David Emery Online

Advertising as content

20 September 2007

I’m of the opinion that as a general rule, TV advertising doesn’t really work. In fact, I think most advertising doesn’t work – or at least isn’t worth the amount it costs – but lets stick with TV for the time being.

Most TV adverts are pretty uninspired; I would love to give examples of the average TV ad, but I can’t remember any and that’s exactly the problem: we’ve become completely overexposed to the medium to the point that – in the vast majority of cases – we completely filter it out. It’s completely understandable, as it’s not content that anyone really wants to see. The viewer is there for the program and its content, and the advertising just gets in the way of it. From the get-go you’ve irritated the person you’re trying to sell things to, which is hardly an ideal starting point.

There is though an entire – highly profitable – industry around making TV adverts, which attracts some very talented people which then means we do – on very rare occasions – end up with something that is really quite special. Look at the success of the Cadbury’s Phil Collins gorilla advert, for example: it’s a very amusing piece of work, and something that wouldn’t be out of place in a sketch show. Whether it’s had a positive affect in selling chocolate is a wholly different question (I would guess probably not) but it has had a massive affect in selling the track used – Phil Collins is currently sitting at number 18 in the singles chart midweeks.

Advertising as content.

The gorilla advert is what I would term “old school advertising”; it’s not doing anything innovative or new, it’s just doing something genuinely funny and interesting. Another advert I saw at the weekend was much more interesting in this regard, and took the concept of “Advertising as content” to a whole other level.

Surprisingly it was an advert for Ebay. I say surprisingly as they’ve traditionally had pretty appalling adverts, featuring simple animated characters and an annoying jingle (seriously, who still uses a jingle?). This one, though, was different and featured front and centre a product (I think it was a jacket or shirt – some item of clothing, anyway) that was currently up for auction on Ebay, complete with the current price and short description. It even had a little rushed voiceover at the end saying the price was correct 20 seconds ago.

That, if you ask me, is pretty cool.

I’ve certainly never seen an advert that was so obviously dynamic and live, and it’s the perfect match for Ebay who are all about dynamic and live. It would be very interesting to know more details about the campaign – how many adverts like these do they do, how do they pick what items to show (is it done dynamically based on an algorithm, or by hand?), what kind of technology powers it – you could go on and on.

If Google ever get into TV advertising – and I have no reason to think they won’t – it surely will be in a similar way, relying on dynamic content that instantly becomes more interesting due to it’s immediate relevance. It’s also surely the way forward for online video advertising (i.e. adverts in online videos), although I still haven’t seen an implementation of it that I think will really be effective. Dynamic adverts are surely the way forward.