Garfield's Ad Review
This Might Be an Ad That'll Actually Get Click-Through
Why Apple's Latest Online Spot From TBWA Is 'Value Added'
The next 600 words nominally review the latest Apple ad, but actually they represent more of a bone toss.
The tossee is Randall Rothenberg, president of the Interactive Advertising Bureau. The ... um ... tosser is AdReview.
The reason is a friendly, ongoing dispute concerning the future of online advertising. The difference of opinion breaks down as follows: AdReview believes the internet will be at best a marginal ad medium, never to replace the venerable but collapsing Mainstream Media.
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Title: Mac Marketer: Apple  Agency: TBWA/Media Arts Lab, Los Angeles |
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| There may be only one way in the world to get more than 2.5% of viewers to click on an ad, and that's to tell them not to click on it. |
While he acknowledges that a nearly infinite supply of online ad inventory has depressed prices across all media, and that the click-through rate of banners approaches zero, the factor he believes we are unable or unwilling to acknowledge is "value added."
He likes to speak of pork bellies, which are a commodity. On the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, they fetch about 74¢ a pound. But at the grocery, bacon and rotary-sliced Virginia-cured ham might cost 10 times that. Because they aren't a commodity; they're cured and packaged and just sooooo yummy.
In his analogy, generic inventory is a pork belly. A quality ad -- given added value by precise targeting or creative ingenuity -- is yummy.
Us, we'd like to see the CPM numbers thrown into an econometric model. Our best guess is that the yummiest ads won't fetch prices that'll subsidize much in the way of premium content. But feel free to dismiss that guess as the ravings of a nincompoop. There's some bone tossing to take care of.
We have seen the bacon to which Randall Rothenberg refers, and it is an online-video spot for Apple from TBWA/Media Arts Lab, Los Angeles.
To be precise, it's a John Hodgman-Justin Long "I'm a PC, I'm a Mac" spot that appeared a week ago in The Wall Street Journal online. It is the usual funny and charming and good-natured shiv between Microsoft's ribs we've come to expect. But here's what it isn't:
1) a boxy video player with a branded skin shouting, "Don't click here!"
2) out of context with the visual surroundings.
On the contrary, the action from the video placed vertically in the right rail interacts with a page-wide banner at right angles above it. The banner is a simple headline blurb, quoting PCMag.com's evaluation that Apple's "iLife is still the best suite [of music, video and photo apps] out there." Next to it is a click-through box.
Meantime, as the video rolls, we see Long and Hodgman by a stepladder. Hodgman is climbing it with a set of jumper cables, which he uses to electrify the click-through box above him, lest anyone attempt to learn more about iLife.
"Anyone who clicks on this button," he says, "is going to get a minor electric shock." Naturally, Hodgman shocks himself, with Wile E. Coyote results -- twice.
But how freakin' clever is that? There may be only one way in the world to get more than 2.5% of viewers to click on an ad, and that's to tell them not to click on it. We're not sure about the math on this, either, but, after we're done with the econ modeling, we'd like to run the click/don't click test through a university psychology lab.
And it hurts not one bit that the image of Mr. Mac and Mr. PC -- value-added ad characters -- are more apt to get a mouse rollover than your commodity talking heads.
So, there you are, Randy. We're still not convinced you can bring home the bacon, but let the record reflect that now a bone has been tossed.
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Apple's on-line ads are charming and persuasive, but the future of on-line lies in the Net's central role in the capturing an audience's attention, allowing them to view, discuss, reformulate, pass along, and even parody, content associated with a brand.
Neither TV commercials nor banner ads are the answer, but a few of the tactics we'll be using in instigating brand ecosystems.
The issue with banner ads is not about click-thru (last I checked it digital's offerings were still better than the zero click-thru possibilities in TV or print) but with banner blindness. Make compelling and attention-grabbing creative banners and people will notice them. Make generic ones and they are ignored.
http://www.gerardbabitts.com/2009/03/11/opa-wrong-on-display-advertising
All of this traditional vs. digital debate is silly.
It's not an either/or matter. It's about using the appropruate medium(s) for the appropriate target.
So no, I don't think online will ever truly replace "mainstream" media. But calling online advertising's future "marginal at best" is a little much -- banners, sure, but surely not online as a whole. Online outlets afford a new level of engagement between advertisers and consumers, and as the various online media evolve, that's only going to deepen.
But I think Stevewax makes the most important point when he states that "the future of on-line lies in the Net's central role in the capturing an audience's attention, allowing them to view, discuss, reformulate, pass along, and even parody, content associated with a brand."
The challenge for advertisers is to create the content that is compelling and calls the user and future consumer to action. I hardly think a banner ad does that. In fact, I'd be interested to know how many of us are now accustomed to closing and/or just plain ignoring the banners. Most of the time I can't even tell what the banners were promoting after I've left the page. With that said, evaluating banners and CPM's are much like trying to figure out how many drivers really notice a bill board. Once out of sight, they are out of mind.
Perhaps the biggest challenge is that after the advertisers have created the content, where do they go to place the ad to attract the eyeballs while simultaneously fulfilling the requirements that Stevewax mentioned? There are a number of sites and mediums, but most service either the advertiser or the user? We created www.AdJack.tv for that very reason. AdJack engages the user in a permission based environment where the user can view, discuss, pass along, and click through to their favorite brands. They do this all on their own. Nothing is forced. Why is this so important? It allows advertisers to evaluate the effectiveness of their campaigns across a wide berth of the population or across a specific group, if they have decided to target their ad. This type of unbiased analytical data gives an advertiser the real feedback they are looking for. Also, because it's a pay-per-view model, not CPM or CPC, advertisers are only charged for the ads that are viewed in their entirety. Not a bad deal considering today's economy.
I do like the reverse psychology of telling users not to do something in an attempt to get them to do it anyway. It reminds me of my 10th grade teacher who told us not to remember that the Battle of Hastings was in 1066. It seems to have worked.
Hey Bob, can you throw AdJack a bone as well? For the readers, if you read this post, do not go to www.AdJack.tv. You might have a good time and find it very compelling. Hmmm...let's see if it really works.
Thanks,
Patrick Houlahan
VP, Business Development
www.AdJack.tv
One of my pet theories is that Detroit lost the plot when car designers and auto marketers retreated to the suburbs after the '68 riots. Ever since the 70's they've been designing cars out of bland industrial parks set in lilly white suburbs, relying largely on data from nameless research firms. Hence their slow response to the auto-buying public's changing tastes.
We have to be careful not to make the same mistake when we're trying to engage consumers - we need to go downtown and hang on their street corners.
_______________________________________________________________________________
Langston Richardson
Chief Digital Brand Strategist
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/MATSNL65 | http://www.twitter.com/lazbro
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Weren't those lily white suburbs where the most of the car buyers living as well? And by the way have you loked at most of those cars from pre-68?
The problem? will anyone read the article they clicked on?
http://twitter.com/malkady
http://www.agencyceo.com
Online ads are a part of marketing. They are like billboards and should be judged accordingly.
Someone needs to change the metrics of the debate about online ads--and at the very least, compare apples to apples (meaning, apply the same metrics to mainstream ads).
But that applies to much more than just Detroit. I can see it locally with Sears. They've never been a style icon, but the fashions there are SO out of line with what people want to be laughable. Why can't they even keep up with Kohl's? It just might have something to do with Sears leaving the Sears Tower for Hoffman Estates. Now, instead of leaving the suburbs and interacting with all kinds of diversity and people and trends while the workers and officers make the trek to downtown Chicago to work, they leave their suburban cocoon where they live to another suburban cocoon at Sears HQs, never getting exposed to much of any of the outside world, styles or trends. All they know of the outside world and trends is what they see on TV, or in their research reports. It's a self-contained culture. And it's not just Sears. This is repeated all over the country. It's why, after a boutique hits on something that takes off, it's plastered in the windows of Department stores 12 months later. There is no learning or discovery going on at most of these companies. So is it really that surprising that SO many companies are really that out of touch (from clothes to cars) with what society at large wants? I think not.
Plus Apple's ads are sexy, which conveys right back their site and their brand. It seems to be why there marketing is so effective: Simple, creative and funny and all ties back into the brand and what the customer perceives of the product.
And yes I did click on your link @ pshoulahan, but only because I was hoping to find a link to the original article where the mac ad was place. : )
Is there one?
The problem with most ads, is that the ad tells the viewers exactly what they should do. People do not like being told what to do....they like being told what not to do! We did a study with this utilizing email marketing. We told the prospects that we were sending the email to, in the subject line, not to open the email.
And guess what?
An overall majority of them opened the email. This goes to show the natural tendency within humans to always rebel through acts of curiosity.
Having this type of psychological knowledge, as well as a firm understanding of market trends, will help us create better creatives.....and much higher CTRs.
Frank
http://www.absrocketpro.com
Child development folks will tell you that if you tell a child "don't touch the stove" there's a good chance they will. Not because they are rebellious. Simply because they don't understand the word "don't" yet. So all they hear is "Johnny....touch the stove". The correct phrase to say to a small child is "Johnny - keep your hands away from the stove". This certainly played out true in my house when the kids were small.
The question is - do we as adults still carry some of that childlike mentality. We certainly now understand the word "don't" but does this play into our decision to normally do the opposite of what we're told to do?
In any case - the combination of the consistent Mac message on TV and the unique use of the reverse pshycology make this the foundation for succesfull CTR.
Ben
http://www.howtobuildgolfclubs.com
Best,
Gaston
http://www.Ultimate-Resell-Rights.com