ChasNote

Silicon Alley Insider summarizes Google’s recent presentation on its evolving display ad strategy.

On the surface, two aspects strike me as mistakes. One, I worry that the intensely rational approach to targeting may go too far, forgetting that brand advertising is often intended to create interest among consumers who didn’t have (or, therefore, express) a preexisting interest. Two, I’m not sure that “simplification” is what brand advertisers want; they (and their margin-deprived agencies) certainly want a streamlined media-buying system, but not at the expensive of unique formats to express the uniqueness of their brands.

What I really like, though, is a continuation of the advertising philosophy that’s made Google so dominant. Start by understanding what your customer (the reader, viewer or searcher) is doing at various parts of your site, and then create ad formats that match the user experience. If a visitor to Google.com expects to ask a question and get a list of text results ranked by relevance, Google.com advertisers must articulate their propositions in text, ranked by relevance. If someone “shows up” at the front page of YouTube, he or she isn’t yet searching for something specific. YouTube serves up graphical teasers to content that has broad popular appeal (the opposite of relevant) and homepage advertisers are given the opportunity to do rich media mass marketing.