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When was the last time online advertising made you happy?

By blog_editor on Aug. 20 2008

Advertising is based on one thing… happiness. Happiness is the smell of a new car. It’s freedom from fear. It’s a billboard on the side of the road that screams with reassurance “whatever you’re doing, its ok , you are ok.” -Don Draper, Mad Men

I am trying to find my happy place. We are at a hotel in Portland, two days into a much-needed family vacation.

Write the byline.

Diversion. I’ve queued up the first season of Mad Men. I am a couple of years late to the show but now I can gorge. I’ve got time for one episode. I am on vacation after all. Maybe it will inspire.

Writing the byline. Would kill for a cigarette. Did people really smoke that much? Too bad we can’t make it healthier.

People in the ad biz always talk about advertising as culture creation. Like all good vocational series, Mad Men’s creators understand the biz. And the have created a hero true to the craft. Don Draper has a gift indeed. He understands what moves us. He has a sense for what we need from advertising.

I’ve thought about online advertising a whole lot over the past couple of years. I’ve participated in countless panels debating the future of advertising and the importance in remaking it for a social web. The refrain is familiar and, quite frankly, exhausting. “Social media doesn’t monetize”. “The banner is dead. Advertising needs to become a conversation.“ “Marketers need a social media strategy.”

All true perhaps, but one thing is missing… joy. Online advertising is no fun. It’s no fun for consumers. The banner has a very hard time making us feel anything at all. For all of the excitement around ad innovation in Silicon Valley, fun has not been at the top of the list.

It seems to me Silicon Valley does not really like advertising… it likes efficiency. Efficiency drove the first wave of advertising and the medium was successfully colonized by direct response dollars. But if we are going to chip away at brand budgets we are going to have to do a much better job at making ads fun.

When was the last time you enjoyed interacting with an ad online? I loved the Mac vs. PC ad I saw a couple of months back. I’ve seen some really cool IBM ads recently. But these are the exception. For online advertising to reach potential for brands it has to make people happy. And, it has to be way easier for people to get something out of it.

Next time you plan a campaign, try thinking about three things – the user’s happiness, how to extend it and countless resources that the web has given you to make this happen.

Happiness: Focus less on the immediate action and more on immediate enjoyment. After all, isn’t this is what brand advertising is all about? The biggest single change the internet has brought to brand marketing is user empowerment. In a demand-based world, consumers elect to spend time with commercial messages. Good ads are content or utility or both. How are you making a prospect enjoy the interaction?

Time: We’ve found that most consumers will spend about 10 seconds with most video ads, but we’ve been able to extend that time by creating more choice in the ad experience. Remember, TV spots are designed for captive environments. Demand-based environments need to pull consumers in quickly and give them control over what they can consume. Push your team to think about how to get users to spend more time with your content. Most importantly, change the metrics. Loose the urge to evaluate everything by the click.

Resourcefulness: I am at the Ace Hotel and it is making me think about doing more with less. The Ace is a case study in resourceful design. Its not fussy but it is thoughtful about travelers needs. I could write an entire piece about this, but visit the hotel next time you are in Portland. Or come by for an exceptional cup of coffee. The point is this. Web 2.0 has given advertisers an incredible set of tools to create really fun localized media experiences. Video, rich media, calendar updates, feeds, games, maps, polls - the tools are available. Push your team to innovate quickly. Find cool ways to syndicate your brand experience.

Advertising used to be pretty simple. Innovation was less about how we deliver a message and more about the message itself. The Internet has driven a dramatic amount of new thinking in relevance, virality, pricing and accountability. But for brands to move online, we’ve got to find ways to make the experience more enjoyable. Remember the universal truth that underlies the best marketing, People love to be entertained. Let’s not forget what made brand advertising work in the first place.

Posted by Troy Young