A new trend - big advertisers push for 'specials'

In my line of work I often get to see RFPs relating to certain CAD web properties that I own. And recent months have shown an interesting, albeit disturbing, trend - our big industry advertisers seem to be no longer happy with standard banner advertising and are requesting more, more and more for their bucks. And in addition to 'special' placements for ads, the RFPs have now started indicating an additional need for 'editorial'.

Alright, so with that overview, I am now going to pick apart what I find problematic - without revealing names, of course! Please do comment. let's find consensus here!

Standard Banners are no longer good enough
Each of the recent RFPs have indicated that for the big bucks, standard IAB banners (the usual top 468 banner, side skyscraper etc) are not commanding the dollars they did even six or twelve months ago. The major advertisers are looking for ways to expose their advertising in a way that will grab readers' attention including interstitial ads (the ones that you have to look at before getting to the content you wanted), full page ads, or other creative items we can dream up.

My take: - the impulse, the driving need, to grab attention is merited, but pays no consideration to the readers of the content itself. I believe that people go to a web site to find interesting news, update themselves on the industry and so on. Those readers put up with banners around the edge of the content as a compromise - everyone has to make a living and readers seem to be able to manage that much. By comparison, advertising that is not balanced and gets in the way of the content is an irritation that will become clarified as more and more of it gets posted. Where will readers go? I think they will gravitate to web sites that have some advertising, but non-intrusive on reading pleasure (or reading productivity).

Web sites that fully fall for this demand by major advertisers will end up with web sites that are messy, at the least, and counter-productive to the very readers that form the currency of what they are selling.

Blogs, podcasts and more
The recent RFPs have indicated that they are looking for creative ways to promote to readers through blogs, podcasts etc etc. That is a fine aim except that it may in itself be thereby driving editorial content that we, as readers, may be exposed to in places we would not expect. My advice - reader beware.

Editorial
This is the disturbing bit. Two recent RFPs have indicated that some kind of editorial should be part of the advertising package. The agencies are clever - they don't indicate the nature of the editorial and are leaving it to the ethics of the web site and publication owners to determine what that should be. The bids received will then dictate what the editorial content may be...

I come from a long history of publishing, and cannot forget the separation of editorial and advertising. Yeah, in the good old days of print publications, we would run 'special advertising sections', CDs on the front cover and other custom publishing efforts, but they were clearly defined and readers knew what they were. The RFPs from these major advertisers seem to be more insidious - a hint at including editorial offers in your advertising package, although no clearly delineated guidelines as to what that should be. The 'winner' of these RFPs could be the one that promises X amount of positive editorials, regardless of what the product really is.

So on the one hand, the readers need to beware - maybe there are web sites and blogs that will supply the desired editorial. But the web publications themselves need to be wary of falling into the trap of big budget advertisers that will define not just what the editorial subject is, but what that content should say. This is scary ground indeed, and the whole subject of ethics in editorial comes under yet more, and much-needed, scrutiny.

From a web publishers' point of view, it is apparent that there is a need to develop a web business from a 'one-man band' into an operation that has a 'custom publishing' department. But the web publishers need to be wary of veering away into too many ventures - the readers will, ultimately, reject it. Balance is required.

My take - advertisers, even those with big budgets, need to be more cognizant of the need for messages that speak directly to the engineer or architect. I have recently seen several beautiful campaigns on CAD web sites recently that feature non-engineering or non-design companies...and yet the vendor seems to think it will work with engineers. Well, it doesn't. Engineers are very bright but very focused. Focus into that message, channel the engineers' minds, and it will get through!

Rach

Comments

[ralphg]

I wonder if advertisers are confusing social marketing with controlling the editorial agenda.

Or maybe they are working to deliberately confuse the two. They see social marketing as a way to get back in the saddle of the 80s and 90s when advertisers drove the editorial content of some magazines.

You know: where editorial was seen as the space filler that went to fill the empty spaces around the ads.