In an article published by “Thomson Financial” today, Ad Executives speak about online advertising. The article points out that Online Advertising revenue rose by 25% this year, up to 20 billion, but advertising companies state that they would spend much more online if they felt they had a reliable way to measure online audiences. Ad execs want a measurement tool like the Nielsen Co for Television or Arbitron, Inc for radio.
If never ceases to amaze me that Madison Avenue doesn’t get the fact that web advertising can be the most well tracked advertising they can buy, much more so than television and radio.
On the face of it I’m a television advertisers dream. I watch 5-6 hours of television every day. In actuality I’m an advertiser’s nightmare. I haven’t seen a commercial in three years. I have DirecTV, Hi Def, and TiVo System. I don’t watch any shows live (except for football, usually flipping around there too), and fast forward through all the commercials. Even if I’m home at 8pm and want to watch a show, I wait until 8:15 to start so I can get through the show without seeing any commercials.
Here’s the best part, within the past two years we were selected and served as a Nielsen Household. So “American Idol” got credit for us watching, so did “24”, so did “Desperate Housewives”, as did all the shows we watch. But we never watched a commercial. Not a one.
How much value did the advertisers get from us? Nothing, None, Zip, Zero.
They paid for our eyeballs but we weren’t watching
How about all the people that go to the bathroom or get a snack or make a quick call during the commercials. How about people that actually have a conversation with someone in the room about what they just saw, or get up to have a smoke.
How many people just keep the television on for noise, barely paying attention to the program much less the commercials?
What percentage of the viewers of a particular show actually sees the commercials? No one knows that. They certainly can’t tell you have many people bought a Ford because of the ad someone just saw or went to a dealer showroom to even look.
How about radio, they try to measure how many people are listening to a radio station. One common method is for selected listener’s to keep a log of what they listen to, when and for how long each day. I was selected many years ago to do this as well.
Where do most people listen to the radio??
In the car.
What do you do when a commercial comes on the station you’re listening to in the car? I click the button and go to another station. Once again although I listen to radio I don’t listen to the commercials. (Actually I have XM now and there are no commercials).
How many people keep the radio station on and listen attentively to the commercials??
I don’t know but it’s sure not 100% of the listeners.
Thereby although they can attempt to measure how many people are listing to a particular radio station, they can’t tell you how many of those listen to the commercials.
Online if you set up your advertising in the right way you can see exactly how many people clicked on your ad, visited your site and even bought your product. You can see conversion rates, cost per click rates, and cost per sale rates.
You can see what country the person who clicks on the ad was in, even what browser they use.
It seems to me that online advertising gives the advertisers the most information, yet it’s the one advertising medium they demand more information from.
With the growing use of XM radio, Sirius radio, TiVo and other DVR products, the future is clear. Less and less people will be watching and listing to commercials. Compare that to the continued growth of the internet in terms of people and time people spend in the internet and one thing is clear.
Madison Avenue better “get it” soon.
Here is the full article if you have interest:
http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/articles/newstex/AFX-0013-21683671.htm
Very well said. This pretty much lays it out with solid points and examples that even a traditional ad exec would have trouble denying.
Unfortunately this will not get fixed anytime soon. The big problem is most of the people that run these companies are from the era of newspapers and magazines. They are clueless when it comes to the web. They hire 3-4 college grads and they feel they have a web media division already.
I agree with Paul. I am one of those “old school” ad people but so in tune with e-commerce and internet globalization.
There are no borders anymore and the internet is open 24/7. And look at the ongoing and oncoming mobile revolution.
That is why smart ad folks and agencies hire or outsource to proven innovators on the web.
‘Tis a shame. They are waiting for some sign from above.
That sign for many may come in the form of Board Members or Stockholders wanting to know why their position in the market sector has slipped and why they are losing clients.
bravo !!!!!!!!!
well spoken !!!!!!!!!
well d-o-n-e !!!!!!!!!
although i have been being very extremely extremly busy in domaining currently ,
but ,
i must still praise u[you] My Dear Sir Berkins
My Dear Sir Berkins ,
ye did it !!
ye did it again !!
some1 did finally completly completely 100.000% express out
what v[we] have been keeping on wanting2express out in English
since the internet’s burning-out @ year2000 ,
but it handicaps us verbally , in English expecially
v[we] r[are] non-American ,
v[we] have n’ever[never] been in America ,
there4 ,
even i were good in English or even American English ,
but , still cant express out any idea like those above-mentionned
by My Dear Sir Berkins e.t.c.
>> advertising companies state that
>> they would spend much more online
>> if they felt they had a reliable way to measure online audiences
they got it
they have gotten it even b4[before] year2000 ,
they have gotten it expecially especially nowadays ,
if ….
they really want it ,
then ….
there may b[be] 2[too] many reliable online statistics
4[for] them 2[to] digest
but ,
by now ,
what’r they doing ?;–^)
still claiming
` if there would be a a reliable way to measure online audiences’
?;–^)
peace , ThANKye , 2w
+ ,
+ more-funny is that : :::::
not just Madison ,
but also worldswide advertisers have always been spending
million$$$$$$$$$[[not-including-any-productions-cost]]
to hire a [so-called] superstar
to be their ““`spokeswoman//spokesman”””””
for a 30-seconds ad in tv ,
noticeably in HongKong or China e.t.c.
but ,
lately when being asked
““` why not investing these million$ in online ad ? “”””
they replied : :
““` not enough or reliable statistics “””” ,
the above-mentionned reply was caught live
by the ear of me , 2w ,
my Chinese name ‘s KamYuen Chong ,
““`KamYuen”””” ‘s the given name ,
““`Chong”””” ‘s the surname
by ‘the way ,
the 30-seconds ad in tv
cost them an other million$
something here off-topic but still in ‘the relevancy
its in response to
http://www.thedomains.com/2007/12/05/domain-truffles-2/ n[and]
http://www.thedomains.com/2007/12/08/domains-are-cheap/
the most discouraging fact is that : :::::
they call the $$$$ invested in “arts” e.t.c. as
“good investments “,
but ,
they call the investment in a good-domain.com as ‘unreliable’ ,
to say it mildly
http://blog.domaintools.com/2007/11/transparency-in-the-domain-industry/
Outsiders judge this industry as almost incestuous and rigged.
Michael Arrington openly called domainers thugs and racketeers
about 5 months ago on his blog.
Outsiders in general don’t know
what is going on when they look into our industry.
We need to change the way outsiders perceive everything about domains
How many times have you watched a show and seen the same commercial run in the same half hour or even in the same break, a total waste of money
in my own humble + subjective opinions ,
i do always suspect
there might b[be]
some “““connections””””
among
those ad-agencies &
those traditionnal media
peace , 2w
The ad agencies get 15% generally as commission from their client for ad placement on TV, Radio and Print media, what is their commission for online advertising???
They also make substantial dollars from commerical products and ad campain production. What production is there to placing PPC ads and do you need a Madison Avenue agency to place those ads for you online, NO