Internet and the Adverassic Period

Advertising online can be tricky, the landscape changes overnight and what was the goldmine is now the striped mine. The best way to advertise on the Internet is to make your own content. This can be costly because it will have to be ever changing. Take but.tv for example; they provide content like videos, simple games, and contests. They need to go beyond this because this content gets old and stale. Adding things like fantasy games will help attract users and keep them coming back at least once a week, whether it be fantasy fishing, basketball, baseball, football, or celebrities (not sure how this one works, but I have seen it). Stats can be kept because they are considered a matter of public record. Also, providing a spot for user generated content like videos, blogs, and pictures may help with loyalty to the site. This would need to be subsidized with traditional media, much like Chanel is doing with their new Internet ventures. T.V., radio, or guerrilla advertising would help get users to this site, but the most effective would probably be the use of their own products.

In my limited expertise with the Internet I have found that banner advertising gets more praise then it deserves. Finding "the flavor of the week" and leeching off of it is much like... well, a leech. Take for example the new "Leave Britney Spears Alone" video on YouTube. Putting ads with a medium like this might get some click-throughs, but by who? If a company or product wanted to go this route, they would need to employ "surfers"; people to surf the web for the next days, warm body to leech off of. Another option is talked about in a Wired article about a computer generated second world for people to live in. This is strange to me, because why live a generated life when the real one has so much to offer. However, I am being a bit hypocritical because I do enjoy my XBOX 360 sports games. Through this medium I have seen more branded content such as: Under Armour, Snickers, and Reebok(shown on sleeve). This ad content is fluid with the enjoyment of the medium. It's not a constant and does not interfere or try to take attention away from the game itself. My biggest pet peeve about online advertising is it tries to tear you away from what you are engaged in, by whatever means necessary. The Internet does provide endless possibilities especially with cell phones being able to view the web. This is also a fairly new medium for advertising and with technologies exponentially becoming greater and greater this landscape is sure to evolve and change.