I’m probably giving Target and CNN Money too much credit but this is really the way online advertising should work.
While I was doing some research for a school project on the Sears-Kmart merger back in 2004 I came across this ad on CNN Money. It was talking about the issues facing the two companies, restructuring, layoffs, etc. Off to the right there is a poll asking readers what they think the merger will mean:
- Lower prices
- More Martha Stewart, Lands’ End stuff
- Lots of store closings
- Nothing, Wal-Mart rules!
The overwhelming opinion of readers is Lots of store closings.
What’s the large hip red ad to the right of that? An employment advertisement for Target. Beautiful. This tells worried employees reading the article, “hey we’re not laying people off.” It also tells investors reading CNN Money “hey things are great over here. We’re hip and now, they’re SO 20 years ago.”
A few problems with my idea scenario: 1) the ad is current the article if 4 years ago, but the situation of Sears hasn’t gotten better and Target has. 2) I really doubt that Target bought anything more than rotating ad space with Time Warner (The parent company for the site).
But I think that we will soon get to a time where Target, or any other online advertiser, could not just keyword target banner ads but actually target topics or breaking news stories.
A current example of that would be the Microsoft-Yahoo proposed merger (not that dissimilar to Sears-Kmart). Microsoft could say, we want to run rotating ads next to on any stories about this deal that will offer up information on the deal from our perspective. So you get the blogger, reporter, analysts view of the deal and the opportunity to read Microsoft’s view of the deal.
I think we’re getting there. I think we have to first get beyond simple keyword placement. We definitely have to get beyond lazy media buyers buying blanketed ad spots based on CPM.
Technorati Tags: advertising,online,media,CPM
