We all know traditional media is either dead or rapidly dying, depending on which media you are tracking. This has been in the news for a long time now. So advertisers have switched to the internet and online advertising to try and make it work again. It isn’t. What is working is that people are becoming really good at “skipping ads” from wherever you throw them at them. So how do they get you to watch the ad instead of skip it? One agency thinks they have the answer…THREATENING TO KILL A PUPPY.
You heard me right…they threaten to kill a puppy if you click on “Skip Ad” in their videos. You can watch it here and see what you think…
So what did you think? Did it make you incredibly angry that someone would stoop this low and actually wire up a puppy to prove their point? Did it make you laugh because it was a unique way to get you to watch their ad? Did it make you feel like ad agencies are really grasping for straws to try and get their ad in your head? Maybe some of all of the above.
The problem…they estimated that 94% of the people skip these “roll over” ads on videos. That means from all the money spent on creating this ad, 6 out of 100 people watch it. We have no clue what the 6 do after watching…but my bet is less than one actually acts on the ad. That makes the real percentage abysmal for the company looking for results from their ads. So agencies have to do something to get you to watch…I think I am having a Déjà vu back to “interruption marketing” that died with traditional media.
But this isn’t the real point I want to make here. The real point is why do you need to spend money to interrupt me anyway? Wouldn’t it be better if your customers actually “talked about you” to their friends and colleagues and “told them” they need to buy from you? Wouldn’t it make more sense to invest these huge video production dollars back into your customers in a way that would cause them to want to talk about you…a lot…on their social channels? Wouldn’t your new customers be more anxious to buy from you if one of their friends told them how great you were?
Somehow I think this would be a far better use of your ad money than hiring an agency to produce and publish an ad threatening to kill a puppy because they can’t get you to watch any other way. I guess the real question we have to ask is, “How low will they go,” to try and get you to watch an ad you didn’t really care about. What is the new ground floor for “interruption marketing” even when it is done online instead of using traditional methods? I don’t think we’ve seen the bottom floor of this elevator ride quite yet…unfortunately. And one final thing to think about…what is this saying about your BRAND???
