So I’m just going to start calling out stuff I notice about sites that make me wonder what were they thinking—or not thinking of.
Even though I don’t listen to it, Pandora is one of the more well-known online radio sites out there. I was flipping around for something when a Bose ad came up. Continuing my love for them, they’re doing here what a lot of advertisers do by running an ad that has zero relevance or connection with the site it’s on beyond the category. (In this case, the Bose family of fine audio products! Music, get it? Connection, made!)
They’re arguably two of the most recognizable brands, but there’s no attempt by Bose to do something more dynamic with the message. Tying in with a particular genre? Promoting a certain artist by getting a music label involved? How about even connecting the quality of your audio gear with some clever writing?
Woulda, coulda, shoulda.
3 comments:
Not to mention the unbelievable hack job design they have for placing ads on the site.
I've been following your rants on contextual madness / poor online ad placement for a while, and yes, I do feel your pain.
However, I think the problem is insurmountable. Basically the databases that serve up ads -- say, on ad networks -- are not linked with the internal publisher data sets of content, so strange placements will happen. Advertisers can try to avoid this by placing their ads only on marquee sites where they are comfortable with the content ... but if you had a choice between a $60 CPM on WSJ.com and a $6 CPM on an ad network that reaches *exactly* the same audience, which would you prefer?
As advertisers move into niche sites with buys in extremely efficient ad networks, they are also increasing the risk that strange content will appear next to their site. But at 10% of the cost -- or 10 times the results -- it's a risk many are willing to take.
@Steve - yeah. Bose ads fit perfectly in tool & die mags in the dentist office.
@BK - Understood re: where ads end up, but in this case, it isn't contextually sad—it’s just boring.
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