Re: Pop-Ups/Unders Dilemma

From: Ray Campbell <ray_at_1newbiz.com>
Date: Fri 13 Sep 2002 22:38:54 -0500

We have an approach toward pop unders at Harmony-Central.com that I believe
makes sense for us, our advertisers and our users. Our site delivers news
and information to musicians.

To keep our pop unders relevant -- and, indeed, to have them enhance the
visitor experience -- we limit them to pop-unders of direct relevance and
high interest to musicians.

We have run, for example, pop unders helping to launch a new keyboard
synthesizer from Yamaha, and regularly run pop unders connected with
contests from music instrument retailers that award music gear as prizes. We
don't, and won't, do the X-10 or the Orbitz type ads because those ads do
not address the interests and informational needs that attract people to our
site in the first place. We probably would do pop unders launching a new CD
from a musically sophisticated band with skills that impress musicians,
although that occasion hasn't arisen yet.

We have received no negative feedback on these ads (and trust me, we have a
vocal community). The reason, I think, is that the ads fit so well into why
people come to the site in the first place. If you think about it, it's not
so unusual for properly targeted ads to be part of the appeal of a media
property -- for me, for example, the ads in the print edition of Computer
Shopper are about 60 % of the reason to buy the magazine.

I don't know that our approach translaters to more general sites. Having an
audience composed completely of folks passionate about making music makes it
easier to define the relevant interests. For those sites focused on a niche
audience, though, I think it's a sound solution.

Ray Campbell
CEO
HarmonyCentral.com, Inc.
Ray_at_harmony-central.com



Received on Fri Sep 13 2002 - 22:38:54 CDT