Online advertisement is prevalent almost everywhere you
look. If you go on your phone it shows
up when you play games or use other apps.
If you go on your laptop then it pops up as soon as you log onto the
internet. And if you have a pop up
blocker then website have become creative enough to include ads on their web
pages to get around this so people are still exposed to advertisements. Earlier in our blog posts we have talked
about websites targeting certain ads to people based upon their interests but
what about when you watch a TV show or YouTube video what makes those ads pop
up on your screen? I’ve seen commercials
when waiting for a TV show to load about a product that I don’t even care
about. How do these TV shows and YouTube
videos pick the ads that are run prior to viewing the show? Also, when viewing a video online the ads
that come in between breaks tend to be the same one on repeat? Why not mix up
the commercial ads for viewers? Why keep
these ads the same?
Well as most know from online research, online ads are
posted on websites by third parties.
These third party sites typically pay to have their ads posted on websites,
such as YouTube, because there are many viewers. On average there are roughly 2 billion people
view videos on YouTube over a one year period, and 160 million views of videos
on YouTube by mobile devices daily. YouTube
brings in roughly $450 million in revenue in a year. Similar to Google, YouTube
has banners that display ads on the sides of the screen which can vary some of
the ads that are viewed by people. So
the money that they make comes from their third party advertisers.
Another larger company that heavily uses online advertisement
is NBC. Particularly during the Winter
Olympics it raised roughly $50 million in online ads. Again, similar to YouTube when commercials
are played before viewing the show that a viewer is trying to watch online the
commercials tend to repeat themselves.
Why? The main reason is because
companies such as NBC and YouTube have sponsorship rules that they adhere to;
if a third party pays enough money they can have their ad run multiple
times.
When these ads are run before viewing a video they typically
are the same ads being repeated throughout the breaks of the show but they are
also sometimes irrelevant to your interests.
For example, there may be a guy viewing a music video so he may not care
for a Venus commercial because he has no use for a woman’s razor. The reason why ads like this pop up is
because it is difficult to judge the audience that is viewing that particular
show/video without the proper tools.
These ads are used to fill the buffer space while a video is loading and
it also helps generate a profit for the website.
Do you think that websites such as YouTube and NBC should
create cookies for your video views to help target the ads that you see when waiting
on videos to load towards your interests?
What are your thoughts about these current dilemmas of repeated ads
being displayed when running a show?
Should websites change their requirements to make it more appealing to
the audience or should they leave it alone to attract more third party revenue?
I think that YouTube, NBC, and other websites should create cookies to target ads that interests each person while they are having to wait on videos to load. Especially for ads viewers are forced to watch. When I use Pandora or am waiting on a YouTube video to load it drives me crazy when I'm forced to watch at least 15 seconds of an ad or more. The ads are usually of no interest of mine and only make me feel negatively towards whatever website I'm using even though its a third party that is responsible for the ad. So if I'm going to be forced to watch an ad I would much rather it be on something that catches my interest, and make me not resent using the website.
ReplyDeleteI absolutely despise the video advertisements I have to watch while waiting for a YouTube video to load. Usually only 1 out of 10 of the advertisements even catch my interest, and if I'm given the option to skip the ad I always do it. I think the advertisements should be linked to what you are about to watch, not random commercials that have nothing to do with your interests.
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