TIVO For The Web? Protection Against Weapons Of Distraction

Will The Web Have An Ad-Skipping, Ad-Zapping Technology?

By David Miranda

I was minding my own business (or at least I thought I was) online visiting a number of my bookmarked sites as well as a few others visited for the first time. Then it started. The relentless onslaught of advertising - banners, skycrapers, sponsored links, auto-play audio and videos (with pre and post roll ads), floating ads, pop up and pop under ads, flash ads, expanding ads, etc. etc.

Some of the videos and audio, I could not stop and they even continued to play beneath the page I was viewing. As I scrambled to find the elusive close button or my volume button, I got increasingly irritated at a combination of perceived responsible parties - the advertiser, their agency, the publisher, and the ad network. I was trying to enjoy my time online and was relentless ambushed by weapons of distraction.

Is it any wonder that click through rates for online ads is like .001%. Is the other 99.999% telling us something. The online ad industry talks about engagement and behavioral targeting to provide contextual ads to the right audience. Let's call it what it is - ambush marketing.

Will someone invent a TIVO for the Web? I'd say it's a certainty. Will consumers embrace such a service? Little doubt. What would be the impact of a Web TIVO to the medium? Devastating.

What's the solution to head this off? Online advertisers and publishers need to be an advocate for the online consumer. Eliminate things that irritate, aggravate, and annoy the consumer. Think long and hard about deploying advertising that puts the consumer on the defense trying to find the "leave me alone" or "how do I turn this damn thing off" buttons.

The options are "do the right thing" or say hello to Web TIVO.

Ad Age Video Report - Web Audience Metrics Get More Complicated

Unique Visitors, Impressions, Page Views, Time On Site Are Just A Few Of The Ways With More To Come

By David Miranda

Ad Age digital editor, Abbey Klaassen provides a comprehensive overview on the complex and complicated world of measuring Web audiences and also what's on the horizon.

The stakes are high in the trying to determine the best metrics for both media buyers and sellers in the growing online advertising world. Unlike more mature media like TV, radio, and print, web metrics have many variables - unique visitors, impressions, page views.

Things get more complicated. Nielsen/NetRatings has recently announced another metric - total minutes. According to AdAge, for example, "the total minutes measurement upends the rankings among the largest web portals -- pushing AOL to No. 1 in a field where it is usually ranked third or lower by other major metric formats."

As some web sites, like AOL and YouTube, argue that the greater minutes to their site means more engagement, others like Google argue their aim is to reduce the amount of time users spend on their site.

How will this play out? Stay tuned.