Advertising for Fun or Profit

As we approach the Super Bowl, hints of some of the upcoming video advertisements are hitting the news shows and the net. The question for me is: Are the advertisements effective? Do people just remember the ads or do they go buy the product. Same thing with viral videos on the net – do people take action because of the video, or do they just pass it on.

Is this video going to make you buy a domain name? Are you going to remember GoDaddy for some time into the future? Obviously, all the advertisers with these kinds of videos think so. According to an eMarketer article , there are an ever increasing number of online video viewers, but I still want to know: Are people actually taking action because of those videos?I’m a podcaster and I’m fascinated by how strong the relationship between the podcaster and the listener is. There are also a number of video podcasts that have a strong relationship with their subscribed viewers. It is this relationship that I think will shape advertising in the future. Other people have pointed out this relationship marketing. I’m certainly not the first to talk about it. What I do think is going to happen in the near future is that there will be new tools to specifically measure the effectiveness of video and audio podcast advertising. Then when the hard numbers show the strength and value of the audio and video podcast medium, advertisers will flock to podcasters to capitalize on the relationship.Just as internet banner ads and Google ads have siphoned advertising money away from print and radio, podscasts with their relationship marketing will siphon more money away from the traditional “broadcast” advertising mediums. Advertising, will get more and more targeted with built-in tools to measure their effectiveness.