Wouldn't it be nice if you could skip pre-rolls?

Pre-roll ads, those ads you see just before you view an online video, seem to be effective if you believe a recent article in Advertising Age. So it will be a very long time before we see them go away. It’s not surprising that this tactic works. Unlike banner-ads, pre-rolls are impossible to ignore – or skip. Because of this, the chances of the ad in making an impression on the user are greater. That’s not rocket science – you don’t need to be a marketer to figure that one out. However, they do enrage many users. While I don’t have any scientific data to back this up – but I would imagine that the anger probably doesn’t help motivate users to absorb advertising messages. I would dare to say that they might even instil a negative sentiment in users just prior to the ad. And if you ask me, that’s not ideal. Read more…

Marketing, Web Analytics Idea, Pre-roll, Quiz-Skip

Chased by thieves? Outpace them.

It might be true that there is no such thing as an original idea. Everything, at one point or another, is copied from something else. Some call this inspiration, others, copyright infringement. I call it a fact of life. Yes, it completely and utterly sucks. No one likes to see their blood, sweat and tears earn others business or praise. It’s like seeing someone else take credit for your children, unconscionable.

But what is one to do? Read more…

CSS/Design, Humour, Marketing, Personal Brand Copied

We all love it when brands make us feel special, but how forgiving are we when they get it wrong?

The theory goes, the more in-tune with the potential customer’s frame of mind a product offering is, the higher the probability that the offering will result in a sale. It just makes common-sense; Give a thirsty man water; Give a hungry woman a snack.

Large strides have been already made in terms of personalization through customized content. Visit Amazon.com for example (my site is on page 24 of that book by the way). If you’ve been there before and sign in, Amazon welcomes you by name, and suggests items that it thinks you’d be interested in. In the case of a hotel, go to a hotel enough times and they’ll remember little details like the fact you enjoy an extra pillow, or what your favorite daily is and provide both of them for you before you enter your room. However, let’s look at this in a different way.

Are the potential gains of creating a positive, customized user-experience worth the risk of getting it wrong from time to time? Read more…

Critical eye, Marketing, User-Experience Customization, Privacy, UX