Soundbites R Us
I got a call from Mitchell Hartman of public radio’s Marketplace yesterday as he was doing a brief story about advertising on MySpace and social spaces. I wasn’t giving him very good soundbite, I knew. I’ve done better. But then one came out like a satisfying burp. Excuse me. I feel better now. So did he. The end of the story:
Hartman: News Corp is pushing this kind of hyper-targeted advertising on MySpace, but so far, advertisers have been cautious. They don’t want their ads showing up next to off-color content. Jeff Jarvis teaches journalism at the City University of New York. He says we’re smarter than that.Jarvis: We can figure out that if your ad ends up next to a flaming cat video, you’re not in favor of setting cats on fire.
Hartman: But MySpace users may be so busy watching that flaming cat video or talking to their friends about it they won’t even see the ads roll by.
Flaming cats:
August 5th, 2008 at 11:36 am
For what it’s worth, I was more interested in the American Apparel Going Green ad than the video.
August 5th, 2008 at 4:07 pm
Hey Jeff, I think you’re missing the point. Very often the objection to content quality is really a polite and / or inarticulate way of saying ‘there isn’t any brand equity there’. The same exact person is not as valuable in every context and in some contexts he’s not valuable at all. Yes, everything is media. But not everything is a good brand vehicle.
The Super Bowl isn’t just an efficient way to reach alot of people at once. Its a shared cultural experience that creates a unique marketing opportunity. Could I take my client to a high school game and bend his ear about Gawker? Sure. Then why do I spend ten grand to take him to the Super Bowl to bend his ear about Gawker? Hmmm…
When mySpace was still a cultural phenom, this marketing oppty existed. It is now fading fast or gone entirely and they need to get busy building the time worn components of every successful branding platform, I’m speaking about content specifically. Targeting is a tiny little cherry on top.
Targeting doesn’t make me feel anything — except like I’m being stalked.
I’ll confess, I get bored listening to people that couldn’t sell water in the desert talk about what makes people buy.
August 5th, 2008 at 4:47 pm
Christopher,
If only you could hear the 10 minutes vs. the 10 seconds that gets online.
In the meantime, take the fucking joke. You work at Gawker, ferchrissakes!
August 6th, 2008 at 10:28 am
We’re not all a bunch of jokers here Jeff!
Incidentally, that video is of the “cat man” on Mallory Sq in Key West. I have family there and we’ve known him for years. So, for me, a little something special did happen between my ears and would have been a nice time to sell me something I didn’t know I needed or wanted. Now, if you could target to that….
August 6th, 2008 at 11:51 am
I would never in any way defend Myspace or say anything about how good it is because most of its members’ pages are just a mess. But to say that it’s “fading fast” or “gone entirely?” That’s a little over the top.
TV execs will probably find themselves in the same boat as the newspapers soon, and they’re being warned early, like newspapers, and are trying not to pay attention, like newspapers…