There are reports that online ads are doomed. I doubt that for some reason, call it scepticism on my part. However, I do question the following …
In the last day or so I was reading reports on the Las Vegas shooting. Hard not to! But what did bother me was that as I was reading the news reports – on several different news sites and blogs – banners ads and tower ads popped up. Having been in, and owned magazines, we always were cognizant of what ads went opposite what articles – consumer are trade mags both.
So I am reading the dire news and up pops all manner of ads.
What does that do to the brand of the advertiser?
OMG 59 people dead … Oh, a trip? Oh, a car? Oh my God no!
Advertising is not something done by the faint of heart. It requires resources (People and money) and professionals to steward the process from creation to placement.
As a fan of behavioral targeting which is a technique used by advertisers and publishers to utilize a web user’s previous web browsing behavior to customize the types of ads they receive, is it not possible to match – or in the case of horrible news forgo showing me a “Whoop-de-do something or other” as I am reading horrible news?
I just checked and yep, there are ads on an obituary page. Weight loss. And insurance. We are doomed.
(Well, I did put down the muffin I was eating!)