NONE: ONLINE-ADS>> superceding the browser????
ONLINE-ADS>> superceding the browser????
William Henry (bobhenry_at_cymedia.com)
Thu, 03 Oct 1996 14:00:23 -0400
>you could get your ad on someones desktop in an interactive form with
browser >capabilities but not need netscape type browsers up and
running....imagine this >would be something that everyone would want and
could be custom tailorde to fit >any client or advertiser yet be there on
the desktop without other programs >running......imagine having the edge of
superceding the browser all together...
>Remember the pet rock? Anyone though of the pet rock for the computer yet?
Well, it's not exactly a new concept, take a look at PCN. The only problem
with the idea of superceding the browser is that you are just renaming
something. Call it an "adviewer", or a "browser", or an "agent". It's
doing the same thing. What benefit is there in calling something by a new
name? The PCN software functions differently and independently from the
user's normal browser, but when you get down to it's function and purpose,
or go even deeper and examine it's code, it's just another interface to the
HTTP protocol. Calling it something else is nice, from a marketing
standpoint, but it does the same thing.
So in my view, as someone who maintains the network hardware for my
company, it's actually a hassle. I have to make sure that there is enough
storage space to store each advertiser's programs to run their ads, when in
reality, it could have been dealt with through existing software.
Not to mention that this doesn't really address the questions raised by the
message you were replying to.... modem media's ad model of click through
and performance based ad payment.
It would be nice, if I could only pay for the views that actually produced
some kind of sale or response, but that sort of puts the responsibility of
the advertisement's effectiveness on the traffic provider. Wouldn't this
then change the nature of the ad space provider? As a web publisher, I am
in the business of providing some kind of information, entertainment, or
whatever. I may or may not attract an audience. If I attract an audience,
and you as an advertiser wish to have access to my audience to make your
sales pitch, I can provide that for you. It's always the salesman's job to
get a sale, not the person providing the audience, whether the sales pitch
is using ink, radio or tv waves or ones and zeros....
This also begs the question of whether this ad model is basically
shortsightedness or lack of creativity on the part of those wishing to make
a name for themselves as innovators. Mark claims that there needs to be
some breakthrough in how advertising is handled online. This may be true,
but I don't think it's going to be in the hands of one person, like Tim
Berners-Lee as the father of the World Wide Web. It's going to take a lot
of pushing and shoving, trial and error, and people may get hurt in the
fray. I believe it's shortsighted of an advertiser to look at the
short-term and try to get an advertisement on some sort of commission based
(click through) model, to save a few bucks and still gain the product
identity benefits. He/she may get a great deal this week, but when it
comes time to renew that ad contract, the web site has folded since they
could only encourage 10 of their 10,000 viewers to even show a moderate
interest in the advertiser's products, and thus could not support their
site through the minimal advertising revenue it produced. Okay, any site
that is relying totally on advertising revenue should be run by people with
second incomes, but that's not the point. The point is, that the ad buyers
are going to slowly save themselves right out of a viable advertising
medium... they will put alot of sites right out of existence.
Just because the method of distribution is by way of copper and fiber optic
wires, and there are ones and zeros involved instead of ink, doesn't mean
there has to be a whole new way of doing business. If you look at most
viable web sites, they are basically souped up newspapers. Newspapers with
sound and video, and other interactive aspects. The people who design and
publish these sites are mostly graphic designers, print setters, and
publishers. These ARE NOT, for the most part, computer programmers who
don't understand the publishing business or advertising business.
I think the small fry who likes the idea of click through advertising is
either unknowledgeable or too impatient to wait for the more viable
advertising models. For example, about a year ago, a company that sells
CD's online approached me and wanted to have an ad on our site, but would
only pay us for each CD sold through a click on the banner on our site. If
I was a naive person, this would have sounded like a great deal.... $1 for
each CD sold. Not to mention that a year ago I was bringing in only $500 a
month in revenue, and any revenue was good revenue. Knowing that there was
more value than simply gaining a direct CD purchase, I declined. I
understood then, that a person who is viewing my web site may not want to
interrupt their session to buy a CD, but will have made note of the URL, or
at least the company name, and may then use infoseek to locate it later, or
may click on a banner on another site at another time. How can I get
proper credit for this? They would consider any sale from a person who saw
their banner on my site, but used infoseek to find them as a "cold" sale,
and would compensate NOONE.
Maybe there is an innovative way to handle online advertising, but I don't
think this is even close to it. The click through tracking is only an
additional service that an ad-space provider can offer advertisers, to aid
in determining effectiveness, but it cannot be the basis of payment. Take
a look at almost any type of marketing, noone gets compensated solely on
sales or responses.... Grocery stores charge manufacturers or their
distributors extra for placement in the middle shelves in the aisles, not
for each one sold. The endcaps at the department stores are an extra
charge, based on location, not based on how many get sold. The
"click-through" can help determine whether I will buy that space again, but
I still have to pay the value of it until I find it to be of less value.
Bob Henry
bobhenry_at_cymedia.com
http://www.cymedia.com
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