No, on the NET, its all about information, not ads
Posted on November 13th, 2007 | by dade |The traditional media mediums: TV and Radio are intrinsically a push medium. Meaning that contents are just served (pushed) onto the audience. And as such the mentality of the audience is fashioned to be just a recipient, sit back and watch all that is being offered. The user goes with the mind set of “o.k I’m giving you my attention let see which one of you will come up with interesting programs that is capable of holding my attention and getting me entertained. This is why in these traditional mediums, adverts are not considered as nuisances but as a part of the whole package; as part of the entertainment. Funny adverts are…well…fun. And because of this, the amount of exposure plus the creativity of the advert matters…o how I love the dance advertisement by MTN Nigeria.
But on the web, the medium is different. The web is an intrinsically push and pull medium. I just don’t get shoved contents on the web, I interact with the web to get what I want and as such the mentality I bring to the web is different than the one I would bring to TV/Radio…I see the web as a tool that enables me to get things done. Something I interact with so as to get a task accomplished. The user is an active player on the web. This is the reason why advertisement that is uncalled for would forever constitute a distraction. Whistles and jiggles, flash animations, dancing ants, jumping bean and jack in the box filling up banners can never be the best strategy on the web…only information; information that is well targeted that makes sense on the web, not ads…need I stress it again? The web is a different medium.
For example, I need to get some plumbing work done, so using my Gmail account I mail a pal asking him if he knows of any plumber he can recommend, he replies but just then right there with his reply Googles gently gives me a list of plumbers around my neighborhood I could call on…now that is targeted information not just ads. That is useful to me.
Another example, I go to Amazon and purchase The World is Flat by Thomas L. Friedman, but just then, Amazon gently tells me that most of the people who buy the world is flat also got The Long Tail by Chris Anderson and since what made me buy the former book in the first instance is my quest for knowledge, so being told of just another book that will help me in my quest makes total sense. Now that is Information, targeted information and it is useful to me.
On the Web, it’s all about information, not ads; not intrusive ads.
For example one of the strategies that work on the web is to create a service that will garner a lot of users, followers, not just any kind of service but one that from which a kind of society can evolve and around, and then use this ’social’ as a platform to sell targeted information or other novel services to people.
Being ignorant of what makes the web the web will definitely limits what can be done with it. In future posts I will further enunciate on some of the intrinsic characteristic of the web; the logic behind concepts like long tail and why social networks are such successful models.
