QUESTION #3: Advertising
(Watch this - really! These commercials were made 25 years ago!)
What played a role in advertising on the web? How was it similar or different to today?
Here's a link if this doesn't play.
Here's a link if this doesn't play.
Before the web, advertisers did not know what ads were appealing to customers. After the web, advertising became a lot easier. They started using cookies, which allowed the advertisers to know a customer’s demographics and what ads they enjoyed. These cookies are still used today and really changed the marketing world. Now, it seems that you get ads on things you were talking about!
ReplyDeleteI agree with this, your phone (and the government) is definitely listening to you.
Deleteit's called the Open Graph created by Facebook. You are tracked EVERYWHERE. Data is more valuable than oil these days.
DeleteI agree with this. Cookies evolved during this time period to gear advertisements directly to potential consumers.
Delete^Erin Brady
DeleteCookies are super useful for advertisers, but a lot of people would be very angry if they actually knew what cookies do.
DeleteI think the main reason why companies included advertising on the web is because free sites (like Yahoo) needed a method to earn money when not directly gaining from the consumer. I think it's similar to today in the sense that cookies track what a user views on the internet and uses that information to generate ads.
ReplyDeleteAakash - Free sites like yahoo really did change the way people could make money on the internet. Many major web companies such as Facebook and Google seem to make a majority of their revenue from ads and it shows how this era helped this get started.
DeleteAakash - Advertising really changed on the web. With the help of cookies and such advertisers were able to track what customers wanted and with the ever changing innovation I believe it would be easier to hype up web based products now based on the success of Netscape and AOL.
ReplyDeleteI agree that web-based products were able to grasp huge amounts of attention due to the success of online companies. This advertising was interesting to viewers, so they must have naturally clicked on it, hence the original extremely high click-through rates. - Elliot
DeleteErin Burke
ReplyDeleteOKAY SO the AOL advertising department was genius, esp Jan Brandt. handing out the discs for free reminds me of the Netscape business model, give them the beta version and have them pay for the real thing. It was very smart. Yahoo was also a marketing giant and I just loved watching the companies evolve.
Erin Burke: Oh i misread the question I thought it was about the marketing teams.
DeleteJan Brandt WAS.a genius - those disks were EVERYWHERE.
DeleteI agree that handing out discs was smart, it appealed to more customers and brought them more money, knowing that they were a trusted business.
DeleteWatch the video at the top - it's creepy how many things actually are real today!
ReplyDeleteI think it's creepy because those things probably seemed very far off to people at the time, but in the grand scheme of things, all that stuff happened pretty quickly!
DeleteErin Brady: A need for companies to generate revenue off of services they provided for free played a role in advertising on the web. This is similar to today because advertising is very prominent throughout various websites for the same reasons. Money needs to be made by companies somehow when it is not directly gained from users. This advertisements from 25 years ago are similar to today's in that they utilize slogans and play on problems they feel consumers might have, and offer fantastical propositions to them in response.
ReplyDeleteThe web definitely made advertising more prevalent and easier for companies to make money. With free sites, they still needed a way to make money, and the more customers a site had, the more money brands were willing to offer in order to have their product advertised on that site. Banner ads were popular, catching the readers attention, along with cookies, that were used to catch the demographics of customers and what they appeal to.
ReplyDeleteI agree. Ads were inevitably going to end up on the web. Even ads about the web showed up on mass media. The online world and real world connected through ads.
Deletei think that early advertisers were in a really interesting position on the web because for the first time they had physically measurable numbers of the people they reached. they were able to see who engaged with what and who didnt for the first time. at first it was definitely different because they didnt have a formula for it so they used the "you will" format which sort of led into the interactive ads we have today
ReplyDeleteDo you think the "you will" format or the advertising format today is more effective for people browsing the web?
DeleteThe whole 80% engagement was crazy considering .5 is good for today! It was pretty revolutionary and I think that really changed the advertising game.
DeleteI also think the physically measurable numbers did make a big difference. I think the "you will" ads did play a big part in the advertising as well because they showed people what the future could be like if they used AT&T.
Delete^^^Erin Burke
Deletewell i think the you will worked back then but we've definitely evolved as the population got more web savy
DeleteRiley: I thought that was such a cool idea for the "you will" ads because it definitely enticed users and for sure inspired interactive ads today
DeleteHonestly I find the "you will" ads to be super interesting. If I was an average citizen at the time, I'm sure I'd be enthralled by them.
DeleteThe fact that companies wanted to capitalize on the customers but didn't really know how I think played a big factor in the popularizing of advertisements. Today it's a bit different in websites aren't shy about their ads and how they will annoying pop ups but back then they tried to make them relatively small to keep more of a focus on the website itself.
ReplyDeleteOMG popups they were everywhere back then!!
Deletedo you really thin that they tried to go small? with the backlash that yahoo received for adding ads i would think they mightve been a little bigger
DeleteOn Yahoo they were everywhere.It got distracting.
DeleteOh really? I'm surprised that pop ups were such a big thing back then considering how concerned companies seemed to be about not diverting customers attention from themselves. (At Gesin)
DeleteWell it was a new thing in general so no matter the size I think people were just mad in general. (At Anabell)
DeleteI think that yahoo might've tried to go on the smaller side, but it might've upset consumers no matter what because nobody likes ads anyway. Whenever you get ads, whatever the size, you probably feel a sense of annoyance too.
DeleteRiley: I think it was interesting that advertisers had to take into account the bandwidth of users machines when designing an ad because if it took 2 minutes to show up, the user wouldn't click on it. Also, I was surprised the click-through percentages were so high because if I see an ad nowadays, I simply ignore it but back then it was so new and exciting that users were eager to click on them.
ReplyDeleteWhen we get to Facebook, you'll see how Zuckerberg thought that ads made a site seem "cheap" and cheesy.
ReplyDeleteWhile reading, I noticed that a lot of techniques used for advertising on the web exist today. I found it interesting how many people decided that advertisements should be on the borders of the page, and not in the middle of content. This clearly has carried into our modern world, and it's definitely still true that nobody wants to look at ads and people will complain if they see one.
ReplyDeleteAdvertisements on the web were definitely put into further use as web became more popularized. Free website still needed to earn money which meant that companies had a leg up in order to encourage places to allow for their advertisements to exist on their platform.
ReplyDeleteElliot: The age of Internet advertisement brought with it the idea of click and view-based ads. This changed the content of advertisements, focusing on enticing viewers to click on pop-up ads. This era also brought with it the idea of customer-specific ads, with cookies. Advertisers can see what a specific customer is interested in and can cater to them individually on their device. This is very similar to Internet ads today.
ReplyDeleteIt's exactly like we have today, we just are better at targeting ads based on a user's previous actions.
DeleteAdvertising on the web became big fast. Once people spent more time on the web, people realized the amount of real estate that the web has for advertisement. Colors, size, and a sense of movement naturally led user's eyes to ads, to the point that they were unavoidable. This is similar today because the use of cookies is still relevant. They are able to track user's information to put out the most relevant ads for users. Additionally, ads are still seen all over web pages as it still is prime advertising space.
ReplyDelete