When Advertising Annoys

As marketers, we all look for opportunities to break through the
clutter of competing messages, using tools like creative, format, and
frequency. And time and time again, we find these breakthrough tactics
work. They increase response, awareness, and other metrics.

But what about the downside? Remember the popup and popunder ads of
yesterday? Reactions bordered on rage and opinions of companies that used them dropped. But publishers and advertisers didn't do
away with them until popup blockers made the format increasingly
undeliverable (and some continue to use them to this day).

Now we have welcome ads, one of today's 'premium' formats, receiving
similarly dismal reviews. According to AdAge and a Gfk Roper study,
70% of us find them annoying. Compare that to spam email, which 84%
find annoying (just who are the other 16%?).

If history is any indication, advertisers and publishers will continue
to use welcome ads, but at what cost? Sure, with click rates ranging
from 0.5 to 2.5%, they beat most other online display formats, but
what is the negative response? How many of us think less of the brands
and products that make themselves a barrier between us and our
destination? Or of the publications that so clearly put advertisers ahead of us, their audience?

How did other formats fair? Email marketing, TV commercials and direct
mail annoy us. On the other end of the spectrum, magazines, newspapers, and free samples are some of
the least annoying advertisements.

There is a clear trend here. Unless you want to annoy (and it seems
some marketers do), be very careful when placing your ad between your
audience and their destination, don't encroach on personal space (only
5% said mobile advertising was acceptable!), put the audience in
control and always provide value, through humor, information,
services, samples, discounts or other forms.