Smartphone Ads = Silly Graphical Doodads

NostraChuckus is having a good year.

The famed Soothsayer and advertising gadfly has been startling the world for nigh on a decade with his mundane prognostications. Over the last eleven months, he’s been featured in nearly every other post.

Add this one to the list.

How Often Do Consumers Intentionally Click Mobile Ads?
by Rimma Kats Nov 28, 2017
… A new survey found that most consumers say they rarely or never mean to click on ads served up on their phones …

… Baby boomers were the least likely to engage with mobile ads. Nearly a quarter said they never did, while another 49% said they rarely did so. Just 4% said they clicked on a mobile ad at least somewhat often.

From May 2010:

Foretellings
… The more people use smartphones, the less they’ll tolerate silly graphical doodads mucking up their small  screens ... Advertising on smartphones will be considered an annoyance, invasive, and rather dinky …

25 September 2012
Twitter & Advertising
… The mobile/social media soothsayers will have you believe that there is this unknown, magical mode of persuasion that has never been thought of before – and will reveal itself any day now.

If you believe that, I have a Blackberry in Brooklyn I want to sell you …

28 August 2013
Tablets & The Magic of Muggles
… Banner ads have been a washout, social media marketing is a cesspool, advertising on smartphones is not only teensy-weensy but competes with activity (talking/texting, apps, simple search).

04 November 2013
Smartphones & Tablets, Apples & Oranges
… Advertising on smartphones? Only if you think something half the size of a matchbook cover will catch and hold anybody’s attention …

22 September 2015
Marketing Miscellanea
… Baby boomers also had a highly negative response to mobile ads ... Fewer than 8% said they were likely to purchase a product advertised on their mobile phone … Overall, just 5.2% were interested in receiving ads on their phone at all …

There are more. But NostraChuckus’ Crystal Ball of Common Sense is getting hazy now.

Just For Fun: Brain Games or Mind Games?

I have a song & dance act on Huffington Post.  It has nothing to do with advertising.

A recent ditty and jig is inspired by some recent news stories:

Brain Games or Mind Games?
On the internet (where I believe everything I read except if I write it) I’m finding news stories about a new Brain Game study. They’re not fake news, more like flake news…

It’s a subject I’ve written about ad nauseam on this blog:

01 May 2017
Brain Games or Mind Games?
You certainly get the ‘hard-sell’ impression that if you don’t buy and play these games, eventually your brain will leak out of your nose and ears…

Take a look.  Perhaps you’ll find it amusing.

The November Flurries

Wind is blowing very which way in The Great Northwest, leaves and branches swishing and diving. 

It seems that way on my computer screen, too. A messy swirl of stories:

Dick Stroud’s blog is a good one to steal from. There’s always something there worth filching. One  post mentions a Nielsen Norman Group newsletter:

Horizontal Attention Leans Left
by Therese Fessenden
… Web users spend 80% of their time viewing the left half of the page and 20% viewing the right half…

I’m moving
everything
on this blog
over
here
from
now
on.

A company I know nothing about, Skyword, and another newsletter:

Have We Forgotten Baby Boomers in Our Race to Lure Millennials?
by Lauren McMenemy
… 79 Percent of Baby Boomers Feel Patronized by Advertisers. Maybe because it seems we are really, really bad at it.

Could be:

Human Resources/Brain Power
"No, I don't think a 68-year-old copywriter can write with the kids. That he's as creative. That he's as fresh. But he may be a better surgeon. His ad may not be quite as fresh and glowing as the Madison Ave. fraternity would like to see it be, and yet he might write an ad that will produce five times the sales. And that's the name of the game, isn't it?" - Rosser Reeves

Or you could download the first few chapters of my book © 2005/2007:

Preface - Intro - Chapter One (PDF)

I don’t know what this is, but it looks like something you’d buy a grandchild:

Tablette-Belami

One more flurry:

Good interview with Mark Beasley: Chairman of the MMA
… In 2013, he co-founded the MMA, a UK-based organisation that aims to address the age myopia of the marketing world. The MMA runs the Mature Marketing Summit, Europe’s leading event for all interested in the subject of marketing and older consumers, now in its fourth year.

If You build a website, they will come.

I have a client. An entrepreneur. He has a good idea for a service, has a solid business plan. He’s already successful in the Real Estate industry and his business proposition is Real Estate related.

Disclaimer: Rarely do I blog about clients, large or small. I find that writing/talking publicly about any consult or campaign fractures an unwritten confidentiality pledge. Most advertising bloggers follow this rule. So, no names and not much of anything.

We’ve put together good copy, a good website, good graphics, even a handful of down-to-earth short videos. He has a very engaging personality and explains his business quite well. I’m happy with the work we’ve done so far. It’s been easy (don’t tell him that) because he’s a breeze to work with.

The problem is that my client is obsessed with Facebook. He also suffers a bit from a decades-old malady, “If You build a website, they will come.”

Facebook. I’ve blogged about social media advertising for over ten years, have little faith in it. Sure, if you’re putting up a local pizza joint page then Facebook’s great. But marketing this service you’ll have to do a bit of blanketing. It’s not local. It’s super-niche,but has to reach as many eyeballs as possible. Only a small (very small) percentage will be interested.  That percentage will be enough to (likely) ensure success.

I’ve convinced him that Google AdWords might be a smart move. His service is something people would search for, there are only one or two competitive services – so his company would be in the top three unpaid searches. On one screen, he’ll end up with two ‘ads’ instead of one.

But I’d still like to see something in (silly retronym ahead) traditional media. This would give the company much-needed gravitas.

And the right eyeballs.

More info on social media non-advertising:

03 October 2016
Digital Ad Shenanigans

The advertising industry has been living a lie Mike Shields

10 October 2017
The Pitfalls Of Social Media Advertising

Attack of the Zombie Websites
Posted on October 17, 2017

 Craig Silverman

01 February 2017
Black Ops Advertising by Mara Einstein

Social Media - WOMM - Web Advertising
A collection of posts through the years.

The Tech Tango, Urban Legends, The Longevity Economy

Laurie Orlov is the go-to person for all things AgingTech. Bookmark her.

For boomers, there is no such thing as keeping up with tech change
Sun, 10/22/2017 by Laurie Orlov
… Tech change is occurring faster than boomers at 64 or 84 will want to use …

Sounds familiar.  From Advertising to Baby Boomers ©2005/2007:

“The computer/internet ethos for most Baby Boomers is that they pick and choose what technology they want to use, buy, or install. Some are all over Skype, video and music uploading and downloading, research, education, travel planning, shopping—while eschewing blogging, communities, and web page design. Or it’s the other way around. Or variations thereof. When it comes to new technology, most Baby Boomers learn only about what interests them, what they believe will be useful. They don’t feel the need to know everything there is to know about technology, computers, and the web.”

Another recent post from Ms. Orlov:

Five technology offerings for older adults from Connected Health Boston 2017
…. An odd mix of technology service providers, health tech vendors (multiple categories), and startups …

Dick Stroud tweeted:

 

Yours Truly likewise wonders.

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I featured Rick Moody in an August post:

Disillusioned
Harry (Rick) Moody, former Vice President and Director of Academic Affairs for AARP, tackles disillusionment in an engrossing piece for The American Society on Aging.

Here’s a fun list of age-related Urban Legends put together by Rick. Patrick Roden’s Aging in Place blog:

Urban Legends on ainginplace.com

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Joseph Coughlin of MIT AgeLab has written a new book. He just received a box full of’em:

The Longevity Economy
Over the past two decades, Joseph F. Coughlin has been busting myths about aging with groundbreaking multidisciplinary research into what older people actually want—not what conventional wisdom suggests they need. In The Longevity Economy, Dr. Coughlin provides the framing and insight business leaders need to serve the growing older market…