What's The Key To Creating Quality Content For Online Advertising?

Advertisers are uneasy. It's not just because we're learning new media and formats, it's because our audience claims it hates ads. You've seen the statistics. DVR owners love their ad-skipping button. Web surfers install ad-blockers. Mobile phone users delete before peeking. Consumers gripe that ads are intrusive and interrupt the enjoyment of the content they want. Sounds bad. But if we accept these complaints at face value, we can knock down the walls of resistance. It's simple: we must make our ads as compelling as the content surrounding them.

Electronic Retailer: September 1, 2007
By Timothy R. Hawthorne

Ask The Expert: Content Advertising

Q: What's the key to creating quality content for online advertising?

A: Advertisers are uneasy. It's not just because we're learning new media and formats, it's because our audience claims it hates ads. You've seen the statistics. DVR owners love their ad-skipping button. Web surfers install ad-blockers. Mobile phone users delete before peeking. Consumers gripe that ads are intrusive and interrupt the enjoyment of the content they want.

Sounds bad. But if we accept these complaints at face value, we can knock down the walls of resistance. It's simple: we must make our ads as compelling as the content surrounding them. This, of course, has been the mantra of DRTV short- and long-form producers for 20 years.

Nobody Hates Really Good Content

Many advertisers already have transformed marketing messages into welcomed standalone content. Ironically, many top formats have roots in the past. Sequential outdoor billboards relay stories reminiscent of Burma Shave signs. Magazine advertorials look like text-heavy Saturday Evening Post ads. Sponsored online videos recall the heyday of Alcoa Theatre and the very first soap operas. And many advertising-as-content videos borrow heavily from infomercials, whose formula includes engaging stories and emotionally fulfilling resolutions.

Advertising-as-content opportunities abound online, where rules of engagement are still new. Try to imagine The New York Times with a new motto: "All The News That G.E. Brings To Life." It's unthinkable! By contrast, our Hawthorne Videoactive Report (videoactivereport.com) looks perfectly at ease flying the company flag.

The same goes for product placement. When TNT's "The Closer" slips a package of Keebler Fudge Stripes into the stakeout van, it's jarring -- if only because TV characters recently breakfasted on "Tasty Flakes" and "Rich Coffee." Yet on an online do-it-yourself show that GMC sponsors, it seems natural for a truck to dash off for some plywood. "Home Improvement with Eric Stromer" and advergames like Jeep's "Patriot Adventure" are intrinsically appealing destinations. Consumers accept the branding quite willingly.

Don't Force The Issue

Advertising-as-content strategies fail when they're forced. Viral video marketing exists because entertainment captures eyeballs -- yet most attempted virals die quickly. The ones that return value relate naturally to the product or brand. Blendtec's unique "Will It Blend" site has mesmerizing videos that are also extremely convincing product demonstrations.

Virtual worlds? Same story. Big brands have committed major resources to establishing Second Life storefronts, but the world itself has little to do with their products. Most of these companies have pulled out. Conversely, Nickelodeon's Nicktropolis and Disney's Virtual Magic Kingdom appear to be doing quite well. Here, the brand, its products and its characters are the worlds' defining features.

So don't "do content" just to seem cutting-edge. Do it because it makes sense. Make your marketing content enjoyable, but keep your eye on your marketing mission. If you do, you too may discover that the path to advertising contentment is today paved with content.

Timothy R. Hawthorne is chairman and executive creative director of hawthorne direct inc, a full-service DRTV ad agency founded in 1986. A 33-year television producer/writer/director, Hawthorne is a cum laude Harvard graduate.