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How To Make Web-Advertising Worth Watching
By Jerry Bader (c) 2007

It has become an article of faith that the Web is all about
content; content is King on the Web as opposed to television
where commercials are king. It seems that television networks
just can't wrap their heads around the Internet and fit it into
their standard commercial box. The traditional media's tactic
of last resort, buying-up the competition and imposing its
commercial will, just won't work with the Internet.

Businesses that want to succeed on the Web must learn how to
turn their commercial message into content as a seamless
entertaining presentation.

After years of website visitors first ignoring, then getting
increasingly irritated with banner ads that blink, burp, and
blast across their screens, there finally is a better way;
advertising in the form of Web-videos that not only deliver a
marketing message but are worth the time invested in watching.

There is a lot of hype surrounding so-called viral videos. Many
companies have tried to create this kind of marketing vehicle
but the sheer lack of commercial purpose fails to attract viable
prospects and instead generates a lot of attention from the
maturity-challenged segments of society. As a business you want
your video to be passed on to as many additional viewers as
possible, but if it doesn't attract new leads or at least
deliver your message, what good is it?

There is an absolute qualitative difference between a video that
is engaging, entertaining, humorous and clever that delivers a
strong marketing message and a video that is just plain stupid
or at best pointless.

Bold is Beautiful and Effective

We know from experience that clients are attracted when we
create entertaining offbeat video campaigns that send a clear
message. But as soon as we start to create the equivalent type
of campaign for them, they start to get nervous.

The Web demands a bold, frontal attack that delivers an
uncompromising creative presentation of what you offer; not a
defensive, compromised, don't-make-a-mistake approach that
tries to cover everything and anything you might do.

The average business is incredibly timid when it comes to
advertising. Boring, monotonous presentations that drone on are
as helpful in attracting new business as viral video food-fights
or female mud-wrestling clips. There is as much difference
between bizarre and bold, as there is between salacious
curiosity and entertainingly effective.

The challenge for business is to take this new form of
advertising and use it so that it rises above the lowly realm of
boring corporate PowerPoint presentations and silly homemade
video antics to the lofty, and ultimately profitable dominion of
content.

Why Web-Videos Aren't Like Television Commercials

Web-commercials are not television commercials. I know big
advertisers are double-dipping their ad placements by flooding
the Web with their TV spots, but who really cares? If you can
see it on NBC or CBS twelve times every night why would you go
out of your way to watch it on the Web?

The most significant difference between television and
Web-commercials is cost. According to MediaPost's Gregory
Wilson in his VideoInsider newsletter, the average 30-second TV
commercial costs $12,000 per second to produce. That's per
second, far beyond the budgets of most businesses. You can get
an entire Web-video campaign for the cost of one second of
TV-level production. Of course, you're not going to have a cast
and crew of hundreds working on your spot, but then the quality
of script, simplicity of concept, and creativity of presentation
count for more than wasted exotic sets and setups.

There are lots of things people just hate about television
commercials and the best of the Web-commercials avoid these
irritants.

Television commercials distract viewers from the content. Nobody
likes interruptions. There is not much difference on the
irritation scale between a telemarketing phone call selling
aluminum siding at dinner time and a commercial that interrupts
the latest adventures of 24's Jack Bauer.

About the only good thing you can say about these
program-interruptions is that they provide you a bathroom and
beverage break, which of course doesn't help the advertiser who
just spent $12,000 per second to get to you.

Web-commercials are different. They are sought-out by people as
long as they provide something more than a mundane sales pitch.
If you are clever, bold, and interesting, people will not only
watch, they'll remember.

Think back to when you were in school and the teacher told you
to look up the answer yourself and not just rely on her to give
it to you? That's because the effort of searching out the
answer created a more memorable experience. Commercials are no
different. Sure fewer people are going to come in contact with
your Web-commercial than they would a television commercial, but
then the Web-commercial is more targeted, more memorable, and
far more cost effective.

Even worse than the continuous interruptions is the
repetitiveness of television commercials. Sometimes you have to
sit through the same obnoxious commercial multiple times in the
same commercial break. Give Apple computer and Geico Insurance
credit for their commitment to developing creative, entertaining
campaigns that are continually evolving with new segments that
build a following for the characters, product and message. These
commercials actually do rise above the level of sale's pitch
and achieve the status of content. Unfortunately, I cannot say
the same for ninety-nine percent of all the other television
ads.

Because people choose to watch a Web-commercial, they don't
become upset with the advertiser for inflicting repetitive
psychological torture. In fact Web-commercials that are
entertaining and informative will be watched over and over, and
passed on to friends and colleagues.

The Bottom Line

1 Web-users choose to watch Web-videos and therefore are more
receptive to the message.

2 Web-videos need to be entertaining so they are more likely to
be watched repeatedly and passed on to friends.

3 Web-videos are less costly to produce so advertisers can
create campaigns consisting of multiple videos on the same theme
so that viewers don't get bored or irritated.

How To Turn A Pitch Into Content

If you are going to bore people to death, then Web-advertising
is not for you. If all you have to say is buy my stuff, nobody
is going to listen. If you are afraid to be different, you are
just going to blend into the woodwork. If you think search
engine optimization is going to solve all your marketing
problems, well think again.

If you want to turn your advertising into content then create
your next campaign on the following principles:

Be Clear.
Be Bold.
Be Uncompromising.
Be Entertaining.
Be Engaging.
Be Clever.
Be Humorous.
Create Character(s).
And Tell a Story.
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Jerry Bader is Senior Partner at MRPwebmedia, a website design
firm that specializes in Web-audio and Web-video. Visit
http://www.mrpwebmedia.com/ads, http://www.136words.com, and
http://www.sonicpersonality.com. Contact at info@mrpwebmedia.com
or telephone (905) 764-1246.
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