Digital advertisement, what’s the point?

 Last week Mitch Joel ( @mitchjoel ) made me think!

In his article “The Trouble With Online Advertising”  I made a very short comment “ … Why not just skip ads?… and Why not just get useful?…“ 

Since my comment where so brief I thought that exploring this a bit further might be worth while?

Mitch’s article point at the fact that very few people like online advertisements, they hardly click on them and digital ads doesn’t pay off very well for the owner of the website. (That is if you don’t have an enormous amount of people using your web solution, such as Facebook.com or google.com, where the numbers of people is so huge that it becomes a money making machine, after all.)

Still, most of what happens in online advertisement and marketing is an eyeball game. “Collect as many users as possible, and sell the crowd to advertisers!”  – Just as in the good old days. Many voices are now speaking about that this isn’t working. Advertisement, also in the digital environment is increasingly becoming regarded as pollution, and doesn’t make sense.

In the print world it had a purpose, in a digital environment it’s just a set of extra click’s between a customers needs and suppliers ability to deliver. “Why not skip the ads? ” was my question and go directly to deliver the solution to the user.

We know all the arguments coming from the business of marketing and commerce. – “Sales don’t work like that” – “The purchase process doesn’t work like that” –“the customers are maybe not aware of their needs yet, and need marketing to realize their needs, before they will be willing to make a decision and actually purchase a product”. We could go on.

Is there an elephant in the room?
The questions are wrong! It’s not about “How to market better?” I belive it’s about how to provide users with what they need, when they need it; at the place they are! – But that is not all…

“Why doesn’t anyone bother to get to know me?” “Why do I have to do the “purchasing process” all by my self?”  A wide range of businesses spend time getting the metrics right, collecting info about their costumers, defining target groups, finding out at when it’s best to present traditional advertisement to users. But…

Companies (and media houses) is not working to get to know what problems I could need help from someone to solve in my life. And it’s not about finding out what my values are, and what kind of ideas I’d like to support.

Maybe it is as Simon Sinek says? : “Because to many businesses doesn’t know why they are in business” and he states: “Profit is not a purpose of business, it’s a result.”  This TED talk  of his is about why people buy something at all. – Thank you for sharing Chuck Peters! ( @cpetersia )

For me, it’s sounds more important to discuss the purpose of your business, and then find ways (yes, possibly including advertisement) to meet users and customers that would like to support your purpose.

Feel free to Contact me for an informal meeting. if you would like to discuss your challenges.

Some older blog article (more or less) relevant to this subject:

Slik kan aviser ta betalt for innhold og kommersielle produkter 

What’s the value of you in the digital universe? 

Seven” right things” to do in digital business today

 

Time to reflect, on blogging

Something happened today. It was input from a blog article that made me think.

I got it from twitter. It isn’t my words, unfortunately I didn’t bookmark, so now one of the ones I admire and respect for their meanings are left without credits for the insight I got.

Nevertheless this is how it goes. There are so many bits of information, opinion, statements during a day in my life I can’t keep up where I got it from. This is a touch of a set of ideas changing. Copyrights for one, and social behavior for another. We are brought up in a world where “collective consciousness” was an abstract idea (Jung), not a real phenomena happening to us everyday. (now it is!)

Well, to explain what I realized reading the blog article I read today. It was an article about why do agencies blog? Why do companies blog? Why do anyone blog? And the article pointed out a set of typical “social media reasons” for blogging, and engaging, such as it helps becoming personal, to be rated by search engines to promote your company, to build a personal brand and so forth.

And the author claimed that, despite of all consultants telling you that this is great reasons for blogging, it’s not. Most of blogs are copying (as I do now) other statements, from others without a genuine voice of themselves. Most bloggers are there to fulfill an idea of “have to” instead of “want to”

The blogger stated that most of professional blogs should stop blogging; they have no (inner) desire to blog, or anything of importance to say. One should blog because one wants something. Want to tell something (innerly), want to make a difference, want to point out something that others doesn’t see. Being a copycat is of no use.

I don’t know IF this is what the article really wanted to tell, but this is what I thought was of importance reading it. This is what collective consciousness is all about. You now need to read this posting all over again, because up till now you have had- even if you don’t wanted it, one question in your head: Who wrote: “What I am now referring to?” “Who is this blogger?” You should consider stop blogging, stop reading blogs if this question doesn’t go away, because it is missing the point, its missing the lesson I learned today.

Communicating is about having something to say, that is not put in that manner before, in order to give something, to somebody – hopefully. It’s about joy, communicating and it’s about having some skills in writing.

You might wonder why my blog went back being in English? Well that’s what I learned today. Every Norwegian I want to talk to, are able to read and understand my level of English, not everyone abroad are able to understand what I have the pleasure in telling are able to understand my native language; Norwegian.

For all blog articles from now on I’ll try to: State something that’s on my heart, something that’s not what I see everyone else already have stated, something that gives me pleasure to write about, and hopefully some of you get inspired to act on your own goals in life.

This blog posting inspired me by talks and readings of: @kairoer http://www.kairoer.com/ , and the blog article I commented on in this article was from @mitchjoel and this blog article: http://www.twistimage.com/blog/archives/this-blog-sucks-and-youre-probably-not-reading-this/

– So dear reader; you got a “pay of” after all, reading this posting to its end. Enjoy life and I’ll love to meet up and discuss !

Medan bokbransjen leitar etter vegen, går andre på den.

Nokre gonger skal ein sjå etter andre stader enn der ein fyrst tenkjer at ein vil finne det ein ser etter. Forlag- og bokbransjen leitar etter ein veg å gå frå papir, til også å finne dei lønsame digitale løysingane.

Det er litt som då eg ein gong for lenge sidan vart kjend med Helge Torvund.

Fyrst såg eg føtene hans. Då eg var gut var eg titt på besøk hjå kameraten min og no og då hende det at dei vaksne hadde fest. Då låg me borna under stuebordet, slik at dei ikkje såg oss og me slapp å gå å leggje oss. Der under bordet høyrde me dei vaksne skåle, synge og spele gitar. Dei snakka om kunst, om litteratur, om keramikk og Japanarar. Eit av para med føter var Helge Torvund sine. Slik vart eg kjend med han. Han hadde utgjeve diktsamling alt då, trur eg. Han var diktar.

Dette var på syttitalet ein gong, og åra gjekk, eg vart vaksen og brått var eg på internett og no seinare på Twitter.

Der, ein dag dukka @2rvund (Helge Torvund) opp, ein morgon, nett då sola lagar slikt lys som gjer at ein ser etter. Det gjorde eg med dei fyrste Twittermeldingane hans òg, såg etter. 140 teikn, tankeskisser og klår poesi. Mest kvar morgon kom dei orda som fekk mange av oss til å tenkje tankane våre betre.

Og slik har det vore sidan. Så kom ein twittersamtale mellom han og @eidsvag (Bjørn Eidsvåg) og etterkvart vart det den hiten me alle trudde det ville verte. «Oppe for show,nede for telling» Mykje kan kome ut av dialog i digitale univers.

Så kom Alabama? Lite visste eg at det ikkje berre var eit artig påfunn og seinkveldstwitterhumor om ein stad i Amerika. Men etterkvart skjøna eg at det var ei diktsamling. Ei bok. Ei bok som vart snakka om på Twitter, som det vart laga biletblogg av om kor denne boka har vore.

No har diktsamlinga Alabama? vandra frå kjøkkenbenken til han Helge, ut i verda, heile verda. Ho har vandra frå hendene til Helge, fått hans signatur og helsing, vorten sendt til alle som har bedt om det – på Twitter. Helge Torvund har fylt Litteraturhuset, Rogaland teatersal og utallege bibliotek, kor han har lese frå boka si, til dei som vil verta betre kjende med Helge sine setningar, lest av han. Slik merksemd fortel @2rvund meg at han ikkje har fått før. Diktsamlingar plar ikkje få det. Fulle hus.

No kjem ei anna bok, Vivaldi, den ser ut til å få same lagnaden, frå kjøkkenbenken, via hendene og fyllepennen til Helge med signatur til alle på Twitter som finn verdi i å lese gode setningar og bli betre kjend med forfattaren bak orda.

Kva har dette med bokbransjen å gjere? Ikkje så mykje, og det er nett det som er poenget.

Forlag og bokhandlar har ikkje leita etter digitalvegen på rette stadane. Dei har ikkje gjort noko i digitale univers som har gjort at døme eg har brukt her; Alabama? er seld fire, kan hende fem gonger så mykje som andre diktsamlingar. Det har Helge gjort sjølv, blant anna på Twitter.

Samstundes har Helge vist noko svært vesentleg. Det vesentlege i det nære, det å kjenne, det å være tilstades hjå og med sine lesarar. Den digitale dialogen har forsterka det personlege og det fysiske møte mellom litteratur, tilhøyrar og forfattar.

Her kan forlag og bokbransjen verkeleg lære noko; denne gongen kom det frå noko av det smalaste, minst kommersielle innan litteraturen. Det er forfatterane og dikterane som sjølv les frå bøkene sine, skriv på Twitter og sjølv finn vegen mellom den tradisjonelle rolla og den nye tida.

Er forlag- og bokbransjen rusta for å ta spranget saman med dei (eg vonar det), eller vil fleire og fleire forfattarar og diktarar i framtida velje å gå vegen utan dei?

The Norwegian e-book database is able to challenge Apple and Amazon.com!

The Norwegian ebook database “Bokskyen” (“Book cloud”) is capable of challenging both Apple and Amazon.com. I just wonder if they are aware of the value they have at hand?

In an article in Aftenposten today I read that the technology used and the set up they have made in the platform created they may avoid becoming dependent on Apple’s and Amazon.com walled garden ebook strategy. I knew this two years ago, when the ebook platform was presented in “Web dagene 2009”, based upon the way they explained the technology.

Since then the owners of the platform ( CapplenDamm, Gyldendal and Aschehoug ) have focused on a strategy where the political fight concerning VAT and governmental regulative agreements have been the focus. Also keeping the “old publishing hegemony” have been a important strategy of the publishing houses in Norway, as in many parts of the world. Meanwhile the Norwegian bookreaders have become eager customers of both Apples ibook and of course Amazon.com for purchasing their e books. I’m not at all sure that the publishing companies have had the best strategy up till now, training their market to use the main (and world leading) competitors.

As for now it seems like the positive news, that they now seem confident and happy to be able to avoid Apple and Amazon.com and by that being able to keep a larger part of the profit, is the benefit they see. They are happy for the “deals” made with the government and for being able to keep a pricing model they feel they can live by, mainly continuing their business in traditional ways. This is not a great strategy for the future. In best case it’s an OK short term tactics that have worked out well – for now.

I believe that they don’t see other than only a very small part of the real business value that’s embedded in the platform they have at hand. Both Apple and amazon.com should be looking out. Google should have a closer look at what is really going on. Not to mention, the owners of the platform themselves should ask themselves if they haven’t overlooked something of importance. What that is? – Well they are welcome to define where they want to be the next decade and come and ask me how to get there.