Social Ads- a First Take

September 7, 2008 · Comments

advertising When I read this post by Shiv Singh about Avenue A / Razorfish offering social ads (ads with social elements to them, like comments), I groaned. That was my very first take. And then I read the post a bit more closely.

Here’s the premise that I believe Shiv’s saying they’re going to try: there’s an ad, but then your “friends” can comment on the ad, or rate it, etc.

First off, I don’t know that this will work. If you post a Ford ad, and I come along and crap all over Ford in the comments for the ad, what will Ford, the site, or the ad platform do next? It would be NICE if we could have both sides of the conversation, but as ballsy as I want companies to be, I can’t see anyone taking that bet.

Second, it’s kind of interesting that I might be able to click an ad and get the metaconversation, but I’m curious whether I’d click in the first place, because that’s saying I’ve chosen to endorse the interruption. It continues the premise that people milling about in some online space want the distraction of an ad.

I’m going to think more about what would work for me in the space of “social” ads. My immediate thought is that affiliate marketing is kind of like that. But I have to consider it a bit more.

What do you think about all this?

Photo credit, Montrasio International

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  • I share your initial and secondary reactions. I can count on one hand the number of banner ads I've ever clicked on.

    Heck, I block Doubleclick.net in my hosts file, just to cut down on the number of animated ads I see for products I care nothing for.

    I don't want to see the meta-conversation about an ad (most of the time).
  • Chris,

    I am not sure that I want social ads.

    I like the idea of clicking through an ad and starting a conversation with the company; just not sure how well that would work.

    I also do not see how it could work if I could comment on an ad and then the company could respond. To me that would seem like a closed way of communicating versus a true social aspect where we could communicate openly or in real time.

    Still not sure about the whole subject, but curious to see where it goes.

    John Lusher
  • Matt
    aren't your blog posts kind of like social ads?
  • Like it or not companies are eventually going to have to take that bet and we are going to have better products and better service because of it.

    It's already happened. We don't have to buy Music Albums of crappy songs we don't want just in order to get the one great song we want and have to have.

    Back in the old days in any small town if the butcher cheated someone everyone in town knew about it.

    Now because of social media we all just moved to small towns and the butchers better look out because if they do us wrong everyone in our social media groups will know about it.
  • I agree with you here Chris.

    The "creative" of the ad would have to be quite something, which makes it hard for the company to constantly hit a winner each time. I wouldn't want to be the creative director in charge of that portfolio!

    And then there's a company taking such a "risk" of both sides as you say Chris. Can't see that. Also, too much resources to monitor that, and not sure the value is there in marketing ROI terms either, really.
  • I think a lot would depend on the kind of Ad it was. The burden would be to create creative, engaging content—it couldn't be just a regular ad. If it were interesting and raised issues people were interested in discussing I think it would work. There's been tons of discussion about the new Microsoft ad. If that were happening in Microsoft's space instead of just all over the internet it would ad a meta-level to the ad, because Microsoft would be hosting the conversation—and then people would talk about that too...Obvs if it were something Tide Gets The White Out—then not so much
  • As the advancement of social marketing evolves you will always have ideas that when put into practice will fail. I understand what the marketing company is trying to do, but I see it as a interuption without end. I am not going to completely dis the idea. Look what people were saying about blogging when it first came into play. "its something that will give someone unedited free speech to bash a person, product, or service with recourse". Now look at where it is today.. It will be interesting to watch.
  • I just put up a post about ads on Twitter and now here we are again. I pretty much never click on banners ads but sometimes click on Google ads if they seem relevant and how will this be different than the conference ads many of us have on our sites?
    We know it's going to happen and it's kinda fun watching people figure out how they are going to do it.
  • @matt - not sure I get your point. I don't get paid, so no, they're not ads. They'd be promotions, insofar as I write that I love things.

    Things where I might have a business relationship are disclosed on my about page.

    Is that what we're talking about?
  • I love the idea of making ads into something social. My friends are the best people to know that I'm looking for something and bringing me into a conversation about a good ad (at the right time) would really be useful to me; something to help me make a decision. That would certainly improve on what the traditional media planner/ buyer has been trying to do. My suspicion is that advertisers will try to wrap up some social tools in the same old interruptions.

    As for advertisers coping with the good and bad comments...I think it's inevitable and a necessity. You can't get this close to the consumer and expect to keep editorial control!
  • Uh - this was done before,right? Remember Chevy allowing people to create Tahoe ads? And then people creating anti-tahoe ads using the same campaign?

    It always depends on what the ads are, if they're being censored, and how much creative freedom they allow.

    If they create a Hummer ad saying "it's just awesome" - people will dump on the ad. But if they come out with "the new Honda. 300 mpg" people will have a different response - unrealistic, I own one an love it, etc. It's a throw of the dice.
  • Just found you today from Twitter, Chris. Nice to meet you.

    Controversy creates opportunity. At a minimum, the first few ads will generate plenty of inbound traffic as you, me, and scores of others feature the ads in our blogs.

    The social media folks will pick over it and perhaps, *perhaps,* consumers will follow.
  • One of our findings in bringing TV content to new media platforms, has been that "conversation puts content on steroids". Whether its a live TV feed or VOD 'catchup' or even text-to-screen.
    Crap content usually gets fairly ignored, but anything worth watching usually attracts conversation

    I can't see why this wouldnt work for advertising too, crappy ads get ignored or insulted, and good ads get the steroid effect of conversation. Sounds like a decent filter mechanism already :)
  • neilgorman
    My thought = this is all ready **sort of** going on.

    Examples:
    1. Amazon.com lets people review products on the site. You don't even have to have bought the product from Amazon to write a review of it.

    The user based of Amazon.com then provides feedback on that review (feedback on feedback) by stating if the review was helpful to them.

    The people who consistantly write good (good = USERS found it helpful) reviews get perks from amazon.

    Granted, products on Amazon.com are not ads in a triditional sense... But I don't think they are that far off. There is a blurb from the publisher / producer of the product that talks it up attached to damn near everything there.

    You see what I mean?

    2. With things like Stumble Upon, and GreaseMonky people can comment on everything they find on the web. Including ads.

    True, not a huge amount of people use this service. However, some people do. There is potential for this to grow.

    3. Last thing is services like Reddit and Digg. I can see them adding a section where people post ads and enable their users to "talk" about them via comments.

    I don't know if this is happened yet.

    4. iTunes reviews. I would say that every listing in iTunes is very similar to an ad for the album / podcast / film / etc.

    -N
  • Matt
    @chris - that's a good point. Posts could be called promos more easily than ads.

    I shouldn't have used 'your'; I basically meant typical blog posts.

    I really just wanted to raise a fairly non-intuitive point, just that there's a clear parallel dynamic between the two: streaming reply comments. Not meant to be a damning comparison.

    I just found a bit of irony in: 'how do we feel about commenting on ads?' 'leave comments below' :o)

    They're an interesting concept...
  • Feedback from people who see your ad and use your products always helps. People will leave comments about ad's if you give them the opportunity.

    For the record, I love to help people out, so if you have any questions about ANYTHING, or need some advice, you can follow me @Garbarrassing on Twitter and ask. I will help you out with whatever I can (including giving my opinion about your ad!!!).
  • Hey Chris

    I think that like all new forms of media, it requires stepping back and thinking about how to use it off-script. The current idea of "social ads" is "ad" + "comments". But the successful social ads will come from new ideas, not filling out those blanks. Like all other ad creative.

    The analogy is that "social games" are not "game + social graph". The successful social games innovate, rather than simply porting tetris + friends. There are new forms of interaction that have emerged out of the opportunity, and there will be here too.

    All respect, but I'd suggest that this is the time to imagine what might be done with social ads, and there's little else left to say except that there's an opportunity. If we can't imagine anything beyond Singh's "ads with social elements to them, like comments" then we should leave them be until we can.
  • I don't think this is a social ad.
  • After reading Shiv's post, your post, and the comments posted here, I got to thinking about how social ads might work.

    It's true -- allowing a conversation thread on an ad could have unexpected negative consequences in the form of brand-bashing, etc. And clicking an ad generally constitutes endorsement, as you said. But perhaps what's afoot here is a bit bigger, and maybe what we're calling a social "ad" isn't actually an "ad" at all.

    Maybe it's simply a call to action to vet an idea, a product, or an opportunity. When positioned as a question that solicits my opinion on a particular subject, a subject that is at least nominally relevant to me based on some level of non-invasive personalization, I think we're actually leaving the realm of "advertisement" and moving closer to the realm of something we don't quite have a name for. Something akin to ad hoc product/service testing, opinion polls, or audience research.

    Of course, this would be me effective if we do get the "second half of the conversation." Why don't you see companies, at least in the near future, "taking that bet?"
  • Great comments and thank you for the feedback. Here are a few clarifications - exactly because we cannot tell how big a deal this will be, we're beta testing before productizing the effort in some form or the other.

    There are a lot of different creative scenarios. For example, a banner ad could just be about product ratings where you're viewing the rating for a product and if you're a user, you can add your rating right in the banner ad itself. It'll bring a greater sense of authenticity. What's interesting is that these ratings and other user generated content elements from the ad can be tied back to a destination website linking on domain community interactions with off domain ones.

    Regarding the brand bashing issue, that happens all over the web in any case. Having said that its fair to say that an ad unit like this will be of more interest to advertisers with strong brands and strong products.
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