Not All Bad (Final Thoughts)

Advertising has taken many years to reach the point it has. Print ads have been around since the advent of the news paper in France, radio since the device went public, television even more so. Now these mediums have all been around for, at the very least 60+ years. That being said, even after sixty years of television and hundreds of years of print advertisers still have yet to truly understand how to properly target their audience. That being said, it would be improper to simply judge the internet as it is.

The internet has not had the vast and pervasive history that accompanies its predecessors. One could say that it is a mere newborn, or maybe a angry rebellious teen, in comparison to its well established parents. Thus, for me to simply say that advertisers have no idea what they are doing with the internet, though partially true, would not be the whole picture. It would be more accurate to say that, advertising on the internet is around the same stage of mastery as television ads were, in the mid 50’s. That is to say, experimental.

The internet may have many elements similar to other mediums; however it is also very different. Like television the internet allows for watching of video, and selection of channels, it can do the same with radio. But, unlike the other two formats in which the viewer is trapped into the program should they desire to see the end; the internet is vastly more accessible. It is, much like a print medium in the fact that the user has total control over what order, and which pages he sees.

This element of interactivity has advertisers somewhat flummoxed, simply airing long spots, which work on television and radio has no effect on viewers when the medium becomes interactive. All they have to do is close / mute / look at something else until the ad is over. As such, at least at first, advertisers were forced to treat the net as similar to a print source. This has brought about many interesting turns in advertising over the years.

At the birth of the net including video advertisements with catchy audio and fascinating visuals simply wasn’t an option, which made their choices more limited. Initial net ads took the form of banners and pop-ups. These two methods actually remain highly prevalent even today, and have rather mixed opinions. Banner ads can be easily equated to print advertisements, they quietly sit at one section of the screen, waiting for you to become interested and inspect.

Pop-ups might also be considered print like, after all they have text and pictures. However, there is one defining element that sets them apart; print ads don’t leap out at you in an attempt to prevent you from reading a desired article. A pop-up would actually be better equated to an extremely persistent door to door salesman, something browsers do not particularly like. So why do they do it?

Pop-ups, and other similar invasive ads, are a result of an unfortunate mentality that advertisers have adopted over the years (and have only begun to work away from); the idea that people must watch their ads. Years of television and radio ads had put advertisers into an omnipotent mindset that they were a necessity of entertainment, a practice that worked well on television, but failed when the medium became interactive. So it is quite accurate to say that advertisers approached the internet with entirely the wrong idea. In the end all they succeeded in doing was being exceptionally annoying, the reverse effect of their desire.

So, rounding the turn of the millennia, with the internet becoming faster and more permissive of high powered content advertisers were in effect totally inexperienced. The result was pure chaos, not in the sense of destruction and death, but random confusion and wild experimentation. Since old methods did not work new ones had to be tried, and since the internet is comparatively, to television, dirt cheap lots of ideas could be flung around. Some good, some bad, some successful and other vanishing into obscurity.

The word that describes internet ads today would probably be…schizophrenic. Ads are everywhere, even if it is not intended. To find a trend or pattern would be at the very least difficult. Never before has there been a medium so that has changed so incredibly quickly. Innovations in computer technology happen daily, perhaps even bi-daily, making it hard for companies to keep up. However, I feel that though the industry is confused, its overall progression is positive.

Advertisers are realizing that people cannot be forced into watching their ad, and as a result they have begun to do something amazing, actually make their advertisements interesting. Online video is an absolutely spectacular medium, the Will It Blend People being a perfect example. Successfully taking what was probably, maybe, a $100 - $200 commercial and turning it into an almost instant internet fad (or meme as they are called). Any medium capable of providing that much exposure for such a small inexpensive ad has to have a bright future.

Of course there have been promotions that were not so effective. The field of internet ethics is, to put it kindly, developing, allowing many loopholes for businesses to follow some unethical roots. But, even when the ads are underhanded there is still one trend that stay the same, the internet is viral. Without a doubt the future of internet advertising lies in viral marketing, all trends point in that direction. From snazzy websites, to fake MySpace pages, to kooky e-mail gimmicks and streaming video, Every major successful ad campaign online has succeeded through word of mouth.

At the beginning of this semester I was exceedingly pessimistic, there were and are still plenty of invasive persistent boring ads clogging the pipes of the internet (if you will forgive the analogy). However, even in the course of this single semester, I have seen numerous viral memes come and go, and been hooked (that’s right hooked) on some viral ads my self.

So now I can say that without a doubt in my mind, the future of internet advertising is bright. Advertisers are changing their ways daily, looking for new ways to become genuinely appealing to their audience, and although their may be some cloudy days and bad ideas the medium has the elasticity and freedom to survive. That is unless the net neutrality act is passed, then all bets are off. But let’s hope that doesn’t happen and try to keep a more optimistic view of the future from now on.

Machinima and More

Machinima, a term becoming more and more common place. It refers to the use of a simulation environment, like that of a video game (Halo for instance), to create a short video animation. The idea started with early video game mods, however it has risen into a complete and valid art form, and an excellent source of promotion. Red vs Blue, by Rooster Teeth Productions, is a perfect example of exactly how useful they can be. The entire series can been seen as one huge promotion for Microsoft's sci-fi shooter Halo. In fact it was such an effective means of promotion that Microsoft actually funded the production group, and took into account Machinima design while making the sequel.

A similar trend can be seen in other forms of internet video. Will It Blend? another popular viral video source is also using the internet in a new way. Instead of creating an inane late night infomercial to promote their extra strength blender, they instead created a series of cheap internet videos in which they prove the shredding strength of the device by blending unreasonable objects (rakes, plungers, iphones). They were easily more successful then they could ever have been on television.

Podcasting as well, has become another major viral source. In fact it is getting to the point that it is likely that we will see infomercials and classic ads dying out in favor of these new media. After all, why pay for an extended TV spot at an odd hour, when you can upload shorter, cheaper, and more effective ads right on You Tube. The same with Games, you could make some expensive prime time ads, or you could hire some bored programmers and a couple of writers to make a few cheap amusing videos. It will be interesting to see how television reacts to this coming trend.

50's Flash Back

Though many of todays browsers did not grow up in the 50's era of black and white television some may still have seen some classic reruns of old black and white television, or listened to some classic radio shows, like The Shadow or the Lone Ranger. Driving up to college once (a six hour trek) I listened to an entire seasons worth of Sherlock Holmes radio plays, a thoroughly enjoyable experience. While listening it always struck me funny when ever they would have one of their strikingly obvious announcer advertisements, for things like Bently's hand cream. It is a means of advertising long abandoned because of its extreme obvious and silly nature...or so I thought.

Then, just the other day, I had decided to entertain myself by watching one of two episodes of the internet television success, Ask A Ninja, when I saw the strangest thing. At the end of one of the more recent installments there it was, the Ask A Ninja guy obviously promoting Take TV. (A new device for watching internet content on your television). I was kinda stunned, to think that the internet would fall back to a form of advertising mostly abandoned by all other mediums struck me as amusing.

It made me realize just how lost advertisers are. They have no idea what works for the web (because for some reason forced video ads and obnoxious pop-unders don't seem to work...wonder why?) and thus they have resorted to trying everything. But, in their defense, it worked. The ad was seemed vastly more endearing coming from the popular net sensation than it would ever have if it was a mid video interruption. I get the feeling that we are likely to see more "dead" methods coming back to grace the interweb with their presence.

Is This Ethical?

Here's a scenario, your writing a paper on, oh lets say... velociraptor attacks and you need a good, well respected, reliable source for perfectly accurate, totally non-biased fact. So where do you turn, Wikipedia where else. Ok, not entirely accurate, but I am not here to debate the finer points of open source information database legitimacy. Sufficed to say people are increasingly willing to trust Wikipedia. Now with such a large, all encompassing, easily editable just about anyone can make an entry, about nearly anything.

For instance an innocent Dell computer programmer could log on to Wikipedia, only to learn that someone has accidentally misconstrued that Dell company as being slightly imperfect, naturally a problem that must be fixed. Or maybe some disgruntled Pepsi fans suddenly find out that Coke has been misconstrued as and equal beverage. Hey even the CIA is getting in on the action.

Now this may seem a tad unethical, but think about it, the fact is that Wikipedia is an incredibly inexpensive advertising tool (ok, I guess it is more like PR), to the point where it is almost stupid not to use it. All questions of ethics aside (because since when has advertising been perfectly ethical) there are fewer more cost effective ways to improve your companies image and reputation.

This Ad is brought to you by...

I must be short today unfortunately, so I will be choosing a rather simply topic. Sponsored ads. Now I could describe these ads and exactly how they work, including screens shots and funny pictures, but I am much to lazy right now. So instead you will perform an experiment. Step one, go to www.google.com (I am not linking it for you type it in yourself), if you have a Google bar that will also work. Now, step two, search for a product, maybe something like edible underware or your future, almost anything will work. Step three, this is the hard one, look at the right side of the screen when results are displayed. Do you see the list of links labeled "Sponsored Links", now you know what a sponsored link is, congratulations.

It was not too long after the creation of the search engine that big business America got the bright idea that they might be able to use it to sell you things. So, whenever you search for a key word in one of the major engines it also searches all its sponsor pages to see if you search coincides. Now I have to praise this as being one of the very few forms of E-vertising that does not attempt to hurl its self at you like and over zealous lemming off a high rock. Each ad sits quietly and unobtrusively off to the left of the screen and waits patiently for you attention.

And it works, it serves its purpose well. Naturally since most searchers are not actively seeking to buy something the majority of the links go unclicked, but every so often I find my self price hunting and actually click through (ok, not entirely true, I usually google search the sponsors site to avoid spyware, but the effect is almost the same). Now since I absolutely hate clicking on any form of ad, anywhere, ever, this is something of an accomplishment.

Well...thats it, thats all I have to say. Good medium, no major changes in sight, nothing new or innovative, unless you consider the fact that for once the industry has something that perfectly serves its purpose and yet they haven't tried to "improve it". Well played sponsored links, two thumbs up.

Search and Display

In my previous post on the rapidly increasing revenues derived from internet advertising, I posted a table. (I will not post it again so you are going to have to scroll down if you want to see it.) On it was a rough and mostly believable breakdown of the most sought after forms of advertising. At the top of that list was search ads. With 40% of the revenues it proves to be a profitable, and hopefully effective medium.

In case you do not know what this is referring. When a buys ads via Google, or Yahoo, or whatever company they may choose, they want to narrow down their results. To do this they choose a list of key words. For instance if you were a company specializing in say velociraptor raptor attack prevention you would choose they pick at words like Attack, Dinosaur, and Raptor. Then whenever someone searched using that engine with your key words, a custom made ad would appear. This is exactly how they do those wonderful sponsored links in you search results.

Second on the list was Display Ads. These cover your more generic moving flash banners, images links, etc. They don't react to search terms, but they are more catchy. However, alone neither are as profitable as the research makes them seem, it is in fact the combination that is their strongest selling point.By making videos that reach to search results you can get the best of both worlds, and dramatically increase click through.

Now, personally, I would have thought this was an obvious connection to make, combining two effective and compatible mediums for greater profit. But apparently I was mistaken, because it seems to be some kind of critical breakthrough. It has received quite a bit of critical acclaim, which is great and shines light on the reason why these two mediums dominate 70% of the profits.

Something Must be Working

I've said quite a few disparaging things about the state of internet, and the poorly chosen means of conveyance. However despite what I might say the fact remains the whatever they are doing, it works. In a recent report released by the IAB internet advertising revenues were (get ready for it)

10 Billion Dollars!!!
The put this in comparison, that is double the last highest revenue of 5 billion. Needless to say that is a very significant rise, proof that this is indeed a growing market. It soon may even overtake new papers in advertising expenditures and revenueBut not all forms of advertising are as profitable as others, in their report the IAB was kind enough to include a rough breakdown of where the profit really lies.

	FH 2006	FH 2007
Search	40% ($3,164)	41% ($4,097)
Classifieds	20% ($1,582)	17% ($1,699)
Referrals/Lead Generation	7%($592)	8% ($799)
E-mail	2% ($158)	2% ($200)
Display Related:	31% ($2,413)	32%($3,198)
– Rich Media (Includes Video)	6% ($475)	8%($799)
– Ad Banners / Display Ads	21% ($1,622)	21%($2,099)
– Sponsorships	4% ($316)	3% ($300)
– Slotting Fees	<1%>	<1%>

Clearly the good old search and display advertisements are a good selling point. In case you don't know what those are, they are advertisements directly tailored to react to certain key works you used in a search engine (i'll cover these in another post). Also interesting in the incredibly vague and all encompassing "Display related". Which, as far as I can tell, encompasses all image ads, except for Search and Display, Rich Media, and Ad banners. Leaving...I'm not sure, I will have to find out.

This is all great, but what does it mean for the industry. Does this mean a greater influx of flash banners and pop-unders (which I have concluded are even more annoying than pop-ups). Maybe the companies will realize that they can rake a greater profit with less annoying ads. Or it could just be the more people are using the internet. What ever the cause, I predict intense and obnoxious legislation before the end, mark my words.

You've got Spam!

Spam, I am sure you have heard of it. It comes in two varieties, the delicious (cough cough) packaged meat variety SPAM (which has one of the most amusing websites I have ever seen), and the annoying monotonous slag heap of crap e-mail, spam. I will mostly be covering the latter.

So how about some interesting statistics? Did you know that around 85% of e-mail traffic is spam mail, a number roughly around 90 billion spam messages sent around the world every day. yes that is 3,750,000,000 an hour, 62,500,000 a minute 1,041,666.6 (repeating) a second. If this was physical mail it would form a stack of letters that would reach to the moon and back, then (with length to spare) wrap around the earth about 5 or six times.

The concern with spam is not just that it takes up space, but it can be dangerous. Many contain links to malicious sites, or clicking them will confirm your existence and result in a greater slew of unwanted mail. I made this mistake on one of my older addresses (it was AOL so they didn't offer much protection) and it resulted in my receiving roughly 100 - 200 dangerous viral spam e-mails a day, essentially shutting down the account.

Needless to say, with all of this crap e-mail flying about it is just about impossible to actually send an e-mail advertisement of any kind without it being marked spam and ignored. We have passed the age when people are actually interested in random mail offers, and are no longer tricked by catchy subject lines. As such the entire approach to e-mail advertising must be rethought.

The Interactive Advertising Bureau (iab) has been considerate enough to post together a nice list of sensible practices for e-mail (most of which seems like common sense to me). However, I am afraid it is probably too little to late. People have already been conditioned to ignore ALL advertisements, even the news letters they explicitly sign up for. Basically the method has lost any ability to build a market, and now appeals only to those already deeply interested in your product and old people who don't know what they are doing. It will probably be decades before e-mail advertising could ever be truly viable again.

Some Excellent Advertising

This post will be dedicated to one, particularly excellent example of EXACTLY how do web can be made use of to advertise and build up hype for a product. It is also an amazing example of public relations, customer service, attention to the community, and crisis management. Overall a superb and impressively inexpensive method of advertising to the entire world. So what is this site? It is the Smash Dojo, a site designed to promote the Nintendo game Super Smash Brothers Brawl.


A brief history. Super Smash brothers is a Nintendo game franchise in which the player plays as one of Nintendo's beloved game characters (Mario, Link, etc.) and attempts to beat the holy living crap out of the other players who are, similarly, also controlling Nintendo characters. There have been two previous incarnations, Super Smash Bros. and Super Smash Brothers Melee. Both games have been ridiculously successful and have enormous longevity, so with the release of the Wii there has been much anticipation for the next installment.

Here is where problems begin. Originally supposed to be a launch title, Brawl has been pushed back repeatedly (now resting at a release date of February 10th, 2008) for little publicized reason. Fans of the game were beginning to get annoyed about the delays, so Nintendo had to act. Unlike Microsoft, however which would probably have rushed the game and damaged the final product, the project leader, Sakurai, started this site.

Offering daily updates without fail in six different languages (seven if you count British) the Dojo has completely solved their anticipation problem. However it does not stop there, each post is written by Sakurai himself (and translated by someone else) and has a very personal and dedicated feel. He also keeps high regard of the community and uses the site to post about other Nintendo events and possible information.

This is the sort of promotion made possible only by the internet. There is no other medium that can deliver video, text, and audio updates all over the world everyday for such a simple cheap price. The site costs almost nothing, all they need is the webspace and a few skilled translators and they have kept thousands of eager fans completely placated. It gives me hope that other companies will catch on and realize that there are better ways to manage your community and at the same time cross promote contless other products, while at no point becoming intrusive.

Untill then I will just have to keep closing those pop-ups.

Norbit Trailer

You'll love the first fives seconds of this song!

This is something of a follow up to my last post where I analyzed in-video advertising. You could think of it as a part 2, if you will. Now I will address in video ads extremely close relative, and frequent partner, embedded video. If not then I have included one for you to inspect.

Now if you have ever been on any MySpace account page, ever, then there is at least a 90% chance that you have encountered an embedded video file. If not there then you have probably come across one on someones blog, or maybe through a file sharing service, regardless I can safely say that almost all of the embedded videos are of music videos, or humor clips.

While this is all fine and dandy it seems to me like a severe lack of judgment on the part of advertising companies. Here we have thousands of myspace pages, each with a very specific audiance of readers. An audiance that can actually be traced by their account to find out their exact interests. So it seems to me like this would be the perfect opportunity for advertisers to make their products known to exactly the right market, for almost no cost at all.

Regardless, this seems like a tool that remains untapped, as more companies seem to be leaning toward in-video advertising instead. Not that it is bad, but I simply find it foolish to let such a perfect targeting opportunity go untapped. But, maybe that is just me.

P.S. I found an excellent video detailing Google's new in-video ads. You should check it out, they are much less intrusive then the conventional ones.

In-Video

Have you ever gone to a site, say maybe CNN.com or maybe heavy.com, there you were offered an interesting video link. Something like Chocolate Rain perhaps, however, to your horror, upon clicking said link you are forwarded, not to a singing black guy, but to a silly car commercial. If this has ever happened to you (and if you have ever spent more than five minutes on the internet it probably has) then you have fallen victim to an in-video advertisement.

Now don't get me wrong on this. I'm not saying that in-video ads are bad, no in fact there are many that I quite enjoy, however, like every other form of advertising it must be used intelligently. I cannot remember how many times I was forced to watch the 30 second TV spot for Norbit. To give you some idea of what it was like click the link on Norbit and watch the video...33 times...in a row. Now if you survived that experience you may have some idea of how awful it can be.

That being said there are plenty of intelligent applications and interesting. For one, it is extremely cost effective. For only a fraction of the cost of television advertising, you can tell exactly how many people saw your ad, when they saw it, heck you can even tell what else they were doing at the time. Additionally, if you do your research well, you can make sure that your video only plays for your audience.

Already both Google and Youtube are working on integrating in-video advertisments. How will this affect online video? we will have to wait and see.

Everybody's Space

Just about everyone who doesn't live under a HUGE ROCK has heard of MySpace. Many people see it as a way to express themselves, with music, freedom of speech, and anonymity. Or a means to connect with friends and share photos of how drunk they were at last nights party. Even employers have begun to use myspace and other such sights to look into employees backgrounds. Over all, it is one of the biggest internet crazes.

Now, like all other sights of this nature; Facebook, Yahoo Groups, and lets not forget all the blogs, MySpace is free. It costs nothing to make an account and begin to post about how much you suffer. So myspace has to get its money from elsewhere. Naturally it turned to advertising. Most myspace pages have at least a few links to sponsors or a little bit of spyware here and there, but all in all it is much better than some other, more money whoring, sites. Or is it?

Companies have found a new and interesting way to advertise with myspace, completely free. Branded myspace accounts. One of the most famous brands to do this was X-men 3, with it's cunningly constructed and well designed page. It has an extensive gallery of pictures, videos, and posts, all of which garner a click through rate vastly higher than most pop-up ads or links. In fact, it is so effective as a means of advertising and promotion that most movies, games, and tv shows have made an account. (Die Hard, Resident Evil, Heroes).

Max Kalehoff posted in more detail about how companies go about making these accounts, and what benefits they gain. Needless to say a myspace account is not necessarily the best fit for any company, I personally would find myself disinclined to trust, say, a bank, that used myspace to present itself. However, considering that, compared to other forms of advertising, myspace advertising is effectively free, it can't really hurt.

Red Bull People.

I will admit, this post has nothing to do with the internet at all. It does however relate greatly to a new and interesting form of advertising that I experienced first hand. Doubtless you have heard of Coke's famed energy drink, Red Bull. It has been advertised on television as granting the drinker the supernatural ability to fly (Though when I have tried it the only result was a nasty aftertaste and a slight buzz). Despite being disappointed with the beverage I cannot deny the effectiveness of the advertising, now whenever I think of energy drinks I think Red Bull. Recently this point was driven home with even greater force.

Noon last Saturday, it was a nice day warm with a cool breeze. I slept in, as I tend to do on weekends, and was enjoying the warm comfort of my bead when suddenly there came an unorthodox pounding at my door. Out side I heard a number of voices, some I recognized, others foreign, and as I stood I wondered when I became so popular that strange women would come to my room to greet me, not that I minded. I had brief fantasies of opening the door to a huge crowd of people, all of whom adored me and wanted to gift me with huge amounts of money. This was quickly followed by thoughts of being clubbed, bagged, and shipped to China as slave labor. Having covered most of the possible outcomes I figured I was prepared for what awaited me on the other side. I was sorely mistaken.

What greeted me where, easily, the two most cheerful people I have ever met. Both of them were female, between 5'6'' and 5'9'', and with them they bore the colossal smiles and strange cooler backpacks. Now let me say for a moment that I have worked at an amusement park, a place where unnatural friendliness is practically a requirement, yet I no one I had worked with there came even close to how friendly these people were. It was a attentiveness that could only have come 200mg of sodium, 27 grams of sugar, and 80mg of caffeine...per serving. Which is exactly what they were wearing on their backs.

Each of them bore with them a cooler pack, shaped like a can of Red Bull (slashed in half vertically, to be more form fitting). They informed me, in a stream of words so cheerful that it was almost sickening, that they had come to hand out free samples of Red Bull, and that she did not want me to miss out on the opportunity. Extending her hand, she offered me a beverage. drowsy and confused, I accepted. At once they swept from the house, almost as abruptly as they had come, pausing on the way out to inform me that they had placed some complementary cans about the apartment. And then they were gone.

For the rest of the week I have been discovering cans of Red Bull about the house, in the couch, the shower, kitchen cupboard, etc. which has kept me constantly thinking about the beverage, and the individuals who delivered it. I call them Red Bull people, although I think a simple equation would fit them better.

P + x(R) = Red Bull Person
(x being the number of R one can drink in about 15 minutes)

I have also been wondering about the ethics of this campaign. I cannot deny that it is effective, and I am pleased to know that they mostly stick to targeting friends, or friends of friends. Regardless I am left wondering if everone will take it with the same good humor as myself.

Banner Ban

No, this is not a plug for the now out of date Tony Hawk's Underground (although I suppose I can not avoid the exposure). This, here, is a banner ad. Yet another friendly little gif that clutters the pages of the world. Some sources, like Darren Rose of Problogger (nothing against Darren, just the post) or AdBrite, would have you believe that Banner ads will provide and excellent form of branding, and great click through rates. This is basically completely untrue, at least for 99% of ads. I will not deny that there exist some good banner ads, the Tony Hawk one above is a great example. Unfortunately it is lost amongst a sea of really dreadful and invasive ads, things like "Click the Fart Button" and "Outrun the stick figure to win $1,000,000". Really truly bad ads that have scared us away from all banners, so much so that I actually avert my eyes when i see one.

But what really turns people off about banner ads is the danger, thats right, danger. Banner ads are legitimately risky to click. Why? Because in doing so you allow the linked site to send you anything they want. Here are a few links to give you some idea of what I mean. When the ad is clicked it forwards you to a site, and allows it to set upon you with all the cookies and spyware it could desire. If you doubt me, give it a try, I'm sure your computer will move 35% slower and be 100% less secure than before.

Now not all banners carry malicious Trojan viruses, but it only takes one infection to turn you away from all. I predict that if something is not done about this one click infection problem soon, banners as we know them will disappear from the internet all together. Not that it would be a bad thing.

Peel Away

Just today, one day after posting about pop-ups I discovered something even more interesting. I was browsing the internet, looking for some one who would refute my prior post (conflicting opinions make great discussions) when I stumbled upon this little thing. I found it on a Google search for "Death of Pop-ups", linked off a post on the Marketing Essentials Blog. They are called Peel Away Ads, and claim to be the replacement for pop-ups.

On there main site the creators claim that peel away ads will excite your visitors, and are non intrusive and easy to use. The idea of the peel away ad is simple, when a visitor logs on they see on your page a small peel in one corner of the screen. With their interest peaked, the hope is that the visitor will mouse over the peel and see the ad. Then, inspired with the user friendliness and cool look of the ad, the visitor will click the link and view your product.

It is true that these ads will indeed be less intrusive than pop-ups, but will they be the end all of internet advertising that they would like you to believe? E-author Christopher Dolan, points out a few obvious flaws in this article. Peel away ads assume that your page has a good layout and open areas for their page curl. More importantly, you can only have one peel away on a page at a time (at least while still retaining a good look) where as you can have countless pop-up/under ads at any one time. So, in short, they may become more common, but a total replacement for pop-ups they are not.

!!!CONGRATULATIONS!1!

I believe that the image to the right should speak for itself when it comes to this topic.

There are few forms of e-vertising more annoying, deceptive, and invasive than a pop-up. They come in all shapes and sizes, with plenty of bells ad whistles to attract you attention. Sometimes bright confetti fills the box with a big sign that says, congratulations you've won (blank). For others they try to trick you with fake windows warnings (note the fake 'x' close box). Or they could just bombard you with some load obnoxious computerized voice that drowns out your music with its monotone offers.

Regardless of the method all pop-ups work is the same way. They wait, generally on a delayed timer until you have been on the site for several seconds, then when you are just about to make your decision of what you want to read or click with pop-up springs forth, like a leopard from the underbrush, and intervenes. The particularly invasive ones will appear over the list of links, or a large block of text, hoping you might click it accidentally. For greater detail on exactly how they are placed look here. This comany does an excellent job of explaining why and how their pop-ups will boost your business.

But the real question is not how, but why. Why in the world would companies use something that is so outrageously annoying. The simple answer, because it works. Studies have shown that despite what people might think pop-ups, and the close cousin pop-unders, are dirt cheap in comparison to most other, conventional, advertising and generate an enormous amount of traffic. With 13 times the daily clicks of most banner ads, I guess that means there must be someone out there who clicks on these things.

How do they find us?

Probably one of the biggest problems for all advertisers, especially those not based in the internet, is targeting. Any marketer can claim, "this is our market, and here is how we will reach them", However there is a big difference between cooperate assumptions and real fact. Advertisers learned this over the years and by now have developed many methods to find, understand, and sell to their consumers.

So of the easy ways include studying sales. What is selling, at what rate, and where. This gives the company a great idea of their strong and weak points, both in product and in location. They study not only their own trends, but those of other, related companies. Iams studies pet magazines, just as Microsoft looks at tech blogs. Here they can see what their consumer wants, if the boom of old people has brought a boom in old dogs then you can bet you will see some "senior dog chow" hitting the market.

Industries find other methods as well, they look at and perform studies, travel patterns, and common behaviors. Focus groups, online surveys, even the US census, they strive to know everything about their consumers. Now, with the advent of the internet, companies are finding that they have unpresidented access to the lives and habits of others, and though not all their methods are entirely ethical (spyware, cookies, etc.) cooperate America is leaping into the web searching for their next big hit.

Testing...1...2 very good.

"the Internet is not something that you just dump something on. It's not a big truck. It's a series of tubes."
- Senator Ted Stevens

Though the fine Senator clearly had no idea what he was talking about, one part of this quote is true. The Internet is not something that should be dumped on. However, regardless of this fact, hundreds of advertisers see fit to fill the Internet with terrabytes (1000 Gigabytes) of useless crap.