Tarred by the broad brush
We'll close this section of the column with this figure: Interestingly enough, both this and the figure on the bottom of the preceding page are TV station websites. Both suffer from similar ad placement problems. TV stations, like their print journalism cousins, are increasingly driving people to their websites in order to increase advertising revenue. "For more on this story, go to http://www.xyz.com/ and click on the MNO link at the top of your screen" has become the modern day equivalent of "Film at 11:00." More and more print magazine and newspapers include web addresses so readers can find out more about specific stories. Rarely if ever do you see TV and print journalism websites driving visitors back to the tube or hard copy. This hasn't occurred with music radio stations but it has occurred with talk radio (NPR is an excellent example). What we're observing in many of these examples is the broad brush of media buying. Buyers can buy ad placements in a "run of network" mode which usually provides lots of low quality exposure because the ad isn't relevant to the page's content. Increasingly sophisticated options include "run of site," "contextual advertising," "registration-based targeting" and others. Next: What media buyers don't know is killing them
Joseph Carrabis is CRO and founder of NextStage Evolution and NextStage Global and founder of KnowledgeNH and NH Business Development Network. Read full bio. He was recently selected as a senior research fellow and board advisor for the Society for New Communications Research.