Have you ever clicked on an online ad purposefully? I never have and over the years have instinctively learnt to filter them out subconsciously; I simply don’t give them any focus or attention, I go straight for the content. I may possibly be atypical but this begs the question of whether pouring money into online advertising really brings a worthwhile return on investment. A recent study adds more fuel to the fire as it found that “only 6% of people online are contributing 50% of the clicks to display advertisements” and that the majority of these click-throughs did not convert into sales.
Photo by dnorman
This is what my marketing profile looks like:
- I don’t click on web adverts/sponsored links ever, if you force a pop-up ad on me goodbye
- I don’t buy the special offers in supermarkets unless it is something I was planning to buy anyway
- I don’t window shop, I know what I want before hand, I go get it (sometimes after viewing online)
- I don’t follow fashion, I use things till they are worn out usually (exception: Apple)
- I don’t read spam, you better have an unsubscribe option for your newsletter
- I don’t like personalised advertising ala Facebook Beacon but I don’t mind Amazon style recommendations
I am not a marketers dream. Maybe it’s a male thing?
Aside from this unfortunate reality there is a side to marketing in general which I find particularly unethical; playing on peoples sensibilities to sell them things they don’t really need or want. It also sometimes feels like a lot of these things are targeted at those most vulnerable (e.g. children / those with low income) which is pretty deplorable if we contend any notion of social responsibility. Even the concept of viral marketing has been sabotaged by those wanting to make a quick buck making me even more cynical about the whole business.
Coming full circle, the only real way to build audience or a brand is to provide something which is genuinely useful to the consumer (What is good content?). If you can manage this then to an extent it will market itself. Gimmicks/promotions only have a short life cycle and presentation will only get you so far; once the illusion is gone those valued eyeballs wont be coming back…
Feel free to comment if you disagree or have a different point of view 
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Last weekend I took a trip to York, a historic city in the north of England. Being nearly 2000 years old there is plenty of interest to see and do if you enjoy a bit of culture (and don’t mind walking!). Last weekend the weather was particularly mild and almost spring like for this time of year in the UK (around 10 deg C) which made it even nicer and not bad conditions for taking a few photos!
Whilst you could probably spend a good week exploring, if you only have a day or two here are some places of note:
- York Minster - the second-largest Gothic cathedral in northern Europe, incredibly beautiful both inside and out
- Castle Museum - a surprisingly good museum with a reconstructed victorian street & shops
- Clifford’s Tower - remains of the castle fortification with a long history and great views over York
- City Walls - first built during Roman times very enjoyable walks can be had along its remaining sections
- The Shambles - a medieval street in the heart of the city which transports you back to another time
The official website has a lot more info. I forgot to take a map with me but found my iPhone more than adequate for finding my way around, especially with the new pseudo-GPS location feature.
More photos.
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Edward Tufte, undisputed master of information visualisation (described by The New York Times as “the Leonardo da Vinci of Data”) and PowerPoint hater extraordinaire, has posted a very interesting article and video about the interface design of the iPhone [via]:
“The iPhone platform elegantly solves the design problem of small screens by greatly intensifying the information resolution of each displayed page. Small screens, as on traditional cell phones, show very little information per screen, which in turn leads to deep hierarchies of stacked-up thin information–too often leaving users with “Where am I?” puzzles. Better to have users looking over material adjacent in space rather than stacked in time.”
He makes some interesting observations about the user interface and offers some advice for areas which could possibly be improved. The main point which resonates for me is that Apple have, arguably for the first time, solved the problem of displaying information on a small screen in a way which is intuitively useful to the user. By removing “computer administrative debris” (e.g. scroll bars) and introducing interaction by touch, pixel-wastage is reduce - “content is the user interface; the information is the interface”.
The fact that mobile internet has been a failure up till now can be directly attributed to poor interface design (and to a lesser extent bandwidth). It looks like that’s all about to change.
Key takeaway: “To clarify add detail; clutter and overload are not an attribute of information, they are failures of design“.
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Looking at the submitted designs in the “Love Your Earth” designboom competition, for artwork to raise awareness about the environment, there are some are pretty cool entries ~ in particular these two which are very simple but effective ~ the left one was the overall the winner [via].
I can’t help that worry that “being green” has become fashionable for the sake of ones image rather than the sake of the environment (no, recycling does not justify your Chelsea tractor). Climate change has certainly gone a long way up the news agenda in the past year, which can only be a good thing, but at the end of the day actions speak louder than words…
Elsewhere… Here in the UK it’s finally iDay which sees the launch of the fabled “Jesus Phone” (their words not mine!). You know where I’ll be at 6.02pm tonight
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