Thoughts on mobile/online advertising
“It’s clear that the only things that really work in these environments are ‘ads’ that offer some kind of reward in the form of entertainment, offers or information. But that’s as it’s always been: we like things that contribute to us. The rest will be ignored, whether they’re on TV, on posters or online.” - Ben Kay
“Kiip’s banners appear in a mobile game once a user completes a level. The ad offers the user a reward for their gaming success: a free bottle of Propel, for instance, was offered by Pepsi inside the MapMyFitness app for every eight miles run by a user.” - Article on Kiip CEO Brian Wong.
I don’t know if it’s the answer to all this frustration with facebook’s (and google’s) online advertising business model but it’s definitely better. No matter how ‘optimized’ those ads on the side of facebook are, i’m not clicking.
Recently Gatorade has been turning their business around by focusing on becoming a ‘sports performance’ brand like Nike. They cut down all their silly flavours into pre, during and post workout and split up their insane tv budget for digital and promo/sponsorship deals. Now, if i get a free bottle of gatorade for every 5kms I run using Kiip enabled Nike +, I’m clicking that Gatorade banner. I’m probably running more. How many facebook ads would you say change your behaviour?