Returning after these short messages
July 2010 |
|
Tweet |
|
Whenever there is a commercial break I use that opportunity to make a cup of tea or relieve myself of the last cup. If my bladder has been sufficiently emptied I will just hit the mute button on the remote control or start channel hopping to see if there is anything else on.
I know I’m not the only person who does this. In fact the majority of people I’ve watched telly with do the same thing which gets me wondering why people bother to advertise at all because nobody seems to pay any attention. Obviously TV advertising does work otherwise people wouldn’t do it.
The only adverts I like are funny ones but they usually end up getting banned because one person with ginger hair complains. The only other adverts that I appreciate are the ones that have the rare ability to be able to laugh at themselves. There are two companies that spring to mind: Skoda and Marmite.
Skoda play on their old reputation for building rubbish cars by suggesting that hitch-hikers would rather jump out of one of their vehicles on a motorway than be a passenger in one. Marmite appreciates the fact that half the population hate their product and this has become their biggest selling point. Genius.
Still, what is the future for TV advertising? Given the increasing scope of Internet advertising and the rather favourable value for money aspect, I can’t help thinking that TV advertising will soon become less prominent.
Obviously Google were pioneers of the pay-per click advertising, although I actually did some work for a company once who came up with a similar idea before Google but that never took off because the bloke was a conman and a crook who is probably someone’s bitch in Bellmarsh Prison now.
Anyway, the pay per click idea was a stroke of genius because advertisers get the exposure but only pay when someone clicks on one of their ads. Given that Google is now the epicentre of the web and accommodates almost all of internet traffic worldwide, it is clearly the place to advertise.
Google hit the jackpot with their AdSense programme. By allowing website owners to put adverts on their websites and earn a commission, it means that people like me (and I do use it) make money for doing nothing other than advertising somebody else’s business. This has almost become a social network of advertising and it increases the reach of adverts by an exponential rate.
The fact is that people are spending more and more time on the internet now either on their computers or on their mobile phones. With sites like Facebook now offering advertising space as well means that companies have an even bigger market to advertise to.
Facebook have gone one step further by allowing people to add pages for their business. Now, this is hardly a new idea but, considering how huge Facebook has become, it just increases your potential exposure even more.
Given that Facebook is the leading social networking site at the moment and looks set to be for a while to come, it is obviously the most logical place to add your business from a general networking point of view. But is it the right place for your business?
You see the thing is Facebook is something of a playground and is more suited to a charismatic business. Take mine for example. I mix professional business with a subtle brand of humour and fun that may not be appropriate for some companies. Take accountants for example; everybody knows that accountants have no charisma whatsoever so Facebook probably isn’t right for them. Also, who would want to become a fan of an accountant on Facebook? Imagine the status updates… “is loving year end”, “is net of vat”, “is trial balancing”, “is sore from doing double entry...”
So what about Linkedin? This is a social networking site in its own right but specifically for the business world. It is like Facebook but without Farmville, Mafia Wars or those annoying friends who inform you of their bowel movement. In other words, this is the place to be if you are a serious business looking for professional networking contacts.
Facebook is useful for getting your name out there and showing people that you are a modern company who can move with the times. Linkedin is more of a professional service and is more likely to generate legitimate commercial recognition for you.
There are other sites as well like Plaxo and Ecademy, which are really the MySpace and Bebo of the business social networking scene. In other words they are probably worth registering accounts with just to expand your potential reach a bit more. However, this would be a bit like having a TV advert on channel 5. In other words no one would ever see it.
Of course the other benefit of advertising online rather than on TV is that internet ads are relatively inoffensive. What I mean by that is they just sit there silently on a page and don’t invade your personal space or interrupt you. OK you do sometimes get those really annoying pop-ups but these are dying now because of the wonderful pop up blockers that are built into all modern browsers.
Basically, having a presence on Google or Facebook is better because your ad will just sit there at the top or side of the page and not bother anyone, meaning that you will have less chance of being muted.
So there you have it. Internet advertising is much better than TV advertising. However, I really do hope that TV advertising doesn’t die completely because this will no doubt mean my TV licence fee will increase by a thousand billion percent because the current commercial stations will need to turn to it in order to survive and, given how little I watch TV anyway, that would be disastrous.
