4 ms·

"Advertising doesn't work on me!" If this is true, congrats. You are the .000001%. It works on people really well in the broad scope. It makes them gobs and go

by cschep 5y ago

"Advertising doesn't work on me!" If this is true, congrats. You are the .000001%. It works on people really well in the broad scope. It makes them gobs and gobs of money.

lowkey_ 5y ago
I believe advertising works on everyone; if it's really good, you just won't even be able to tell it's advertising or that it's 'working on you.'
- pdpi 5y ago
  Advertising comes in many flavours, and different flavours work for different people. E.g. I find that most tech-y people I know who say "advertising doesn't work on me" are very susceptible to the "laundry-list of features" type of advertising that tricks them into thinking they're being rational and objective about their decision process, while not questioning why they should care about any of those features. For me, there's ads I actively enjoy watching. The old Cog[0] ad for the Honda Accord is one such case, as is the He-Man/Skeletor[1] ad for Money Supermarket (well, that and every other ad in that campaign). These work incredibly well on me as the brand awareness sort of marketing, and I'm sufficiently aware that I can correct for it — but I'm almost certainly unaware of my susceptibility to other sorts. 0. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ve4M4UsJQo 1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-PgTjhx1VLw
SuoDuanDao 5y ago
Does it though? When's the last time it worked on you?
- parthdesai 5y ago
  I did buy something based off an instagram ad. I also would rather have ads that are meaningful than be shown some useless ads.
  - SuoDuanDao 5y ago
    Your word in Zuckerberg's ear. I love seeing ads for things I actually want. I'd say they're less than 1% of all the ads I see though. For all the data these companies have on me, they don't seem to make great use of it.
- david422 5y ago
  It's brand recognition, not "I'm going to buy this product right now". And the next time you need a product, you have a positive attachment to certain brands.
  - lijogdfljk 5y ago
    Not that i disagree, but it's funny to me that more people aren't paranoid of companies like i am. I expect _everyone_ to try and swindle me. No company loses anything, so every sale or v2 product i expect to be worse for me. The only time i actually like ads and feel it "works on me" is when the product is a new area i have not previously seen before. Eg heated cups - i love my Ember. It sucks, but there's not much competition i'm aware of - so early ads were a dominated space. I eat those ads up if it's a product area i care about. (and i really love heated coffee lol)
    - david422 5y ago
      It can be mutually beneficial too though. You get something, the company gets something.
- cko 5y ago
  Years ago I saw an ad on Facebook for a merino wool sneaker. It looked clean and minimalistic. I happened to enjoy wearing shoes without socks, so I clicked on the link and immediately bought a pair of Allbirds. (Years later I read that Allbirds is part of the SV tech worker uniform.) Also I definitely have clicked on those marketing email newsletters and made purchases based on those. In case I sound like a major consumer, I will mention that I managed to live in New Jersey for 8 years spending $1200 a month. That's rent, food, transportation, and impulse buys.
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
- burnished 5y ago
  If you think of advertising as being "see ad -> buy thing", well, it may have worked on you if you needed that thing. That's not a crazy idea right? Advertising purely as a form of product discovery? Then, beyond that, you can get into the stuff that uses observations about basic human psychology. It might be arrogance to consider yourself above human weakness. You are probably familiar with the strategy of brand awareness? All else being equal you are more likely to purchase a product that is familiar to you. If you see an advertisement for a product, even if you try to form a negative emotional attachment immediately, the emotional tenor will fade but the familiarity will remain. I'm not going to say every form of advertising is effective, probably a lot of the web stuff that can be gamed is gamed and thus less effective, but I'd be cautious assuming it won't work on you (or anyone else for that matter).
ashtonkem 5y ago
There’s a big difference between online advertising and content recommendation engines. One can believe that the former works and that the latter does not; they’re not the same things. Heck, there a huge variance in quality of recommendation engines. YouTube is clearly superior to say, Amazon Video.
standardUser 5y ago
Scores of corporations are perfecting the art of eking out just a few more views from a small segment of users while irritating the rest of the user base as much as possible without actually losing customers. Most advertising/targeting doesn't work on most people most of the time, but we all have to endure it because it grabs just enough extra net revenue.
- memetomancer 5y ago
  perhaps you are misconstruing the proportions here? I suspect the vast majority of the users plonk down after work to look for a show. they are tired and they don't want to put a lot of effort into selecting the show or even paying attention to it. the suggestion will do. and the billion dollar provider staffed by high end experts has the analytics to back that up. Meanwhile the noisy minority of users are seen complaining loudly about this or that feature not catering directly to them. *I'm not trying to say you are that noisy minority btw, I only mean to evaluate the suggested premise of your comment.
  - amanaplanacanal 5y ago
    This just makes it more obvious to me that I am not a normie. The idea of just turning on the tube and watching whatever is on would never occur to me. I’m either looking for things that match my admittedly non-mainstream tastes, or I’ll turn it off and read a book or play with one of my hobbies.
Al-Khwarizmi 5y ago
This is often assumed without actual data to back it. I remember seeing in HN (in the last few years) a link providing evidence that advertising didn't work in an instance where the company was sure it was working (for years). Sorry, my memory is not good enough to actually come up with the link, maybe someone else will remember...

by cschep 5y ago

"Advertising doesn't work on me!" If this is true, congrats. You are the .000001%. It works on people really well in the broad scope. It makes them gobs and gobs of money.

lowkey_ 5y ago

I believe advertising works on everyone; if it's really good, you just won't even be able to tell it's advertising or that it's 'working on you.'

pdpi 5y ago
Advertising comes in many flavours, and different flavours work for different people. E.g. I find that most tech-y people I know who say "advertising doesn't work on me" are very susceptible to the "laundry-list of features" type of advertising that tricks them into thinking they're being rational and objective about their decision process, while not questioning why they should care about any of those features. For me, there's ads I actively enjoy watching. The old Cog[0] ad for the Honda Accord is one such case, as is the He-Man/Skeletor[1] ad for Money Supermarket (well, that and every other ad in that campaign). These work incredibly well on me as the brand awareness sort of marketing, and I'm sufficiently aware that I can correct for it — but I'm almost certainly unaware of my susceptibility to other sorts. 0. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ve4M4UsJQo 1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-PgTjhx1VLw

SuoDuanDao 5y ago

Does it though? When's the last time it worked on you?

parthdesai 5y ago
I did buy something based off an instagram ad. I also would rather have ads that are meaningful than be shown some useless ads.
- SuoDuanDao 5y ago
  Your word in Zuckerberg's ear. I love seeing ads for things I actually want. I'd say they're less than 1% of all the ads I see though. For all the data these companies have on me, they don't seem to make great use of it.
david422 5y ago
It's brand recognition, not "I'm going to buy this product right now". And the next time you need a product, you have a positive attachment to certain brands.
- lijogdfljk 5y ago
  Not that i disagree, but it's funny to me that more people aren't paranoid of companies like i am. I expect _everyone_ to try and swindle me. No company loses anything, so every sale or v2 product i expect to be worse for me. The only time i actually like ads and feel it "works on me" is when the product is a new area i have not previously seen before. Eg heated cups - i love my Ember. It sucks, but there's not much competition i'm aware of - so early ads were a dominated space. I eat those ads up if it's a product area i care about. (and i really love heated coffee lol)
  - david422 5y ago
    It can be mutually beneficial too though. You get something, the company gets something.
cko 5y ago
Years ago I saw an ad on Facebook for a merino wool sneaker. It looked clean and minimalistic. I happened to enjoy wearing shoes without socks, so I clicked on the link and immediately bought a pair of Allbirds. (Years later I read that Allbirds is part of the SV tech worker uniform.) Also I definitely have clicked on those marketing email newsletters and made purchases based on those. In case I sound like a major consumer, I will mention that I managed to live in New Jersey for 8 years spending $1200 a month. That's rent, food, transportation, and impulse buys.
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
burnished 5y ago
If you think of advertising as being "see ad -> buy thing", well, it may have worked on you if you needed that thing. That's not a crazy idea right? Advertising purely as a form of product discovery? Then, beyond that, you can get into the stuff that uses observations about basic human psychology. It might be arrogance to consider yourself above human weakness. You are probably familiar with the strategy of brand awareness? All else being equal you are more likely to purchase a product that is familiar to you. If you see an advertisement for a product, even if you try to form a negative emotional attachment immediately, the emotional tenor will fade but the familiarity will remain. I'm not going to say every form of advertising is effective, probably a lot of the web stuff that can be gamed is gamed and thus less effective, but I'd be cautious assuming it won't work on you (or anyone else for that matter).

ashtonkem 5y ago

There’s a big difference between online advertising and content recommendation engines. One can believe that the former works and that the latter does not; they’re not the same things. Heck, there a huge variance in quality of recommendation engines. YouTube is clearly superior to say, Amazon Video.

standardUser 5y ago

Scores of corporations are perfecting the art of eking out just a few more views from a small segment of users while irritating the rest of the user base as much as possible without actually losing customers. Most advertising/targeting doesn't work on most people most of the time, but we all have to endure it because it grabs just enough extra net revenue.

memetomancer 5y ago
perhaps you are misconstruing the proportions here? I suspect the vast majority of the users plonk down after work to look for a show. they are tired and they don't want to put a lot of effort into selecting the show or even paying attention to it. the suggestion will do. and the billion dollar provider staffed by high end experts has the analytics to back that up. Meanwhile the noisy minority of users are seen complaining loudly about this or that feature not catering directly to them. *I'm not trying to say you are that noisy minority btw, I only mean to evaluate the suggested premise of your comment.
- amanaplanacanal 5y ago
  This just makes it more obvious to me that I am not a normie. The idea of just turning on the tube and watching whatever is on would never occur to me. I’m either looking for things that match my admittedly non-mainstream tastes, or I’ll turn it off and read a book or play with one of my hobbies.

Al-Khwarizmi 5y ago

This is often assumed without actual data to back it. I remember seeing in HN (in the last few years) a link providing evidence that advertising didn't work in an instance where the company was sure it was working (for years). Sorry, my memory is not good enough to actually come up with the link, maybe someone else will remember...