When I was growing up, we had a set of encyclopedias in our house. I often looked at these encyclopedias as a child, and thought that if I read all of them, I’d know almost everything (Of course, I never did read all of them). The access I had to information was bounded by what [...]
Archive for the ‘Advertising’ Category
Why marketers misunderstand Facebook
By Paul Adams in AdvertisingWe are experiencing the sixth great communication transformation brought about by new technology. Each transformation dramatically changed our perception of our world, and each was initially misunderstood. With each transformation, people made the same mistake. They looked at the new medium, and applied their ways of working with existing media to the new medium. The first [...]
Advertising on the Tube map
By Paul Adams in AdvertisingCompare the evolution of the London Underground map. From the original schematic map: to today’s map (photo I took in 2008): This is a great example of really poor interruption marketing. This map serves an important function. Is this really an appropriate place for IKEA to try and boost brand awareness? (For a fantastic overview [...]
Hey Nike, get your crap out of my newsfeed
By Paul Adams in AdvertisingLast week I learned that if you ‘Like’ something on Facebook, you give that entity permission to put updates (read: ads) in your newsfeed. Yesterday a friend emailed me a link to watch the new Nike World Cup 2010 ad. It was recommended from a friend, so I was pretty motivated to watch it – [...]
Why “Liking” is about more than just liking
By Paul Adams in Advertising, SociabilityWhy do people ‘like’ things on social networks? It would be easy for us to assume that it is because they liked the content. But it is a bit more complicated than that. It’s a combination of the content, and the person who posted it. People sometimes ‘like’ content, not because they actually like it, [...]
Tags: Liking
Social networks need phone companies to create good advertising models
By Paul Adams in Advertising, SociabilitySocial networks are a minority of communication, and great behavioral advertising strategies will need to think beyond them, out into the world of phones and face-to-face interactions. Social networks plan to target advertising at people by first understanding where groups of friends exist, and then figuring out who is most influential within that group. By [...]
Why Sidewiki doesn’t change any branding fundamentals
By Paul Adams in Advertising, BrandA lot of people are upset because Sidewiki allows people to comment on their site without them having control over those comments. They can say whatever they want about you, and you can’t control it. But this is not new. People have been talking good and bad about brands for decades. It may not have [...]
Last.fm, intrusive advertising, and good feedback
By Paul Adams in Advertising, Brand, Customer ExperienceI love last.fm. Normally it looks like this: Sometimes, they brand whole pages with big music events like Lollapalooza: I’m OK with this. It’s very much in the background, I can engage with it if I want, or I can ignore it. It doesn’t take away from my core experience at last.fm – listening to [...]
