The State of Video and Advertising Online

The sad truth is that—barring a few notable exceptions—advertising on the internet is still in the same sorry state that it has been in for the past 10 years. Ultimately, systems like Google’s AdSense will probably fail because they are so ineffective at providing relevant advertisements. Prior to the arrival of networks like Fusion and The Deck, the standard philosophy of advertising has been to shove ads down visitors’ throats. The one small downside of this practice is that it sucks.

The main reason that both Fusion and The Deck have been so successful is that they both base their business on the philosophy that:

1. People will click on ads that are relevant to them
2. Annoying advertising only causes harm in the long run
3. If you have to resort to tricking or forcing people to click on your ads, you’re probably doing something wrong

Instead of trying to compete directly with Google for a chunk of the online advertising pie (which has been suicide for all who have tried so far), they chose to develop an entirely new model for advertising on the web: a model that does not rely on millions of dollars of research into behavioral algorithms and invasive tracking techniques, but instead relies on finding a smaller, more cohesive, and more passionate audience and delivering them relevant ads as unobtrusively and beautifully as possible.

Video

With thoughts of a bright future for blog-based advertising, let’s dive right into the pit that is online video. Here, there are no exceptions to the mess of mediocrity. Some versions suck less than others, but they still suck. While I understand that without advertising, these videos wouldn’t be free—somebody has to pay the bills—I can’t help but think there must be a better way.

If Fusion, The Deck, and content producers like Leo Laporte of TWiT.tv, are any indication, “ads as content” is a model with great potential. One possibility would be for more/better product placement. Imagine you’re watching a futuristic sci-fi movie with lots of cool people doing lots of cool things. Now, imagine that all of these cool people are all using the latest Apple gadgets. Not in the super overt way that product placement is often done right now (cue “Let me get my…Apple MacBook Pro, the fastest laptop ever…”), but in a more subtle, natural, and everyday way. Occasionally they use an available PC to look up something and—wow, that PC takes a really long time to load a webpage.

I don’t think that product placement necessarily requires a debasement of the art form; at least, not any more than the current industry does. Better video interactivity platforms could provide a way to link items on screen with a way to purchase them. Another upside of having advertising integrated with the content is that it would open the door for new, less-restrictive distribution methods. Piracy would no longer be an issue (at least, not as big an issue).

Another possibility is to adopt a model similar to what Fusion and The Deck have done for websites: focus on providing a smaller audience with highly relevant, more entertaining, and less obtrusive advertisements. This follows the current trend: each person follows only the information that is interesting to them. Focusing on providing the best possible advertising for a smaller audience will almost certainly be more successful in the long run than providing mediocre advertising to a much larger audience.