I like adverts. In fact, I really like some of them.
I’m that annoying person who laughs out loud in the cinema. I get there early so I can see them before the film starts. And, let’s face it, a tube journey would be dull without them too, so we should embrace them. The good ones that is. The ads I like best are the ones that work. The ones that have a hard hitting message or a funny story within .
Sometimes they are really clever and you might not see it at the first glance. You need to look deeper, and when you get it they make you smile or frown or tut- depending on what the aim is.
So what is really annoying me at the moment are the Yahoo! ads that have been popping up all over the place. What the hell are they trying to tell us? What do they want to sell to us? I can’t work it out. Apparently it’s all about me. It’s personal. I’ve been told by people on the inside at Yahoo that the ads do not feature models but rather ‘real people’. That would explain the wooden poses. But what do they mean? Where is my call to action? Most people in the non media savvy world still think of yahoo as an email provider and these adverts are not exactly going to change that.
Someone said to me just the other day “I didn’t know that Yahoo had a search engine” but I don’t roll my eyes and explain how it all works any more. I spent 4 years doing that while I worked for Yahoo search. It seems to me that Yahoo could have just put up massive billboards on roundabouts around the UK saying “Hey! Yahoo also has a search engine” and they would have achieved so much more.
They are not the only big media owner trying to show us some love right now though. Oh no. However, Microsoft has got it right. All along the travelator in Waterloo yesterday, I was being bigged up by Microsoft. They listened to us, the normal folk. They made changes that people like me suggested. We count. Microsoft appreciates us. Smiley happy people beamed at me from large ads.
Happy happy happy.
I got on the Northern line wondering what Windows 7 means for me. Even though I had not played any role in the Windows 7 release, I saw the ad, understood what they wanted me to think and now I am aware of the product AND I even know some of the new feature improvements. Well done Windows. Their ads picture people (who may or may not be ‘real people’) and it doesn’t matter to me at all because I can see what they are representing.
Tags: advertising, online advertising, Search engines, yahoo search