Prime Advertising & Design Blog » Where There Are Viewers, There Are Marketers

Where There Are Viewers, There Are Marketers

It seems that many are bewildered or angry when advertising shows up in places or ways it hasn’t before. I always laugh at this because wherever there is a chance to be viewed, read or exposed to even just one person … there is someone willing to put a value on that and attempt to connect with them. Some people get bent out of shape about the purity of their medium, event or space being muddied by marketing dollars and business.

USA Today wrote about product placement appearing in the Lonelygirl15 videos on You Tube, you can read the full article here. Here is comment from Hershey’s who paid the bucks for their product placement:

As short, episodic entertainment begins to flourish on the Web, other show creators are also thinking of integrating ad messages into their plots. After all, the same has been done for years in films, TV shows and even video games.
Advertisers are also looking to spend more money online as their traditional TV audience begins to splinter.
"The goal was to raise awareness of the brand among our target consumers," said Kirk Saville, a spokesman for Hershey, which makes Ice Breakers. "It already has generated substantial interest on the LG15 site and blogs worldwide."

So it’s getting them buzz … what all of marketing is buzzing and striving to create these days. I say good for them, who cares … but others cry foul and fear the marketing will continue to "wreck" things. Obviously Lonelygirl15 has gone from innocent (but commercial from day one) to known commercial project, but what will happen to those purists posting videos when money comes calling? Does the money ruin the message or the intent?

PayPerPost
The monetizing of blogs has enraged many as companies like PayPerPost pop up to pay bloggers for their time. I’m a big fan of RockStartUp.com which carries videos on PayPerPost’s start and ongoings. Their episode 13 has CEO Ted Murphy at The Always On Conference getting heat from a panel on marketing dollars clouding the bloggers, their views and their recommendations of product or services; view the video here. Murphy points out that having financial gain in their blogging actually makes them better bloggers and I agree with that.

To me, I rate the messenger as well as the message so I’m not concerned with being duped. In considering anything I like to look at multiple sources, knowing that each source has it’s own connections or disconnects to their pitch or rant. I encourage you to do the same … and I also encourage you to find creative ways like these to reach your audience, you really need to.

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