem mittelamerikanischen Land. "Wir wollten, dass die Menschen selbst über die Geschehnisse in ihrem Land berichten, nicht nur die internationalen Agenturen", erzählt die 57-Jährige, die eine auffällige rote Lederjacke trägt. Ein Professor holte sie an die Universität Saarbrücken, wegen ihrer Erfahrung in Nicaragua. Seitdem hat sie sich ehrenamtlich für Entwicklungspolitik eingesetzt. Seit einigen Jahren wirbt sie begeistert für den fairen Handel.

Sie will die Menschen zum bewussten Einkaufen anregen: "Man muss die Betonköpfe für den fairen Handel weich klopfen", sagt Laroppe und lacht. Mit Gleichgesinnten dekoriert sie den Saarbrücker Ratskeller, wo es Tische für die Regionen Asien, Afrika und Lateinamerika gibt mit den typischen fairen Waren Tee, Schokolade oder Kaffee. Am liebsten hätte Laroppe die Bilder der bayerischen Könige abgehängt, damit sie nicht von den Informationen über die Fair-Trade-Stadt ablenken.

[AMP3-Social Media PR Firm]

As someone who uses Facebook on a daily basis for both personal and professional use, I have to say that I think their approach to advertising has been quite smart so far. Yes, their "engagement ads" can make some people uncomfortable in the sense that it's become harder and harder to tell if something is a paid ad or a genuine endorsement from trusted friend. But at the same time, I've found some ads that were really relevant to my interests and I didn't regret clicking on them.

However, I don't think that ALL of the "sponsored" messages should integrate seamlessly into our regular "organic" feeds. If Facebook were to adopt such a model, they would lose their users' trust very quickly. And if people feel like ad-based social networking sites are taking them for fools, and abusing their trust, they won't stand for it for very long.

[raivo pommer-.]

raivo pommer-www.google.ee
[email protected]

UBS NUTZE

Die Schweizer Großbank UBS zieht mit einem radikalen Stellenabbau Konsequenzen aus einem weiteren Milliardenverlust im ersten Quartal. Den Planungen des neuen Konzernchefs Oswald Grübel zufolge sollen 2010 noch 67.500 Personen für den Konzern arbeiten, 8.700 Stellen werden im laufenden Jahr gestrichen. Ende März dieses Jahres beschäftigte die UBS rund 76.200 Mitarbeiter. Seit Jahresbeginn hat die Bank bereits 1600 Stellen gestrichen.

In der Schweiz gingen 2500 Stellen verloren, erklärte ein Sprecher. Die Großbank nutze zudem die natürliche Fluktuation. Es bestehe ein Sozialplan. Bis Ende 2010 will die Bank 3,5 bis 4,0 Milliarden Franken im Vergleich zu 2008 einsparen. Die Kapitalquote sinkt vermutlich auf zehn Prozent, nachdem es zum Jahreswechsel noch 11,5 Prozent gewesen waren.

[raivo pommer-]

American Sterling Bank, based in Sugar Creek, Mo., and Great Basin Bank of Nevada in Elko, Nevada were shuttered by the Office of Thrift Supervision and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation was named receiver, according to statements posted on the FDIC's Web site.

American Sterling Bank had total assets of approximately $181 million and total deposits of $171.9 million as of March 20, according to the release.

Metcalf Bank, headquartered in Lee's Summit, Mo., will assume all of the deposits of the failed bank.

In addition to taking over all of the deposits, Metcalf Bank will purchase approximately $173.6 million in assets, leaving a small remainder for the FDIC to dispose of later.

The bank failure will cost the Deposit Insurance Fund approximately $42 million, according to the FDIC.

[BeTweeted Advertising on Twitter]

I think that social media is forcing advertisers to become more in-tune with what their market is saying and thinking. The days of the "louder" ad winning out simply because of impression are gone.

[Masquerade Masks]

Yes, Google and the others are getting more and more sofisticated with their tactics, tho I'm not sure that its a good thing! Love your blog BTW :)

[Masquerade Prom]

Interesting point about the meaning of impactful.....it really does just mean louder!

[Geld]

Im Grunde genommen ne praktische Sache, ich frag mich aber, ob dies auch langfristig realistisch machbar sein wird.

[headbands for brides]

Facebook is definietly getting better at turning users into ad clicks, thats for sure!