Companies also need to make ads fun and interactive - a range from little to no involvement by a consumer to going on gps treasure hunts in your local town for giveaways and to solve riddles. What makes a person love a product? To me, it is a human touch and a decision to willingly want to participate by the consumer. The best persuasion a company can hope to spread is one where people don't think they're under it. Trent Rezner knew that. The Blair Witch Project knew that...but it also sucked.
Nike and Google are smart with the soccer fans idea because of it being the world's biggest sport and all but it shouldn't be by invitation only. I think they'll end up pulling a facebook and opening up to others with less hoops to jump through. Brands should be shifting their money to online ads asap. The sooner, the better. The Internet is only getting bigger and easier to get lost in. Plus, online ads are cheap. It is most important to invest in your own site - a lot. Some of the car sites offer 360 degree views of all the interior and exterior and let you take virtual test-drives. That is cool. Chrysler has a good site and is probably tired of inflated TV prices, cluttered mags and declining readership in papers. As for Brawny, who thinks of paper towels? I buy the ones with the most amount for the cheapest price or the recycled ones if I want to spend a little more. I don't think the message is otherwise important for something with which I wipe the counter.
Abratt, Pitt and Merwe ponder how p.r. has been affected by advertising. The message that was hard to manipulate is now harder with consumers and rival companies possessing the power to harm your image online. Plus, when some of these guys get caught trying to wreck the image of others, you get a real pickle on your hands. BP Oil and Microsoft must be demanding some kind of solution to their bad press and image. I wonder if what Goebells (Nazi minister of propaganda) said still stands, "If you repeat a lie long enough, it ceases to be a lie."
Tim O'Brien, not the author of 'The Things They Carried' I assume, expands on some ideas from Greenberg. The article is all about KISS- keep it simple stupid. No, not for your company - for the consumer and develop it right the first time. You've got to give options but not complex ones. Look at how facebook is beating up on myspace. People got tired of the ugly layout, hearing someone's bad choice of music and the spamming. Facebook is more interactive with the newsfeed, streamlined and offers more apps, which are relatively simple and diverse. Brand loyalty is still in the marketplace and although spam and digital recorders can be filtered to stop promos from being seen, ads will always find a way. Maybe you'll be able to point and click on things you watch on your future television if you want to buy them. Just an idea...
Wu's research looks a the interactivity in relation to the user's viewpoints - nothing matters more. You can have the flashiest ads but that doesn't mean everything. Sure, being noticed is paramount. But being liked is also very important (head on, head on), especially if you can elicit that reaction somehow. In Huang and Lin's banner ad studies I have to reiterate that visiting web sites doesn't necessarily mean your ads are being paid any attention. It is real hard to determine unless your ad is directly clicked on or you have survey research. Interactive ads are annoying but work- something like an ad that opens and obscures a news article I'm reading will catch my attention. So would a movie that auto-plays. The only thing is that you better entertain or get to the point immediately because I'm clicking you off.
The book chapter shows the rising dollars in ad sales. I trust the Internet completely for shopping while my parents don't. I'm not sure why they think a web administrator is more likely to steal their info than a waiter. I recently needed a new dvd player but didn't want to wait the week it would take for Amazon to ship it to me so I called Best Buy. They did not have the product I wanted, which costed $10 more but told me they could order it for me. I had to respond that I could do the same. The only reason I'd go to places Best Buy is the convenience of having the product now. But if I can get it cheaper and not have to park and talk to people in the store - isn't it worth a few days wait? Amazon also knows my purchase history and can recommend things I'd like more than the guy at the store could. The whole online sales thing also makes me want to invest in shipping companies, which I'm sure are growing a ton with all the e-biz they deliver. Ads will definitely help as a revenue-builder for a person's site, but as a main source of income I don't think they're a good idea. Since it is hard to link online ads directly with sales, they are pretty low-cost.
Marken's article on efficiency and improving the chances of your messages being noticed through organization, spacing, relevance and language is good. I think an online presence is more important than the brick and mortar of most businesses these days. Think of colleges - the site will attract you with little effort and you can find out almost all you need to know about the school from it alone. The amount of time and dollar investment necessary depends on the product.
Creamer's article talks about the online ad strategies of the past. Like teenagers, they were goofy, awkward versions of themselves that have now blossomed into prettier, interactive versions that offer a little more than they used to in the past. Hopefully, those of you that take Cindy's multimedia class can learn some of those skills and make yourself a more attractive job candidate - in any field.
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