If Everything Else Asks for Feedback, Why Not Ads?

Asking for feedback is in.

Virtually every journalist solicits feedback by posting their email addresses. Some even ask overtly.

As Forrester's Jeremiah Owyang recently noted, companies are inviting comments - yet far more slowly. Notably, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer invited everyone at Mix 08 to email him directly. (Microsoft is an Edelman client.)

So what about for advertisers?

Advertising is not exactly known as a two-way paradigm. However, the web changes that. Digital creative can and should be able to not only solicit feedback but to adjust in real-time like mood rings to what people say back.

CNET and AOL Networks both invite consumers to give feedback on their banner ads. Above is one from American Express I found on AOL's site. The surveys ask respondents to rate ads for relevancy, emotive content and ability to move the user to purchase. However, that's as far as they go. The scant data I assume they collect somehow goes back to the advertiser.

Weblogs Inc. - before it was owned by AOL - took an even bolder approach with their Focus Ads. They allowed advertisers to solicit reader comments on ads. However, the program seems to have been abandoned.

There's a lot of room for innovation here. Advertisers can and should be opening themselves up for input. Further, the media companies should help them do so. Will they? I would be surprised to see it happens. Advertising is the last safe haven for one-way communication. Marketers won't rock the boat. Plus, it has a place in an emerging mix of strategies.

Comments

[Reginald]

This is an ingenious concept in my opinion. It makes logical sense to me as it will draw interaction from surfers.

Everyone has an opinion and want to be heard.

[Tabitha Smith]

I love it! I'm all about the interactivity of websites - why not ads?

[Bill Nones]

We're on it, Steve. And have been for some months. Stay tuned for details and we'll fill you in once our development is complete.

[Dan Sandecki]

Steve,

Great blog...

This is exactly what we’ve been working on.

www.brandjury.com

We are taking registration for our private beta now.

Dan

[Ben Helps]

Perhaps it will spell the end of all those terrible banner ads that shake around, pretend to be Windows dialog boxes, warn you your computer isn't safe, or ask you to hit the monkey/beat George Bush's IQ/etc.

Somehow I doubt it though - I think it would be another case of only the legitimate advertisers making use of the feedback, while the slime that serve the ad types above would try and use your feedback communication to infest you with malware (think Smiley Central).

[Peter Rojas]

I loved having the reader comments on ads when we introduced it on Engadget (Shawn Gold deserves credit for the idea), but it was pretty hard to get advertisers to take the plunge. We managed to get a handful to try it out, but it was so tough that it didn't seem worth the effort. Even though ultimately it was in their own best interest.

[Bob]

Hey Steve,

One of the themes we try to drive home is, as concerns online publishing, "everything is an invitation to a conversation." It's all a part of the social layer we're building on top of the content web.

I don't see why ads should be any different.

[Dennis McDonald]

Theoretically this is a great idea but it will depend on execution. Advertisers and marketers have been doing surveys for decades and decades, and I'm sure that some of these "ad comments" will be just that -- formatted and categorized surveys or questionnaires.

Not that that's bad, but I can see a lot of automated coding and tag extraction routines at work here, some in real time. Will that really make the advertisers more responsive to public sentiment? Maybe, maybe not.

[Josh]

The information what you have given here is great and interesting to read too.

[Kyle]

http://adpinion.com/ is a Y Combinator startup doing just that.

[Crowdstorm]

This could be really useful for advertisers - then again you're going to get a bit of a biased response from feedback - how many people are really going to take the time to respond to an advert when most people try to ignore them anyway? I will be intrigued to see how this evolves.