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Click here to read the article version of “A Whole New Way to Look at Advertising” (below).
Discussed in this podcast:
00:23 — Why I wanted to punch advertisers in the face when I was growing up
01:06 — Old school consumer thinking around advertising
01:34 — The whole purpose of advertisers collecting detailed info on consumers
01:55 — The purpose of targeted advertising
02:33 — What people’s reactions to commercials says about them
02:56 — The kind of advertising I personally love
04:31 — The dumber a person is, the dumber ads he’ll see
04:59 — Law of Attraction / Mirror Principle speaks to us through the advertisements we see!
06:05 — The Facebook ads you see can signal what needs to shift in YOUR advertising/marketing
07:07 — Why you should avoid untargeted advertising at all costs
08:00 — Headaches that occur due to transactions that arise from untargeted advertising
09:01 — Why targeted advertising is brilliant
09:22 — Why we as business owners should never shun advertising
10:17 — What to do if your ads aren’t performing as well as you expected
A Whole New Way to Look at Advertising
by Michelle Lopez
When I was growing up, I despised advertisements. Absolutely HATED them.
Like, literally wanted to punch the people who created them in the face.
I refused to watch TV specifically because the commercials were so retarded – and didn’t apply to me.
Now that I’m an adult (or at least as close to an adult as I’ll ever be), I have a slightly different view on advertising.
It used to bother me that companies like Facebook and Google and whoever-puts-cookies-on-my-computer could gather tons of information about me, so that they could give me more targeted advertisements.
Back in the day, it was “creepy” to think that advertisers could collect detailed information on us, down to the secret fears we harbor and the juicy desires we have.
Old school consumer thinking around the issue was: “That’s nobody’s business. They have no right to know any of that stuff about me.”
But if you if think about it – the whole purpose of collecting that data is to offer the individual MORE TARGETED ADS that would be MORE RELEVANT to want they actually want to achieve and experience in life.
The purpose of targeted advertising is not to sell you crap that you don’t want (that’s totally Old School Paradigm) – it’s to present consumers with something they actually DO want, but perhaps have never seen or heard of before.
I find it fascinating to observe other people’s reactions to advertising and commercials. For example, commercials on YouTube – I actually like many of the commercials I’ve been seeing lately. Somehow YouTube has figured out that I enjoy watching a specific kind of commercial. I enjoy watching clever story-based advertising and marketing campaigns, and I like seeing how various companies use stories to draw attention to their products. I also like electronic dance music and hip hop. So a lot of the ads I see on YouTube have that type of stuff in them.
If an ad doesn’t provide what I like within the first 5 seconds or whatever, I click “Skip Ad.”
If I don’t have an option to Skip the Ad, I mute my computer and change over to a different window while I’m waiting for the ad to finish. So I give these people zero opportunity to serve me with irrelevant ads. (That’s me being a discerning consumer.)
I have a theory that the dumbness of the ads you see may reflect your own level of consciousness.
The dumber a person is, the dumber ads he’ll see – mainly because he’s allowing himself to be subjected to that stuff in the first place.
Maybe that’s Law of Attraction or Mirror Principle at work… i.e., the universe showing us our own minds. Showing us that perhaps we’re not being very specific about what we want in life, or we’re not being very intelligent as to how we’re going about our lives.
I tend to see entertaining, story-filled musical ads, most of which are fairly intelligent.
I REFUSE to see dumb ads, hence the mute button being utilized to the fullest extent.
As far as Facebook ads go, for a while, I was seeing really generic ads on Facebook from entrepreneurs who seemed like they were trying to sound like everyone else.
I’d get irritated, thinking “Why is this showing up on my feed? I don’t care.” But then I started taking it as a signal from the universe telling ME that my marketing for MY business was getting too generic and perhaps I was starting to sound like everyone else. So I needed to quit that.
Untargeted advertising is stupid and annoying, and seeks to reach the dumbest level of consumer possible (those who live under a rock, are governed by Apathy, and are Most Likely to Be Subjected to Dumb Advertisements).
Transactions undergone as a result of untargeted advertising often bring headaches for both the consumer and the advertiser. The consumer didn’t really want the product… and the advertiser was targeting the dumbest level of consumers (i.e., the whiniest, most drama-filled, and least likely to take responsibility for their lives).
But TARGETED advertising is brilliant. When it reaches the right people, it can change their lives for the better. It can make them aware of a product or program that can give them something they really do want.
We should never shun advertising in general simply because we ourselves don’t like “dumb advertisements.” As business owners, it’s our duty to advertise precisely – and therefore, intelligently.
Imprecise = dumb.
The person who receives a precisely targeted advertisement and is ready to hear its message, will probably be very grateful.
In that case, you as the advertiser will have set yourself up for a well-deserved sale coming from a person who truly wants what you have to offer.
Is your advertising or marketing “all over the board”? Or an ad you thought would crush it, didn’t perform as expected? Email me so we can determine what the problem is, and explore how intelligent, highly targeted paid advertising can pay off big for you.
Michelle Lopez is a writer, editor, and copywriter with a BA in English/Creative Writing from the University of Colorado at Boulder.