4 ms·

The Future of Television Advertising (2005)

18 points by luu 4y ago

thewebcount 4y ago
> The third area of concern revolves around the issue of ad clutter. Over the years, two trends have clearly emerged, particularly in the USA: (a) more television time devoted to ads and (b) shorter ads. These two trends translate into a huge leap in the number of ads shown in any given time period. Industry professionals worry about two consequences of clutter: less ad effectiveness due to cognitive overload and loss of viewers due to their annoyance with the barrage of ads. In other words, they worry that the barrage of their ads will be affected. By 2005 I was already skipping ads with my TiVo and renting DVDs to watch some shows so I didn’t have to deal with ads. So yeah, that ship sailed a loooong time ago.
- listenallyall 4y ago
  The ship hasn't sailed, it just docked at another port. Ok, you can skip ads with Tivo, therefore advertisers moved to the web where not only could you not skip popups, you had to actually interact with them. You're still forgetting that millions of people still watch normal television, and only a few percent of web users utilize any type of ad-blockers.
  - acomjean 4y ago
    Or they embed the ads in the programs as “product placement”. You see this on late night TV and I rewatched episodes of “silicon valley” and it seems all over that (Tesla, big gulp, Fage yogurt, burger king…)
    - WorldPeas 4y ago
      Or heck, all the youtubers hawking nordvpn and dubious supplements/financial instruments before and after their videos
tivert 4y ago
Blipverts
gsatic 4y ago
I really dont understand how the Ad Industry still survives. Attention is finite. That should put an automatic upper bound on how many Ads get sold. Info/Content has exploded. I saw a stat saying only 0.5% of content produced is consumed. And that was from 2015. The Ad Industry (big techs "free" email,chat,video,movies,games etc) has funded this content explosion to draw in eyeballs. Network/Smartphone growth over the last 2-3 decade has added huge number eyeballs to the available Attention pool. But this growth has been flattening for a while in the developed world. The developing world has eyeballs available but they dont have the cash (sort of like the subprime market). So whats the use of producing more content/offering free services? Is it just a big ponzi scheme? Shouldn't we be able to calculate precisely when it makes no sense to pump out more ads. Isn't it sort of like Shannon's channel capacity? If everyone is broadcasting and cost to broadcast has fallen to 0, and there is no cost to business to wasting ppl's time, then how do get anyone to hear anything? 1. Raise the volume 2. Repeat the message endlessly But all this just adds to noise so how are Ads even working. Nothing makes sense man.
- toast0 4y ago
  > I really dont understand how the Ad Industry still survives. > Shouldn't we be able to calculate precisely when it makes no sense to pump out more ads. Isn't it sort of like Shannon's channel capacity? Even if the channel is saturated, that doesn't signal the end of the industry. Pepsi knows advertising in the super bowl is expensive and crowded, but they can't take their superbowl ad budget and spend it on feel good projects for local communities, because the sales slump too much. Other beverage sellers must have also taken note from Pepsi's experiment. If the channel capacity is reached, that's not bad for the industry. Slot pricing goes up if there's not enough supply. And if you're paying more to slot your ad, it should be a better ad, so you've got to pay more to make it. There's a saying that 50% of your ads are a waste of money, but which 50%?
  - gsatic 4y ago
    What I guess I am wondering about is what sets the upper bounds/limits to advertising growth and ad funded free content/free service growth? Since attention is finite, and the competition for that finite resource seems to be at all time highs.
tialaramex 4y ago
The only part of advertising we can be absolutely confident "works" is awareness. If your customers aren't aware your product exists, they obviously won't buy it. But interestingly several modern advertising approaches actually undermine this. For example take product placement. If Walter White is driving a Canyonero the advertising industry figures now the fact I go for a pee when the adverts are shown doesn't matter, Walter is literally driving the product, look at that shot of the vehicle accelerating down the dirt road, how it lingers on the logo. However, Walter is fictional and much of his world is an elaborate fiction, so, why would the Canyonero be any more real than those chicken shops, or the law firm ? Instead of awareness that the product exists, you've spread doubt!
- listenallyall 4y ago
  Human psychology works pretty much the exact opposite of the way you just described.
- Zababa 4y ago
  You have to apply your point about awareness to your reasoning about product placement. You don't start with everything that exists in your head, all of them having a 50/50 chance of existing, and then seeing the car reduces this chance. You have a certain number of car-related stuff, that is probably less than all the car related stuff that exists. Some is marked as real, some as fictional, some as not sure. When you see that Canyonero, it'll be added to your mental space. It may not be in a great position, but it's probably slightly better than not existing at all.

18 points by luu 4y ago

> The third area of concern revolves around the issue of ad clutter. Over the years, two trends have clearly emerged, particularly in the USA: (a) more television time devoted to ads and (b) shorter ads. These two trends translate into a huge leap in the number of ads shown in any given time period. Industry professionals worry about two consequences of clutter: less ad effectiveness due to cognitive overload and loss of viewers due to their annoyance with the barrage of ads. In other words, they worry that the barrage of their ads will be affected. By 2005 I was already skipping ads with my TiVo and renting DVDs to watch some shows so I didn’t have to deal with ads. So yeah, that ship sailed a loooong time ago.

listenallyall 4y ago
The ship hasn't sailed, it just docked at another port. Ok, you can skip ads with Tivo, therefore advertisers moved to the web where not only could you not skip popups, you had to actually interact with them. You're still forgetting that millions of people still watch normal television, and only a few percent of web users utilize any type of ad-blockers.
- acomjean 4y ago
  Or they embed the ads in the programs as “product placement”. You see this on late night TV and I rewatched episodes of “silicon valley” and it seems all over that (Tesla, big gulp, Fage yogurt, burger king…)
  - WorldPeas 4y ago
    Or heck, all the youtubers hawking nordvpn and dubious supplements/financial instruments before and after their videos

tivert 4y ago

Blipverts

gsatic 4y ago

I really dont understand how the Ad Industry still survives. Attention is finite. That should put an automatic upper bound on how many Ads get sold. Info/Content has exploded. I saw a stat saying only 0.5% of content produced is consumed. And that was from 2015. The Ad Industry (big techs "free" email,chat,video,movies,games etc) has funded this content explosion to draw in eyeballs. Network/Smartphone growth over the last 2-3 decade has added huge number eyeballs to the available Attention pool. But this growth has been flattening for a while in the developed world. The developing world has eyeballs available but they dont have the cash (sort of like the subprime market). So whats the use of producing more content/offering free services? Is it just a big ponzi scheme? Shouldn't we be able to calculate precisely when it makes no sense to pump out more ads. Isn't it sort of like Shannon's channel capacity? If everyone is broadcasting and cost to broadcast has fallen to 0, and there is no cost to business to wasting ppl's time, then how do get anyone to hear anything? 1. Raise the volume 2. Repeat the message endlessly But all this just adds to noise so how are Ads even working. Nothing makes sense man.

toast0 4y ago
> I really dont understand how the Ad Industry still survives. > Shouldn't we be able to calculate precisely when it makes no sense to pump out more ads. Isn't it sort of like Shannon's channel capacity? Even if the channel is saturated, that doesn't signal the end of the industry. Pepsi knows advertising in the super bowl is expensive and crowded, but they can't take their superbowl ad budget and spend it on feel good projects for local communities, because the sales slump too much. Other beverage sellers must have also taken note from Pepsi's experiment. If the channel capacity is reached, that's not bad for the industry. Slot pricing goes up if there's not enough supply. And if you're paying more to slot your ad, it should be a better ad, so you've got to pay more to make it. There's a saying that 50% of your ads are a waste of money, but which 50%?
- gsatic 4y ago
  What I guess I am wondering about is what sets the upper bounds/limits to advertising growth and ad funded free content/free service growth? Since attention is finite, and the competition for that finite resource seems to be at all time highs.

tialaramex 4y ago

The only part of advertising we can be absolutely confident "works" is awareness. If your customers aren't aware your product exists, they obviously won't buy it. But interestingly several modern advertising approaches actually undermine this. For example take product placement. If Walter White is driving a Canyonero the advertising industry figures now the fact I go for a pee when the adverts are shown doesn't matter, Walter is literally driving the product, look at that shot of the vehicle accelerating down the dirt road, how it lingers on the logo. However, Walter is fictional and much of his world is an elaborate fiction, so, why would the Canyonero be any more real than those chicken shops, or the law firm ? Instead of awareness that the product exists, you've spread doubt!

listenallyall 4y ago
Human psychology works pretty much the exact opposite of the way you just described.
Zababa 4y ago
You have to apply your point about awareness to your reasoning about product placement. You don't start with everything that exists in your head, all of them having a 50/50 chance of existing, and then seeing the car reduces this chance. You have a certain number of car-related stuff, that is probably less than all the car related stuff that exists. Some is marked as real, some as fictional, some as not sure. When you see that Canyonero, it'll be added to your mental space. It may not be in a great position, but it's probably slightly better than not existing at all.