NONE: ONLINE-ADS>> A Rant About Those Who Rant...
ONLINE-ADS>> A Rant About Those Who Rant...
jgehman_at_creativelabs.com
Fri, 16 Oct 1998 09:46:11 -0500 (CDT)
If only the Web advertising industry's problems were as
simple as a few bad apples in the giant basket of online
sales reps. Talk about a case of killing the messenger
instead of the message...
Customer service, follow-up and all the other nice-to-haves
everyone is ranting about are only necessary because there
is no other metric on which to differentiate the hundreds of
online advertising vendors. Eyeballs ARE eyeballs. EVERY
site is selling a comodity. That service matters merely
proves Web advertising is a commodity business.
If all the energy that is being poured into ranting about
online sales reps was instead focused on our industry's real
problems -- standards, measurement, targeting and results --
maybe we'd actually get somewhere. The first publisher to
put a targeting and measurement system in place that
routinely gets 25% CTRs and corresponding results will have
a license to have the rudest, most unresponsive sales force
in the business and the phone will still ring!
But why do we even need site media reps? Why doesn't someone
create a huge NASDAQ-like online advertising sales exchange.
Real-time access to TARGET-CENTRIC, not site-centric
bidding. True market economics at work. Schwab can be the
highest bidder for all eyeballs with net worth of >$250K,
Amazon can be the highest bidder for all eyeballs that
bought >$200 worth of books last year and so forth. May the
highest bidder win -- only the bidders are buying targets,
not sites. Maybe in this model we need reps that are
essentially free-agents, focusing on the target, not the
site. In this scenario the job of publishers is to prove
they have the targets that matter -- which will be done by
producing the content that attracts these eyeballs. As an
advertiser, who cares what site the eyeball shows up on?
Yahoo, Tripod, CNET -- they're all just a vehicle to deliver
the target. The eyeball is what matters.
Before this rant begets another rash of unproductive rants:
I'm not saying customer service isn't important. I'm just
pointing out that its importance is magnified by the
inability of publishers to differentiate their eyeballs and
deliver results. As long as we live in a 2% CTR world,
where all eyeballs are created equal, the best online sales
reps will win. They are all selling the same product.
It is because all eyeballs are created equal that I would
happily follow the my favorite reps wherever they go (here's
to Michele, Greg, Pete and Trevor). Standards, measurement,
targeting and results are the problem, not a handful of
green online sales reps. In fact, Most reps I know are hard
working, professional and have one hell of a tough job.
Think about it, would you want to sell to me???
===========================
Joel Gehman, Internet Marketing Analyst
mailto:jgehman_at_creativelabs.com
408-428-6600 x6904
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