The Power of Informative Advertising: A New Approach

A Brief History of Online Advertising Techniques

Since the dawn of the commercial web, advertisers have been tirelessly experimenting with countless techniques. Here's a quick rundown of the major ones:

• Push Notifications - Early attempts to send news and advertising directly to the user failed to gain traction.
• Banners - Initially, banners seemed effective. However, their impact gradually diminished.
• Animation - While still visible, the prevalence of animation has significantly decreased and is expected to phase out soon.
• Flash - Despite its current popularity, the irritating nature of Flash is likely to lead to its downfall.
• Pop-ups - These intrusive ads that appear when visiting a site are widely considered annoying and are not expected to last.
• Pop-unders - A variation of pop-ups, these ads appear after the user has closed a window. This method is also predicted to fail.

The Rise and Fall of Contextual Advertising

Contextual advertising is the latest trend, aiming to capture the user's attention while they are engaged in a related activity. For instance, if a user is entering a keyword into a search engine, advertisers believe it's an opportune moment to promote a product or service related to that keyword. This approach, successfully implemented by Google and other search engines, is often referred to as "contextual advertising."

However, some implementations of this strategy have been controversial. For example, a company called EZula sells keywords and uses a program called TOPtext to highlight these words on websites. When a TOPtext user visits a site, they see these highlighted words and can click on them to visit sites that have purchased ads for these keywords. This practice, often referred to as "contextual stealing," has been criticized for its potential to mislead users and damage trust in advertisers.

The Fundamental Misunderstanding of Online Advertising

The failure of these techniques can be attributed to a fundamental misunderstanding of the online environment. Traditional advertising methods, developed to capture the attention of a more or less "captive" consumer, do not translate well to the online world. In this new environment, the consumer is in control and has an infinite number of choices. The old tricks of the trade, such as playing on emotions or using cunning tactics, are ineffective. Instead, the key to successful online advertising is to provide value to the consumer.

The Emergence of Informative Advertising

Informative Advertising, as practiced by Google and other search engines, is a successful approach that respects the consumer's control. These ads are related to the user's current interest and provide useful information. They do not attempt to deceive or interrupt the user, nor do they harm others. Most importantly, they are clearly identifiable as ads.

The key characteristic of Informative Advertising is that it provides valuable information. It does not manipulate the visitor but instead aims to be helpful and build trust. The advertiser guides the consumer to a site only if they believe it will be beneficial to the consumer.

While context is important, it is not sufficient. The crucial factor is how context is used: to exploit or to assist. Newsletter advertising, for example, is effective not just because of its context, but primarily because it provides informative content.

Conclusion

The era of traditional advertising, culminating in "contextual stealing," is coming to an end. The future of advertising, both online and offline, lies in Informative Advertising. This approach, part of a broader marketing strategy known as Helpfulness Marketing, respects the consumer's control and aims to provide value.