Confessions of an Ad Avoider
The
dynamic trio of Microsoft, Starcom, and Milward Brown have conducted a study
which unveiled a new villain in the movie of online advertising: the Ad
Avoider. Mike Shields of Mediaweek reports
that between 10 percent and 15 percent of adults 17-35 fall into this category.
The
active avoiders are young, they’re tech-savvy,
and they have a DVR to cut out the unwanted content. The passive avoiders go a simpler route – they tend to use media that
is untouched by ads, like books or board games. Well, I don’t have a DVR, and I
haven’t played a board game since it became uncouth to cheat at Chutes and
Ladders, but let me tell you something. The Ad Avoider? It’s me.
I’m
the one who “can’t be bothered with ads.” I find them “annoying.” No, worse
than just annoying; I think that advertising is evil and that whole industry
should be banished down to the eighth circle of hell to play with the other
falsifiers.
This
may sound extreme, not to mention hypocritical. But the point I’m trying to make
is that even the people who declare themselves the least likely to be affected
by media are still consumers, and they still have eyes and ears and fingers and
toes. (We hope.) Just because I am an Ad Avoider doesn’t mean I don’t know that
pork is the other white meat, that barbie is a babe, and that smoking
cigarettes will make me cool. (Too cool for school, in fact.) It doesn’t stop
me from buying products and services that I see advertised in the Right Column
or that coveted Shaded Row when I do Google searches, and it certainly does not
keep me from engaging in modern media.
What
it does do is make me more selective
about what I pay attention to, and in this sense, I am an advertiser’s dream.
Beth Uyenco Shatto, research director of Microsoft, reacted to the study by
saying, “This is the kind of stuff that keeps us up at night.” But honey, this
should be the kind of thing that makes you sleep like a Ambien-filled baby –
after a few glasses of wine. Don’t stress out about the fact that I don’t like
you. Use it to fuel your creative juices. You should wake up in the morning and think, how am I going to get Ana to buy my product today? Answer: my making it more customized, more relevant, and more interactive. (She already kind of said this; I’m just taking credit for it.)
Greg
Sterling had a really interesting post
on the subject. He said that in order to work through this issue of ad
avoidance, we have to change our focus and
Reach the right audiences when
they’re ready through directional media/targeting
Produce quality content: the
“product” must work or deliver as promised
Offer usability: accessing the information/product must be
simple and effective
and finally, the most critical point:
Take advantage of the recent rise of community and social
media: the community, especially trusted circles, filters noise but also
creates, in some circumstances, “social pressure” around adoption or product
use.
It’s
easier to get my attention if you’ve got the attention of or “sold” someone I
trust. People are using each other as filters for efficiency but also to cut
through the noise and clutter of all the marketing messages — which have less
and less credibility.
As
my ESL students used to say, “I am agree in a way that is total.”
Ad avoiders
like myself are a strange breed, but we’re not aliens. Come get me!
P.S.
In an effort to see what else was out there in terms of confessions, I did a
search and found some interesting results. Confessions of a… Community College Dean, a Hockey Fanatic (aka Bruce Carlisle?),
and a Cardamom Addict. I also
found some more savory results here.
