Ads You Ignore, Ads You Share

I am not an advertising student, but rather a consumer. This blog post will be about how I look at ads and well… consume them. A while ago, I lost the quick release to my tripod. So I did what most people with access to a computer and internet wouldn’t do – I called the store where I bought it and asked if they sold the part separately. After being transferred and waiting on the line for quite some time, I got a hold of a woman who didn’t know the answer to my question.

I went online and I found the part after a few clicks, but held off from buying it. I stored the quick release in the back of my mind, where it did not stay for long.  About two days after my search I saw an ad in my email account. It was the quick release.

“They know,” I said.

According to Tom Lowery in “Why Mobile Is the Futureof Advertising and Marketing,” ads don’t fit in the print one-size-fits-all model, but instead work in the web which has “evolved into an internet revolving around individual needs.”

I agreed with Lowery when he said, “Click on a hotel website one minute and I’ll bet you see an ad for that hotel on Facebook later. It happens to me all the time.” That’s exactly what had happened to me with my quick release. I was not only getting ads on my email account but also on social media.

I don’t have to look at ads on TV, because I don’t have one. It’s different online, and advertisers have found a way to know what I’m looking for and then remind me that I may want to purchase it. Which is fine for them. They have to make a living, too. I just want to turn away from ads. Not all ads (which I will get to). Ignoring them is a feat because they're everywhere, physically and digitally.

In the article "Disruptive Technologies: Catching the Wave" Joseph Bower and Clayton Christensen say that managers have to know what type of product there are dealing with, the markets that are emerging and who they are selling to. I see it this way: ads opened up the market for ad blockers when they started going online. Advertisers then needed to find a way back to their target audience. Bower and Christensen say that “companies must give managers of disruptive innovation free rein to realize the technology’s full potential – even if it means ultimately killing the mainstream business.”

TV ads are no longer than maybe 20 or so seconds and people just pick up the remote and click away. It’s a different story online, where they can last three minutes or more. You still have the option to click away, but if you get hooked in you will most likely stay. TED recognizes ads that “people want to see and share.” I like watching ads with a story. If an ad is able to catch my attention, I will watch the entire thing before moving on to my YouTube video. After all, not all ads are trying to sell a product. Some are meant to bring awareness.

Take for example “The Clock is Ticking” ad by the Girl Effect organization with the goal to bring awareness of the potential harms poverty can have on adolescent girls. And I bet many people have seen the public announcement “DumbWays to Die” by Metro Trains in Australia promoting rail safety.

Some ads have evolved from just appearing in front of you to actually getting you to share them because of their content and story.