September 21, 2007
Web Ads That Consumers May Actually Want to Save and Share
By Rick Moss
Earlier this week, Google began publicizing a new interactive ad format called Gadgets, now in “extended Beta.” Being an offering of its AdWords business, Gadgets promise a heightened level of consumer involvement paired with the content relevant placement strategies that have propelled that division to its dominant position in online advertising.
It may help to think of Gadgets as scaled down, encapsulated web sites, with the ability to present dynamically updated data. That information can take numerous forms, including text, interactive animation, video and sound. Gadgets can also collect information and pass it back to the sponsor. Although this doesn’t represent a quantum leap in terms of multimedia functionality – there are plenty of impressive multimedia ad formats around – it’s….well…a Google product, with the company’s virtually unlimited programming resources and sprawling influence behind it.
Google has built Gadgets on an open platform, so it’s really up to developers to exploit its capabilities.
The
signature example (click
here to view) used in Google’s news release is
a Gadget sponsored by Honda and themed around Fall Out Boy’s current tour.
(FOB is a music group, for those of us over 40.) The miniature interactive
menu offers views of an “FOB-Designed Civic Hybrid” complete with “Win This Ride” sweepstakes; backstage videos of the band; tour dates; and a sort of video diary by one of the band members singing the praises of his Honda hybrid vehicle. All this fits within an interface about two inches high by two-and-a-half inches wide.
While the multimedia capabilities, as previously mentioned, do not in themselves set Gadgets apart, a few other things may:
Sophisticated placement: In Google’s words, Gadgets have “contextual, site, geographic and demographic targeting options to ensure the ads reach relevant users with precision and scale.”
Sharing capabilities: Consumers can pass Gadgets on to friends, to be inserted into personal web pages – so there’s a whole “community building” promise inherent in the format (assuming the content is compelling).
Consumer tracking: “Detailed interaction reports allow marketers to track dozens of actions within the creative unit and optimize toward their goals,” says Google.
Discussion Questions: Assuming Gadgets and their like take off, what kind of intensified demands will marketers experience? Do most CPG companies and their agencies, for instance, know enough about their consumers to create Gadgets that will be readily adopted and shared?
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Marketers are going to need to stay on the ball with consumer-relevant, strategically-linked online advertising that reaches consumers where they surf/browse/live. While keyword ads may continue to be used by many marketers, the new offerings by Google give marketers a chance to truly stand out in a very analytical and precise medium. Should be fun!
Yeah, this is cool marketing stuff, but there’s a bigger question. Gadgets are really just widgets (mini-websites that you can keep on your desktop) that Google is letting advertisers place in ads and users download. There are some brands that have played around with them–Honda, for one, but also Coca Cola, and a few others. But where are the retailers? The only retailers I’ve seen who have played around with widgets are Apple (you can get a “local store events” widget) and Helzberg Diamonds, who, last Christmas, offered a holiday snow globe widget that happened to also show a specific jewelry offer for the first 7 seconds when you opened the widget.
“Compelling content” is definitely the key. Just as with digital signage and other new ways of delivering content, you’re just going to have to get out there and experiment. What Google does is offer you a way to measure the results.
Google Gadget ads will be successful because it’s easy to track the click-throughs. Ad agencies will test alternate versions meant for varying audiences and measure the results quickly. Since the measures will be quick and easy, any adjustments can be made quickly with minimal waste.
Rick, the key point you mention is “assuming the content is compelling”–critical to this medium will be keeping the sponsor/content relationships logical. If bands start shilling for every product and celebrities link “fav products” to every website it’s going to start feeling really commercial and that lack of authenticity will hurt the community building aspects. User Generated Content will lose currency if it loses authenticity. CPGs (and everyone else) should absolutely look for ways to link people’s product passions with their other passions but artificially trying to create passion where there is none–or having celebrities pretend they really care about low involvement products–will denigrate the medium very, very quickly.
This whole concept has huge potential for both marketers and Google. Specifically, once you have entered the Google gadget your every move is observed. This means that Google generates a lot of revenue from tracking the different actions you take and it means the advertiser learns a lot more about what is important to their viewers (actually, since they are no longer passive, what is the correct term for audience members? Should it be “participant,” then again in order to participate doesn’t it imply some understanding of what is happening?).
When you think about this, I remember one of the early news reports on the introduction of democracy in Eastern Europe. One of the techniques consultants were teaching candidates was how to “position your foot in the doorway so the voter cannot slam their door while you’re campaigning.” To some extent I feel that way about Google’s online efforts. I used to go to the Internet because it offered an escape from the TV ads. Now Google is really showing online advertisers how to stick their feet right in the face of the online user. The concern has to be that consumers will seek other ways to avoid the onslaught. Maybe they’ll go outside for a hike. All the detail is useless if no one is using the gadgets.