Where did you read you had a choice? No matter what you think up, you'll
nightmare.
They are still not a more effective option.
I'll never go to a popup but to close it. I've clicked on banners.
But the problem is that, in general, the ads don't apply to me. I'm a
Canadian in Quebec. If you're going to bombard me with banners, it should be
ads from restaurants, taxi companies, hotels, computer products, etc, that
are geared towards my interests. I was thinking, back in the old days, that
advertising would end up fitting my own profile of needs and tastes.
If I saw pop-ups from Futureshop, advertising cheap DVDs, the odds of me
going down to Futureshop and buying a DVD has just bettered itself
tremendously. Instead, all the ads are for American companies. For all the
hassles that come from cross-border shopping, I'm just not going to bother.
After paying $10 for a DVD from the US, I then have to pay for shipping and
handling. So, I'm not interested in these offers, yet that's what I receive.
The consumer becomes inundated by useless ads. Until the industry finds a
way of targeting its audience, the industry will fail to generate the
revenues it desires from ads.
I would suggest dynamic banner ads. If ISP providers could provide something
like a postal/ZIP code, or some other geographical tag, to the web pages as
the user visits, then perhaps the ads could become specific to the region
that the visitor is from. For instance, say for instance that I visit one of
my favorite web pages: bartleby.com. When I go there, they should be able to
detect that I am from Montreal. This kind of information given over the
internet is hardly personal, but would allow bartleby to perhaps subscribe
to a service that generates ad banners based on the location of the surfer.
So, as someone who is visiting this page from Montreal, I should see ads
such as "IGA: Ben&Jerry's Ice-cream 3.99" When I click on it, I should be
given information such as what flavors are offered, and locations of stores
that are offering the goods. The same can be adjusted for restaurant menus,
car dealerships (not for me really), and other companies who naturally
attract my money due to their geographic location. The site could subscribe
to a service that will have a clientele of some 20 advertisers per major
city (to begin with), and would be responsible for providing the banner.
If the banners are specifically targeted at my geographical locality, I am
more likely to hit it due to genuine interest. As it is, the banners are
always depicting ads that have no relevance to me.
I don't know what kind of web tracking goes on, but I'm certain that such a
service would generate more money than what is currently being offered by
the WWW community. Rather than trying to get around services that protect
surfers from pop-up abuse, perhaps the advertising industry should begin to
regionalize their focus upon the consumer.
Just some thoughts...
