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> Just realized: advertising is over, and has been for a few years. > How many people here see any ads? You're not the target audience. Advertising definitely

> Just realized: advertising is over, and has been for a few years. > How many people here see any ads? You're not the target audience. Advertising definitely works, though not on everyone. Never take HN commenters as a representative sample of the general population.

paulcole 4y ago
Advertising and marketing absolutely work on most HN commenters. And HN commenters are 100% the target audience for ads. They are (generally) rich and they spend money. Who wouldn’t want to target them?
- tarotuser 4y ago
  I'd argue that we're already being targeted by very carefully placed comments positively supporting products/services, and responses on negative articles by "leaders" at aggrieved companies when users come to social media for last ditch customer support. Just because it's not flashy banners or near-naked women doesn't mean it's not advertising. fixed: wrong word
  - asdff 4y ago
    Of course, both on HN and every single popular website out there. Think of how many people use reddit for "human" opinions. Marketing aren't idiots, they know people type "myquery site:reddit.com" for a lot of things these days. As a marketer, you can go to some niche subreddit, ask "I need product for y what can I do" or something along those lines, then take your string of 20 bot accounts to say "Use X" and upvote those posts. It wouldn't be too long before you've snowballed this into THE product anyone on the subreddit recommends for anyone. Maybe you've even paid a mod to put it in the sidebar. Maybe you are the mod! You end up capturing the people who think qvc is for idiots just as well as the qvc watchers.
  - coffeebeqn 4y ago
    And even if you’re not directly, maybe a database provider has been bombarding your friend or coworker with ads for weeks and now they suddenly recommend that platform to you because it’s been seared into their memory
mikeyouse 4y ago
The number of HN commenters who insist they never see ads and aren’t impacted by the ones they do see is laughably high as well.
- asdff 4y ago
  Whenever I see that I wonder, are we reading the same HN? There's probably hundreds of accounts used by marketing that posts various stories on here, not to mention in the comments. At least they label some of these posts as Show HN.
ramesh31 4y ago
> Advertising definitely works, though not on everyone. It works on everyone. In fact, the people who swear "ads don't work on me" are the easiest people to advertise to, because they are hyper aware of advertisements, and even saying to yourself "I won't use X product because Y" is simply enforcing a brand choice based on... advertising.

paulcole 4y ago

Advertising and marketing absolutely work on most HN commenters. And HN commenters are 100% the target audience for ads. They are (generally) rich and they spend money. Who wouldn’t want to target them?

tarotuser 4y ago
I'd argue that we're already being targeted by very carefully placed comments positively supporting products/services, and responses on negative articles by "leaders" at aggrieved companies when users come to social media for last ditch customer support. Just because it's not flashy banners or near-naked women doesn't mean it's not advertising. fixed: wrong word
- asdff 4y ago
  Of course, both on HN and every single popular website out there. Think of how many people use reddit for "human" opinions. Marketing aren't idiots, they know people type "myquery site:reddit.com" for a lot of things these days. As a marketer, you can go to some niche subreddit, ask "I need product for y what can I do" or something along those lines, then take your string of 20 bot accounts to say "Use X" and upvote those posts. It wouldn't be too long before you've snowballed this into THE product anyone on the subreddit recommends for anyone. Maybe you've even paid a mod to put it in the sidebar. Maybe you are the mod! You end up capturing the people who think qvc is for idiots just as well as the qvc watchers.
- coffeebeqn 4y ago
  And even if you’re not directly, maybe a database provider has been bombarding your friend or coworker with ads for weeks and now they suddenly recommend that platform to you because it’s been seared into their memory

mikeyouse 4y ago

The number of HN commenters who insist they never see ads and aren’t impacted by the ones they do see is laughably high as well.

asdff 4y ago
Whenever I see that I wonder, are we reading the same HN? There's probably hundreds of accounts used by marketing that posts various stories on here, not to mention in the comments. At least they label some of these posts as Show HN.

ramesh31 4y ago

> Advertising definitely works, though not on everyone. It works on everyone. In fact, the people who swear "ads don't work on me" are the easiest people to advertise to, because they are hyper aware of advertisements, and even saying to yourself "I won't use X product because Y" is simply enforcing a brand choice based on... advertising.