I watch a lot of TV. I also watch a lot of Web videos. Of my 17 waking hours a day, roughly 16 of them are spent with some sort of screen beaming something into my eyeholes. I am a consumer of content.
Of course, I’m also an advertising professional, so I can effectively turn off either side of my brain and examine things from the other perspective. This morning, for just a moment, I kept them both turned on. I was prepping for a voiceover audition by watching a series of interviews with the Hollywood actor I was supposed to be inspired by (which all too often means “make it sound just like him, because we want him, but don’t want to pay for him.” But that’s a rant for another blog post).
Before every other video, I was forced to sit through a commercial before my video would roll. Both sides of my brains accept that. I fully comprehend that nothing is free. And I also fully accept that the quality (or lack thereof) of everything we consume on TV, radio, and the web is based entirely on the willingness of some company to support
it (the more eyes and ears you can provide marketers, the more money they’ll provide the content producer. The more money the content producer receives often then translates to the quality of the end product (often, not always), which then translates to more eyes and ears. Lather, rinse, repeat).
But my concern is not with the quality of the content or the metaphorical contract I’ve signed effectively loaning my eyes and ears to something I don’t want in anticipation of receiving something I do. No, my concern is with the fact that today I was presented with 30-second spots without the ability to click past them even though I’ve seen them many times on TV. This advertiser, whom I won’t shame by calling it out by name, but I will say rhymes with Schmuracell, served only to anger me for 30 seconds in its zeal to save some extra production money.
So, I offer a little advice to all you clients out there. Instead of taking your fantastically expensive TV commercials and re-airing them on the web, why not take a small chunk of your next big TV budget and have your agency put together a motion-graphics, all-type, or other low-budget video specifically for web use (better yet, have me do it). Then, instead of boring your viewers with something they’ve likely seen a thousand times (it wasn’t one second into the video before I knew it was a commercial for Schmuracell. And it was 29 seconds of anger later before it was gone), you can reward them with something new and interesting. Perhaps, you can even do two or three and keep it fresh.
Everyone hates online advertising. So perhaps it’s time to start putting together online advertising that everyone won’t hate.