As expected, YouTube and Facebook are generating advertising revenue from their sites---You Tube through video advertising overlays and Facebook by marketing user data.
Just as expected, there have been negative reactions from users. What caught my attention was a quote in a MediaPost article attributed to a commenter on the Consumerist blog: "The whole thing makes me sad...because it seems like everything that is great on the internet just gets inundated with advertising. I'm so sick of being marketed to all the time."
The truth hurts.
We’re all “inundated” with online advertising, the price we pay for venturing on to the internet. It doesn’t matter that some of the advertising makes the content we want, possible. Because the internet is an interactive medium almost any level of advertising is bound to feel intrusive, unlike broadcast or cable, where we’ve grown to expect ads (and can increasingly avoid them if we choose). Consumers are so knowledgeable about the tactics marketers utilize to market to them that they’ve become cynical, and too many marketers have yet to learn that consumers increasingly expect dialogue rather than a lecture on features and benefits.
Which brings me to Wakey’z Drug Mall.
Wakey’z is a spoof site that features products guaranteed to keep you awake and “twitching” all day long, from “Sausa Jolts”, stimulant laced energy sausage that puts real “torque in your pork,” Choco-Drenaline” energy bars and an alarm clock booster that guarantees an “ear bleeding” sound level that’s the equivalent of a jet engine. Click to purchase one of the fake products and you’re encouraged to find a better way to “cure tired” by learning about Sleep Number beds by Sleep Comfort.
The site is pretty detailed – clearly the creative team had fun with this. Some argue that it’s overkill but that would be true only if visitors were forced to go through the whole site to get to the call to action.
Wakey’z infuses the brand with a sense of humor and engages prospects without hitting them over the head. Sure it’s marketing, but it doesn’t leave prospects feeling ‘marketed to, a challenge for any advertiser, but especially online. Whether the site provides the right amount of relevant information remains to be seen in the overall impact of the campaign on sales. But if Wakey’z convinces potential customers, especially those that tune out infomercials, to include Sleep Number beds in their consideration set, then it will have done its job.
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