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Insight from Fred Wilson on new types of “publishers,” “agencies” and “ad networks” from his presentation at Ad Age’s Digital Conference. Here’s the deck:
In a comment posted to an FM blog post, On Display and Conversational Marketing, Fred Wilson asks:
“it’s not yet clear why your CM campaigns need display inventory on FM partner sites. Why couldn’t you recruit audience to the CM campaigns out on the net anywhere at much lower cost to your advertiser partners?”
In other words, Why do CM campaigns need premium display inventory if less expensive inventory — aggregated through ad networks in order to be targeted via context matching algorithms or a behavioral targeting bots — is available?
My reply:
“A human understanding of context matters. AdBrite or Google AdSense can deliver you college-educated women, but that same demographic is vastly more valuable when it’s reading Vanity Fair or Dooce. Vanity Fair and Dooce readers are more deeply engaged with Vanity Fair’s / Dooce’s content and ads than they (*the very same people*) are when they’re scanning news or clicking through celebrity photos on random sites they’ve stumbled across. The best media brands (Vanity Fair, Business Week, Oprah, etc) and the best blogs (Boing Boing, Dooce, Silicon Alley Insider, A VC, etc) compel their readers to *lean forward* when they’re reading. And that’s a mindset that is hard for a context-targeting engine to identify.” Rush Hour move
My full reply includes two examples.Love Takes Wing download
FM worked with Verizon Wireless (and its agency, Moxie Interactive) to place Verizon ads promoting the BlackBerry Storm on Fred Wilson’s site, A VC, even though Fred had recently criticized the product on the site:
“In fact, that post which is critical of the Storm is still on the front page of this blog where the ad is running. And this blog has been no friend to wireless carriers and their abusive business models like demanding exclusives from device manufacturers.
“Conversational media and conversational marketing is coming of age. Marketers are understanding that you have to be part of the conversation even if it isn’t flattering about you and your products and services. And participants in conversational media are starting to recognize that marketers and their brands have a seat at the table and a role in the conversation. In this case, they are helping to fund it (sort of).
“Kudos to Verizon for understanding that you can’t control the content your campaign runs next to.”
An interesting conversation broke out among A VC readers, including BlackBerry fans that came to the brand’s defense and others who applauded Verizon for supporting the discussion.
“It could be very effective for Verizon. This blog hits a bullseye on the product’s target market. Plenty of people will disagree w/ Fred’s view on the Storm (I do, fairly strongly!) And there’s a LOT of people who feel married to Verizon or can’t/won’t use AT&T or T-Mo (and thus iPhone, G1 etc) and will now choose the Storm despite reservations…. I am convinced that there is TONS of potential here. People are sick and tired of all these years of ads making grandiose, inherently biased claims for their products. ‘Marketing’ as it’s done in the US has become equated w/ mistrust. I’d bet that a company’s active endorsement of a balanced discussion, pro and con, about a product will cause the public to listen rather than tune out.”
And:
“I’d be impressed if people from Verizon made this decision based on the content & context of specific posts on your blog as opposed to simply picking your site from some broad technology category.”
And this, from my FM colleague John Schneider:
“Yes, this was a conscious, and human, decision that was made. With fewer than 200 properties, FM always handpicks the best fitting sites — there are no fancy algorithms. In Fred’s case, he has an engaged and influential audience that has strong opinions on new technologies and product offerings. Ultimately, it’s Fred’s audience we are trying to reach. They clearly respect his opinions, but form their own as shown here in this comment thread.”
And:
“Well, I think it’s brilliant that you did because of the tension created by Fred’s recent post about the BlackBerry Storm. There’s hope for advertising.”
Hope for advertising?! I’m welling up over here!
Congrats to the teams at Verizon Wireless and Moxie Interactive. And thanks, John Schneider, for putting this program together, and Fred, for MC’ing the conversation.