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Archived in How can you make money from a user base that hates advertising and doesn’t want to pay for content?
Well, that’s a puzzle all media companies seem to be struggling with at the moment. Whether it’s newspapers, commercial TV or Facebook, no one has yet worked out how to monetise content with advertising people are happy to receive.
But that doesn’t stop them trying…
ITV gets the law changed
Commercial TV has, at least, been thrown a lifeline (albeit a thin one).
Almost exactly a year ago we discussed on the bda blog ITV’s ill fated experiments with ad overlay technology, which could have had viewers spitting out their tea when ghostly slogans started appearing on walls and on people’s foreheads. Thankfully these experiments are unlikely to reach our screens now that product placement on TV has been given a tentative green light.
It’s predicted that product placement could earn UK commercial TV companies £125 million a year. Whilst mere pocket change compared to total TV ad revenue of nearly £3 bn, the decision to allow product placement reflects how advertising has to become more inventive if it’s going to survive in our anti-ads culture.
UK commercial broadcasters will have to tread carefully though. They don’t want to shoehorn too many mentions of Aston Martins and lingering shots of iPhones into the script. Any product placements will need to be done subtly, otherwise viewers will vote with their remotes.
Twitter changes its user agreement
Finding the right balance in how many times you mention brand names is something ITV and Twitter have in common following Twitter’s announcement of changes to its user agreement, which “leave the door open for advertising” to its 45 million users.
Grumbles of discontent at the news are already spreading on blogs, in forums and on Twitter itself. So Twitter, just like ITV, will have to be careful in how it introduces its new advertising model. It will need to find a way of delivering ads people are at least accepting of, in exchange for a service they value.
As with all marketing, the answer lies in delivering advertising in a way that’s useful, relevant and welcomed. But unfortunately this is a puzzle few, if any, have been able to solve.
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BDA (Buckingham Design Associates) blog – real people giving real opinions, and a complete lack of agency waffle. BDA deliver an exciting blend of design and creative marketing for the Oxford, Milton Keynes, Northampton and London region.