Last week I had the pleasure of sitting with Bob Garfield and critiquing a showcase of online creative at the iMedia Summit in Beaver Creek.
Bob certainly didn’t let any of us down with his witty and irreverent remarks. However, he did surprise us somewhat with his perspective on the potential of online creative and what it can achieve if smartly deployed.
I hope I was able to stand up to his rhetoric and perform the role of the good cop to his bad cop, or as we put it…my bad cop to his “way-badder cop.”
In this week’s Jaffe Juice, I thought I would offer my perspective on a few important discussion points which came up, both during the panel and throughout the conference.
In many respects, I feel we have something of a communications problem in the industry. We think we need to speak the same language as our offline counterparts, but in reality we would do well to speak the same lingo between the various members of our own choir (the same choir we keep kvetching about).
For starters, I hear time and time again people that are supposed to be in the know referring to ad units or formats as Web banners or interstitials when what they really mean is IAB UAP leaderboards or Superstitials, respectively. They talk about buying Eyeblasters when what they mean is floating ads. They refer to Shoshkeles as a Kleenex or Hoover, umbrella terms for all DHTML ads. And perhaps the most egregious of them all, referring to Unicast’s Superstitial as a pop-up.
Just ask me…I did it myself at the panel. For those that weren’t there, allow me to recap:
Bob and I had just reviewed three creatives – Renault Clio, Motorola DJ and Levi’s Holiday Message. Both Bob and I had positive words regarding all three. In light of previous comments on pop-ups, I stirred the pot by telling him, “Oh, by the way, those three ads you just saw -- and praised -- were pop-ups.”
He was not amused.
For those that don’t know, Superstitials are Unicast’s proprietary format, which politely loads in the background and then flawlessly plays in full when the user is between pages. In other words, no content that is in the process of being absorbed, assimilated or reviewed is intruded upon. It is, in many respects, an intro-message which precedes the user’s experience on any given targeted page.
Furthermore, some of the best work I’ve seen on the Web was created using the Superstitial.
Truth be told, I was being intentionally provocative, but I fear that my intent might have been misinterpreted by some members of the audience and so I thought I’d clarify this position in this week’s article.
First of all, do I think Superstitials are akin to pop-ups? No more so than any other form of online advertising which isn’t embedded in a page, such as DHTML. Please read and re-read this statement carefully:
A Superstitial is to a pop-up like a diamond is to coal.
Here’s the thing: rich media solutions such as Superstitials, floating ads and the like are just that: solutions. They are not the problem, but neither are pop-ups.
Pop-ups are not the scourge of the earth; those that abuse them are.
Let me repeat that last statement, just in case you’re speed reading:
Pop-ups are not the scourge of the earth; those that abuse them are.
If pop-ups are the gun, then those overzealous direct marketers (predominantly) are the ones who pull the trigger. I am not Charlton Heston defending gun ownership, but I do believe that we need to set the record straight about pop-ups very soon if we are to prevent any more backlash on the subject (if that’s even possible.)
The dailies and trades are as guilty as sin -- bordering on negligent -- when it comes to covering the good, the bad and the ugly of pop-ups. In fact they can’t even make the distinction between rich media and pop-ups. I was recently quoted in a Wall Street Journal article about the growth of rich media and, somehow, the editor saw fit to call the article: “Pop-ups explode in popularity.”
The various sources of intelligence, research and analyst firms aren’t much better in reporting how consumers feel about the subject. When one asks a consumer what they feel about advertising, it is generally accepted that the response is going to be negative.
Furthermore, if one asks a consumer how they feel about different forms, formats and types of media, then it is widely believed that the relative differences between responses will shed some new light on the differences and nuances between the various alternatives.
This, however, is equally flawed. Here’s why….
1. We’re talking about an infant industry which is still establishing itself. In other words, to compare perceptions towards TV advertising versus online advertising, one would really have to ask a consumer in year 10 of TV’s existence, not so?
2. Following on from this point, we are still operating at a time when consumers are learning how to use the medium. And when it comes to the value advertising brings to the table, the implicit understanding that it subsidizes content is anything but understood.
3. In the online space, context is king. Where and when the ad ran and to whom it was targeted all make a big difference on the overall perception. I’ll come back to this point later, as it was raised by an audience member during the panel.
4. This approach completely marginalizes creativity.
The final point here is beyond critical and I’ll come back to this as well.
In addition to the press and research companies, there is, of course, the biggest culprit of them all: ourselves. We are the people that propagate, perpetuate and exacerbate the problem by continuing to buy and sell the worst practices that this Web has to offer. We are the people who continue to represent and accept advertising from casinos, cameras, misrepresented software services and intense mortgage, travel and financial services companies. We are the people who have made it too easy to do so by crushing prices to the point where online’s equivalents of prime time and 3 a.m. are one and the same.
Pop-up blockers are as much the answer as TiVo -- and when last I checked both 30-second commercials and house pop-up ads still existed. In fact, pop-up blockers have a rather negative aftertaste in the form of skipping genuine site-side communications.
On the creative end—t -- to this end and to end, I want to leave you with some thoughts on creative online, and in doing so, hope to refocus you on the beginning, the middle, the means and the end: CREATIVITY WORKS…CREATIVITY SELLS… CREATIVITY IS KEY.
The notion of context is, of course, mandatory. The sites that were on the media plan, the format and units used, and the intended target audience all are crucial elements in evaluating online creative. This being said, great creative (content) should always lead the way -- irrespective of the where, when, how and to whom variables (context). It’s not an either/or, but both -- just in case you’re hyperventilating right now.
David Ogilvy once said, “You cannot bore your customer into buying your product.” Whether pop-ups go away or not, I fear we will continue to bore or, worse still, bully or force our customers into buying our products if we forsake the message in favor of the medium.
