Polite Interruptions: The Future of Interruption Advertising
Despite the stigma that interruption advertising still gets in marketing communities, the fact remains that it can be an effective way of getting your company’s brand in the minds of your target market. Interruption advertising places your brand in the same context as your customers’ favorite television shows, music videos, and any kind of media they may enjoy. Yes, it can be overdone and it can annoy your customers to the point they make efforts to avoid your business to avoid rewarding your company for its annoying ads. However, an honest marketing agency will tell you that there is still value in brand awareness when your ads are at the beginning of viral Internet clips and videos, or at the beginning of your customers’ favorite online streaming shows. If you have the budget to implant these interruption ads in front of your target audience’s eyes, you can create excellent brand exposure. The trick is doing it right.
Consumers of digital content have become savvy to the workings of interruption advertising. Many people eschew traditional cable altogether with its constant commercials for digital platforms like Netflix and Hulu (which still has ads, but they are shorter and fewer in between). People are engaging with all media today on their terms. They want more control over the advertising content they consume along with their entertainment content. In this age of digital media, the term “polite interruption ads” has come into vogue in your marketing agency. These are ads that are still disruptive, but they last only as long as the consumer of the content chooses, and they use behaviorally native engagement.
Behaviorally native engagement means that the ad is being shown using the same behavior as content consumption. For example, as you’re reading this article, if an ad pops up, that’s a behaviorally native ad—you’re consuming the advertisement in the same way as you’re consuming the article—you’re reading them online. It has been shown that polite interruption ads are much more effective if they take into account how viewers are engaging with certain kinds of content.
Consumers can choose to skip ads on digital devices. This is a key feature of polite interruption ads because it allows the user some degree of control over the ad itself while still receiving the message and the branding imagery. Consumers can also be rewarded for playing an entire ad instead of skipping it. Using the Hulu streaming media service, for example, you can choose to be interrupted twice during a 20-minute show with short ads or watch a full-length ad at the beginning of the show and avoid interruptions. Many consumers will choose to watch the full-length ad if they are rewarded for it.
Face it, interruption advertising is here to stay. It’s simply too effective to be completely shut down by consumers who find them annoying. That’s why advertisers are giving consumers better choices and more engagement with interruption ads, taking into account their preferences while still reaching high numbers of businesses’ target audiences. The key for the future of interruption advertising will be giving consumers more control.
adam-oleary
Adam is a graduate of Colorado State University (bachelor’s degree in marketing), and he has experience on both the client and agency side of the marketing world. These experiences led him to come up with a unique, more efficient business model, which he’s incorporated into Encite Marketing. Adam sets the strategic direction for all Encite projects, developing integrated marketing campaigns that bring results. He takes a consultative approach with clients, educating them about how the process works, and keeping them in the loop about end goals, steps, and tasks.