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This articles mentions the harm in digital advertising, specifically for the younger generation. It gives them false expectations, it creates a need that isn't necessary, and it violates privacy laws.

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Some studies would lead us to believe that we are constantly bombarded with advertising messages. It's everywhere. On our phones, laptops, tablets, in restrooms, on buses, trains...you name it, there's probably an ad on it.

In fact, some estimates have posited that we see 20,000 marketing and advertising messages every single day. That, clearly, is nonsense. Considering we sleep for a minimum of six hours, that leaves 18 hours, or 64,800 seconds in which to cram 20,000 ad messages. Basically, one ad every 3 seconds. You are not seeing an ad every 3 minutes, let alone 3 seconds.

Yes, we see a lot of ad messages a day - subconsciously. But those, that we actually notice and pay attention to, are few and far between. We most likely see a few hundred messages at most and pay attention to no more than 1 percent of them.

Still, that leaves at least a few ads per day that get into our heads. And the question is...is that harmful in some way?

Those who say YES, advertising is harmful, have many justifiable concerns. Here are some of the biggest examples:

Unrealistic Body Image Expectations
Our self-image is definitely being affected. Most men in ads are chiseled hunks with ripped abs and perfect hair and teeth. For women, it's even worse. The standards of beauty set in advertising are beyond ridiculous, and even when advertisers try and empathize, they still come out with ads that heavily favor good-looking women. Dove has done a good job of trying to embrace real women with its "campaign for real beauty," but even then the ads sometimes stumble.

Creating an Unnecessary Need
Most ads out there push products that very few people actually need. Think about it. Any product or service that people actually need to survive and thrive does not need an ad campaign; consumers are actually seeking them out. It's why you rarely, if ever, see ads for gasoline or utilities. But when it comes to the "stuff" that we fill our lives with, advertising can implant deep-seated longing for those products. "You need that new car." "Your life would be so much better with this diamond ring." "How could you possibly live without an iPhone?" From new cars to music players and the latest candies and junk foods, advertising can literally make people crave something they didn't even know they wanted a few seconds earlier.​

Targeting Younger Consumers Using Sex and Violence
Advertising blatantly uses sex and violence to make products appear cooler to the youth audience. And advertising, especially political advertising, can sway the course of a nation through deception and misinformation.

Cluttering Our Lives With Endless Messaging
Advertising is both pervasive AND invasive. It's everywhere. Outdoor campaigns bombard our eyes with bright selling messages. Pop-up ads ruin any kind of website experience, often slowing the site down to feed you with ads you don't want to see, and making it hard to close them. Ads are on radio, TV, and even in the products we purchase (the cheaper Kindle Fire comes with ads built-in to the device). It's hardly surprising that people are paying significant monthly subscription fees so that they can avoid ads on YouTube, Hulu, and radio.

Just like most professions, advertising is a double-edged sword. Yes, it can be harmful. But it can also be extremely beneficial to society.

Spreading Awareness of Public Health Concerns
Advertising is an incredibly effective and powerful way to spread the word about important issues and products, such as AIDS awareness, diabetes monitors, tobacco and alcohol risks, and other health-related concerns. If it weren't for mass market multi-media campaigns informing us about public health and safety concerns, the world would be a much more dangerous place.

Funding Free Content
Just think for a second about all of the incredible things you have in your life that you don't pay for. All those TV ads that interrupt your favorite network and basic cable shows might be annoying, but guess what...without them, there wouldn't be any shows to watch. Most of the internet is free because of online advertising. If you took away advertising, you'd suddenly find yourself without a lot of the entertainment you take for granted.

Helping Businesses Grow and Hire More People
How would small businesses ever hope to succeed without advertising? They need to find a way to spread the word about the products and services they provide, many of them essential to our way of life. And how would big businesses spread the word about innovative new products, or improvements to existing ones? Without advertising, would you know how to choose between the phones you use, the cars you drive, and the TVs you watch? Would you even know what choices you had or what existed?

Keeping Prices Competitive
Advertising also brings prices down for consumers. When a business like T-Mobile nationally advertises a plan like two unlimited 4G lines for $100, the others all sit up and take notice...and drop their prices.

In summation, it's worth noting that advertising has both positive and negative aspects to it, but without it, society would probably be worse for wear. What's more, advertising is not the only outlet for glorifying attractive men and women, and sex and violence are prevalent in many aspects of society, including movies, TV series, video games and even homemade YouTube videos.

So, back to the original question. Is advertising harmful to society? The simple answer doesn't exist. But the more complicated one seems to be that the benefits outweigh the negatives. For now.

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Some Say Advertising Does More Harm Than Good. Does it?

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Some studies would lead us to believe that we are constantly bombarded with advertising messages. It's everywhere. On our phones, laptops, tablets, in restrooms, on buses, trains...you name it, there's probably an ad on it. In fact, some estimates have posited that we see 20,000 marketing and advertising messages every single day.

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9 Reasons why you should be advertising online

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9 Reasons why you should be advertising online

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This article goes in depth about what advertising is and how it can help your company reach more people.

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9 Reasons You Should Be Advertising Online

If you'?ve been slow on the uptake when it comes to online advertising, you should begin ramping up your efforts. Online ad spend has seen consistent growth and is projected to overtake print, states a recent IAB report. If you haven'?t yet familiarized yourself with online advertising, it?'s time to do so. If you'?re of the belief that advertising online is wasting your ad budget, think again. These are 9 reasons you should be advertising online:

1. Insight
Know exactly which ads brought in the highest number of qualifying leads. Know how many impressions were served, where they were served, and when. Identify your optimal channels, ad copy, and ad locations. The metrics and analytics available with online advertising allow you to see the exact cost of acquiring and converting a customer. Advertising online provides you with endless insight allowing you to become a more effective marketer. Marketers went from having no data to more data than we know what to do with. This is a great problem to have.

2. Targeting
Do you know the profile of your perfect customer? Online advertising gives you the ability to target and retarget the ideal prospects. Retargeting will serve ads based on prior engagement, enabling you to identify your ideal customer profile. Once you know what your customers look like, you will know just who to target and where to find all similar users online, making sure they too are being served your ads. When advertising online, you have the ability to target a population as specific as ?men, age 18-35, who searched for Giants tickets between the hours of 7-10 pm? or as broad as ?men, age 18-35,? ensuring your message is in front of the right people at the right time.

3. Creative
Your ability to target goes beyond reaching the right customers. You can take this one step further and serve the creative that will best resonate with each target. There is a common misconception that online ads are of poor quality, when in fact digital advertising provides the opportunity to be highly engaging with video and other rich media. Using animation and in-banner video ads can increase brand recognition and highlight your competitive edge. Is one of your ads under-performing? A/B test your copy, your image, your headline and serve ads that are as dynamic as the online space in which they are living. A well-designed banner ad can turn your digital campaign from good to great.

4. Brand Awareness
Online advertising can be used to drive traffic to your site and build brand awareness. Effectively targeted campaigns can create brand influencers and reach complementary audiences. Key to online advertising is SEO, which is imperative to the success of your site. Companies that offer good SEO such as SEO South Florida can help your website reach its deserved audience. Use the endless online display space to be creative with rich media, establish your online presence, make an emotional connection, and get online consumers excited about who you are and what you have to offer. Online display enables brands to focus on their ideal audience and tailor messages that improve both recall and engagement.

5. Flexibility
Online advertising campaigns can be adjusted with a few clicks or keystrokes. You have the flexibility to respond to incoming data and make changes instantly. Similarly, you have the ability to pause campaigns or adjust your strategy in minutes. This flexibility allows you to stay in front of your customers, anticipate customer needs and adjust your ads before anyone even notices.

6. Scale
Demand-side platforms, more commonly referred to as DSPs, have centralized the buying of auction-based display media across multiple inventories and data suppliers online. Offline, you have to coordinate with multiple providers. As a marketer, DSPs allow you to scale your digital campaigns quickly and strategically, and you don?t even need an agency! Many digital marketers are turning to self-service providers to manage their campaigns- create your own ads, choose your spend, scale and optimize across your networks as you see fit. You can also use a full-service provider who will optimize, scale, and spend accordingly, but this often comes with a monthly minimum. Whichever service you choose, scaling your campaign has never been easier.

7. Cost
Digital channels are highly cost-effective for marketers. Rates are typically set through a combination of ad size, ad location, performance, and demand. Considering the reach allotted via digital channels, moving your campaigns online is often much cheaper than more traditional offline channels like radio, television, or print. Furthermore, digital campaigns have greater transparency, allowing you to adjust your cost easily based on performance. In the offline world, once you've paid for the space in a print publication or a spot on the radio, there?s no adjusting your investment after the fact.

8. Reach
We?'ve heard a lot of this lately - people are watching less live TV and turning to their computers for their favorite shows, music, and to access their news. As marketers, being effective requires staying in front of your customers; as it turns out, your customers are online, so you should be too, and sooner rather than later! Moving online gives you access to a global audience, if you so desire, and it means your ads can be working for you 24 hours a day. The options are practically limitless when it comes to your reach capabilities when you take your campaign online.

9. Engagement
Online advertising lets you know a customer?s exact level of engagement. You might have circulation and readership data for a print publication, but you can?'t know how much time customers spent interacting with your ad, how much time they spent on your website, if they researched more of your products, and whether that ad led to conversions. An online presence gives you all of this valuable data and places you in a position to learn where your most engaged prospects live.

Online advertising is an essential element of anyone?s marketing mix. It provides you with numerous benefits, including lower costs, robust targeting, and valuable customer insights, that are not available through other advertising mediums. Your customers, competitors, and prospects are online - give them the attention they deserve, while getting more out of your budget.

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9 Reasons Online Advertising Should Be Part of Your Marketing Mix

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If you'?ve been slow on the uptake when it comes to online advertising, you should begin ramping up your efforts. Online ad spend has seen consistent growth and is projected to overtake print, states a recent IAB report. If you haven'?t yet familiarized yourself with online advertising, it?'s time to do so.

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8 Reasons Why Digital Advertising Works For Brands

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8 Reasons Why Digital Advertising Works For Brands

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This article talks about the math behind digital advertising. It also explains how beneficial it can be for a company.

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This explains why digital advertising works for companies and why everyone should invest in digital advertisements.

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Marketo Marketing Blog - Best Practices and Thought Leadership

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It's time to join the big league and go digital! Digital advertising is now the new norm-it's the fastest growing marketing channel with no signs of slowing down, according to Strategy Analytics. In fact, most companies spent more on digital marketing in 2015 than they did in 2014, and plan to increase spending in 2016. This shouldn't come as a surprise-marketing has always been about three things: location, location, location. And today, your target market is largely online. Marketers are focusing more and more resources on meeting people there, and it's working out well for them and their customers.

The digital marketplace has put a lot of buying power back into the hands of buyers and consumers, forcing many marketers to get more creative, more genuine, and more helpful. Consumers today jump from channel to channel, seamlessly throughout the day and increasingly those channels are digital. Today, the average consumer does research on products, solutions, and companies before making a purchase. Digital technology is giving marketers a breadth of new tools, allowing them to be more focused and strategic. Digital advertising simply makes sense if you want to get your message, campaign, or promotion in front of your audience.

Digital advertising has a lot to offer today's marketers. H ere are seven things we've learned about digital advertising, especially from big brands :

1. Digital Advertising is Targeted

What if each ad you create is always only seen by qualified prospects and target audience members? Sterling Cooper would have made you a partner in no time with that kind of guarantee, but today this is becoming the norm.

Traditional advertising is hit-or-miss, but digital platforms are changing the game. SEO and PPC can put your brand name and your content marketing in front of customers at every stage of the buying cycle. Social media channels like Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn offer flexible ad options that allow you to segment by geographic location, demographics, interests, and more.

Finally, since many forms of digital advertising are "opt-in"-from customers who follow your blog and social media accounts, to those who receive your emails-you know your outreach is going to people who want your information.

2. Digital Advertising Provides Flexibility Across Channels

The keyword for success in digital advertising is "multi-channel." With digital advertising, a piece of content can be shared across a variety of platforms, which means that you are no longer confined to one page, 30 seconds, or whatever format your traditional ad was designed for.

Cisco's new campaign is a great example of how to capitalize on multiple platforms. The company is distilling complex tech topics into six-second videos on the social network Vine, and then augmenting that snippet with corresponding content, such as links to articles about security and analytics. This multi-platform strategy is allowing their customers to consume content the way they want to-as a quick snack or a full meal.

This can work for any marketer. Take a short Vine video and develop it into a vlog to offer more in-depth information. Reimagine long-form content by transforming key data points or statistics into an infographic or a SlideShare presentation. Repurposing existing content is a win for both your strategy and your budget.

3. Digital Advertising Invites Mobile Engagement

Digital and mobile marketing go hand-in-hand. Digital advertising allows you to reach your audience on the go, wherever they are, whenever they are online. It's an especially great place to reach Gen Z and Millennial customers. According to a study conducted by the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB), mobile phone are the place Gen Z and Millennial are most likely to see relevant ads. Even better, nearly half of all typical smartphone users have taken action based on seeing relevant ads on their mobile phones.

In fact, it might even be more effective to advertise on mobile than desktop. AdRoll's "Facebook by the Numbers" report found that the click-through rate for Facebook News Feed ads is typically 10% higher for mobile than desktop and produces a cost-per-click that was 61% lower than on desktop.

The best part is that this does not mean you need yet another unique campaign. Responsive design is an approach to digital design that automatically optimizes the content for whatever device it is viewed on. You can start maximizing mobile engagement just by making sure that your emails, landing pages, and content pieces translate smoothly from desktop to smartphone.

4. Digital Advertising is Faster to Market

Market conditions and trends change quickly, and that requires nimble marketing. Lead times for traditional advertising methods are so 1990s. Between the time it takes to create an ad, to the long lead times required to buy time or space, your message and your budget suffer from being locked into a design that was created months before it will see the light of day.

Digital campaigns can be executed much more quickly, and they can be modified on the fly if needed. Consider that as recently as April, Subway was touting a new ad campaign with its long-time spokesman, Jared. After a scandal this summer that resulted in his arrest, Subway couldn't distance itself from their pitchman fast enough. Whether you're trying to capitalize on the news or distance yourself from it, big brands are wise to retain as much pivot power as possible.

This ability to modify also comes in handy when considering fluctuating budgets. Companies that have an unexpectedly low quarter can cut back without incurring cancelation fees, and those with an unexpected windfall can bump up their buying power with ease.

5. Digital Advertising is Easily Measurable

Every department needs to show how it is adding value, and with a digital campaign the metrics are built right in. You know exactly who clicked on your content, opened it, referred it, shared it, etc. You also can trace the source of your traffic from entry to the shopping cart and eventual purchase. This will help you determine which platforms and strategies yield the best results, and which deserve more investment.

The key reason for tracking metrics is to speak the same language that your CEO and your CFO do. While soft metrics like brand awareness, impressions, organic search rankings, and reach are important, their real value lies in how they can be quantifiably connected to hard metrics like pipeline, revenue, and profit. Digital advertising offers a platform for tracking both types of metrics to show a concrete ROI.

Because digital advertising is quick to measure-often with real-time results and metrics-marketers may find that it helps them make their campaigns more cost effective. If one of your digital advertising programs is not performing well or working, it's easy to quickly adjust your program to ensure that your budget is spent well and offers a strong ROI.

6. Digital Advertising Maintains Top-of-Mind Awareness

Does your customer like that sweater? Maybe she does, but maybe not enough to buy it. A study by Baymard Institute revealed that the average online shopping cart abandonment rate is 68.53%. And that's where digital advertising has a major advantage. While it would be creepy and desperate to waylay that customer outside your store in the mall and beg her to come back to make a purchase, with digital advertising you can reach out to her again without seeming like a stalker.

Through remarketing and retargeting, you can stay in front of her to suggest one more time that she purchase that sweater. Retargeting means that the sweater will up in her Facebook sidebar the next time she logs in or appears in an ad spot on her favorite blog that uses Google ads. With remarketing, you can ping her again with an email to remind her of that lonely shopping cart. In fact, abandoned shopping carts can be recoverable by retailers who use marketing automation software to offer a sweet deal, like a discount or free shipping. Digital advertising can keep that sale from slipping away.

7. Digital Advertising Can Go Viral

(At least, that's what the fox says!) With a strong digital advertising component, you, too, could become the next viral sensation.

Take Dove's "Real Beauty Sketches," which featured real women contemplating themselves through another's eyes. Just one video, in an ongoing campaign, garnered more than 114 million views the first month alone, just because people chose to share it on social media sites. When you consider that 114 million is about the same number of people who saw the average 2015 Super Bowl commercial, according to NBC Sports, the power of viral content becomes obvious. Dove would have spent $4.5 million per 30 seconds for a Super Bowl commercial, and still wouldn't have gotten the strong social proof inherent in social media shares.

There's no magic formula for how or why something goes viral, but, in general, the content should speak to our emotions. Content that makes people laugh or feel good about themselves is very shareable. Beyond that, it's hard to predict what will make something take off, but once it does it can take on a life of its own.

Digital Advertising is the New Norm
At $13.3 billion, U.S. internet ad revenues hit a record-breaking first-quarter-high in 2015, and the numbers continue to climb. When you consider the myriad of benefits digital advertising provides compared with traditional advertising, it's easy to see why big brands continue to utilize all forms of digital advertising platforms as an integral part of their strategies. But it isn't just for big brands. Jump onboard and start implementing these tried-and-true strategies. Check out our Definitive Guide to Digital Advertising to learn more.

Have any digital advertising lessons of your own? Share them with us in the comments below!

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7 Reasons Digital Advertising Wins - Marketo

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It's time to join the big league and go digital! Digital advertising is now the new norm-it's the fastest growing marketing channel with no signs of slowing down, according to Strategy Analytics. In fact, most companies spent more on digital marketing in 2015 than they did in 2014, and plan to increase spending in 2016.

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How Digital Video Advertising Will Dominate the Next Decade

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How Digital Video Advertising Will Dominate the Next Decade

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Here they are explaining the next wave of advertisements. The next waves seems to be going towards video and how much people will spend in the future.

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You don't have to dig deep to understand why video advertising is becoming the dominant force in the digital marketing universe.

Attention spans are dwindling to a point where people are spurning large volumes of text online, and consumers stare at small portable screens directly in front of their faces for hours throughout an average day.

The way you conceptualize, create, and disseminate your digital video ads will have a significant impact on your marketing ROI now and in the future.

Your ability to connect with your buyers through visual content just might form the basis of the relationship between them and your brand.

Video & the Contemporary Web

It isn't your imagination: browsing the web today is basically like watching an endless set of videos looped together on end.

On all different types of websites - from social platforms, to news organizations, to company pages - digital strategists are employing an astounding amount of video content for their voracious audience to consume at will.

Whether it's in the form of educational content, reports, entertainment, or ads, organizations have caught on to the fact that high-quality video has the ability to engage users on a deep and substantial level.

The modern web is now driven by video in a way that didn't seem possible even 15 years ago, thanks largely to the ubiquity of personal mobile devices and omni-present, reliable high-speed internet connections.

We've certainly come a long way from the latter half of the 2000s, when the only place to watch videos on the web was some niche site called YouTube.

All you have to do to understand how important video is as a driver of online content in the current era is read the reports detailing how many outlets are shifting vast resources to video production.

Among these are some sites with massive traffic figures, including:

Snapchat continues to be one of the fastest-growing social media entities largely on the basis of its video stories, and Instagram has had success by introducing a similar feature on its platform.

According to YouTube, users watched over 1 billion hours of video on the site every day in 2017.

Whether you open up your laptop, unlock your phone, or fire up your smart TV, there is no escaping video content, so you might as well embrace it.

The Boom in Digital Video Advertising Spending

And that's where digital video advertising comes into play.

Companies have realized that the reconditioning of consumers to embrace and even expect video at every turn can have many advantages.

Video has become such a natural part of the web browsing experience that advertisers can use it to quickly engage with their audience as if it was content they had sought out specifically.

Well-designed logos and high-quality banner ads can be very effective in spurring interest, but video ads offer organizations an opportunity to connect on a deeper level right from the outset, by establishing a relationship, inviting the audience into the fold, and visually educating them in an effort to curate the buying journey.

This has all led to a glut in digital video advertising spending recently.

Companies from across the spectrum are pouring more resources into engaging users with unique video ad content.

Digital video advertising is a strategy that can work for any type of company; B2B or B2C, enterprise or SMB, high-tech or analog products.

According to industry estimates, mobile video ad spending is expected to reach $7 billion by the end of 2018.

Cisco estimates that 80 percent of all internet traffic by 2019 will be video content and global video traffic will increase threefold from 2016 to 2021.

Building Connections through Creative, Personalized Video

While digital video advertising can be effective for any type of organization, that doesn't mean that you can just get into the practice haphazardly.

Video ads have to have certain elements in order to be effective.

Because consumers are now exposed to so much video advertising on a daily basis they have become adept at recognizing when a video is of poor quality.

An engaging, well-produced video ad can be the start of a long-term customer relationship, but a poor-quality example will cause them to associate your brand with staleness and desperation.

Using Micro Video Ads to Spur Engagement

One trend that's picking up steam is companies employing short, micro-videos in order to grab a viewer's attention quickly and leave a big impression.

These are generally only about 10 seconds (or less) in length, and they have mounted an interesting challenge against the long-standing 30-second video format that has been used since television commercials first became a common practice.

The philosophy behind them is driven by the fact that modern digital marketing isn't often just a single interaction that leads immediately to a purchase; it's a curated journey that entails a variety of different stages and techniques.

You don't have to say everything about your product or service in your video ad. You just have to say something interesting enough that it will get the lead viewers to delve more deeply into your ecosystem through your content marketing, email capture, or another tool.

Micro-videos have proven especially useful in engaging Millennial buyers, whose attention spans have been shaped by the internet for most of their lives.

Using micro-videos doesn't mean, however, that you have to neglect the traditional 30-second video. You should craft your digital video advertising strategy by mixing and matching different length pieces.

Also, keep in mind that micro-videos should be able to connect with the viewer without the aid of sound. Many people browse on silent mode, and by the time they think about turning the volume on your micro-video will likely have ended.

Getting the Ball Rolling with Outstream Video

Marketers are beginning to discover outstream video in droves.

Even if you haven't officially heard of outstream video, you probably have experienced it as a part of your browsing habits.

Outstream video is sometimes also referred to as native video. It is characterized by a digital video advertising unit that's integrated within a page and autoplays once the user scrolls near it. Then, the video auto-pauses if the user begins to scroll away from it before it's complete.

Here's a notable example of an outstream video ad in use.

According to eMarketer, 77 percent of ad agencies across the world see outstream video ads as important to their clients going forward.

The most important benefit of outstream ads is their versatility.

Now, companies are able to host their video ad content on any type of outlet, whether or not the publisher frequently utilizes videos. This allows organizations to expand their advertising reach and tailor their videos more effectively for browsers of text-heavy publications.

Outstream video advertising is still a fairly new practice, so there haven't been many reliable studies yet to determine how the ROI of such campaigns compares with other forms of digital video advertising.

However, some industry experts have observed data that suggests outstream video outperforms instream video in several important categories, including:

Brand awareness.

Online conversion rate.

Ability to target desired buyers.

Social Media & Video Ads: A Match Made in Heaven

It almost seems like kismet for marketers that social media use patterns and video advertising collided with each other on the way to online dominance because they are an outlet and form that really are made for one another.

Facebook users have become accustomed to their feeds being filled with autoplaying videos from various sources.

Instagram and Snapchat users think nothing about spending minutes at a time habitually scrolling through live video stories.

Meanwhile, companies can tailor video ads for these settings that remarkably resemble content from users' followers.

When your audience is expecting video content from someone they follow, it increases the chances that they'll engage quickly and then stay for the entire ad.

Social media platforms like Instagram are also great for incorporating user-generated content (more on that later) to erase the barriers between buyer and brand.

You can also dig deeply into Facebook's demographic data to improve your targeting and personalization abilities and drive more consistent conversions. If the real power of digital video advertising lies at the intersection of engagement and personalization, then various social media outlets are a natural fit for optimizing it.

What Else Will Dominate the Next Decade?

If video advertising is the trend that is dominating the landscape today, that must mean that there are other offshoots poised to make a splash in the near future.

What represents the next wave?

User-generated content: This isn't necessarily new to the ad world, but companies are getting more creative about finding ways to create ad content that looks like something other than an ad, thereby increasing the effectiveness and prevalence of user-generated content. It works because it gives you something that you don't have: a real buyer's experience and perspective, and it allows you to meld that with the marketing voice of your brand.

Virtual reality: This allows you to immerse the audience in a world of your own creation and gives you the opportunity to shape their experience in the virtual world with astounding depth and complexity.

Augmented reality: This may not be exactly the same as video advertising, but they share similar DNA, and augmented reality marketing excels at using targeted data to deliver an intensely personalized experience.

We're already starting to see some of the impacts of these strategies, but wide-scale deployment of tactics such as user-generated content, virtual reality, and augmented reality is still to come.

Conclusion

Video is how we consume news and entertainment.

It's how we connect with our friends and acquaintances.

And, most importantly for marketers, video is how we decide what we're going to buy.

When produced, assembled, and used effectively, digital video advertising has a unique ability to forge a connection with the viewer almost instantaneously and draw them into a unique visual experience.

Innovative strategies (e.g., inserting outstream video and creating micro-length ads) have given advertisers unparalleled flexibility with modern video, and social media outlets now provide the perfect place to meet prospects where they are primed to receive engaging video content.

The visual web is here to stay. That means the time is right for marketers to fully embrace the possibilities of video ads.
More Digital Video Advertising Resources:

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How Digital Video Advertising Will Dominate the Next Decade

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You don't have to dig deep to understand why video advertising is becoming the dominant force in the digital marketing universe. Attention spans are dwindling to a point where people are spurning large volumes of text online, and consumers stare at small portable screens directly in front of their faces for hours throughout an average day.

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This is a guide to digital advertising and how to make the most of your dollars and reach the most customers.

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Digital Advertising Strategy – The Ultimate Guide to Digital Marketing | DigitalMarketer

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Create a digital advertising strategy to easily & affordably get people’s attention, push them to your website, & convert them to subscribers and customers.

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This article is many charts that explain why users are against digital ads and how they react to them.

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While many people understand that advertising is a necessary burden that comes with viewing free content, the current state of digital advertising is still annoying a lot of folks, according to several studies.

In an August survey of 1,079 adult US internet users conducted by Janrain, the most popular response given when respondents were asked which statement about online ads they agreed with most was that ads are too aggressive. Nearly one-fifth of respondents acknowledged that online ads are effective in appealing to their interests and needs, but found the phenomenon creepy nonetheless.

"The vanity key performance indicators (KPIs) like viewability have made it more important to load ads over content, even for good publishers," said Trust Metrics CEO Marc Goldberg. "The good publishers try and keep up because they are getting optimized off plans due to low viewability."

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Five Charts: Why Users Are Fed Up with Digital Ads

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While many people understand that advertising is a necessary burden that comes with viewing free content, the current state of digital advertising is still annoying a lot of folks, according to several studies.

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The article is short, and seems to be opinionated, rather than fact based.

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3 Reasons Your Online Ads Don't Work

The average display ad click-through rate across most industries is a disappointing .05%. We always assumed it was around .18%, but we were wrong. This means the average campaign uses 2,000 impressions before someone clicks on one ad. We have seen much better response rates for our clients and decided to give three reasons why most display ads need tweaking.
1. You're Targeting The Wrong Audience
You can't do enough research and strategy when crafting your display campaigns. As with any marketing campaign, identify your ideal client before moving forward. The neat thing about Adwords is that it allows you to target by geography, gender, age, interest and more. We've found that narrowing your targeting helps to increase click-through rates to your website.
2. Your Ads Are Boring And Cluttered
I once thought creativity could be minimized in online ads. That's hard to admit, but I learned a good lesson. My click-through rates reflected a boring ad. If anything, creating a clean, creative ad is super important online.

Great design should always be considered when crafting a series of display ads. Many companies overlook this important aspect and utilize online software tools that pull images off your website to create the ads. This is easy, yes, but not a good practice. Many of these online tools leave the ad feeling cluttered and do not speak to the audience. Just because it's good for your website, doesn't mean it's good for your online ad. Have fun creating ads that use color and bold ad copy. Keep in mind, the less wordy you are, the better.
3. You Haven't Tested Your Ads Yet
I feel like a broken record sometimes talking about A/B testing. It's in our articles a lot, but we think it's very important. You never know if your ad copy, call to action, color or design will resonate with your ideal target market, unless you test it out. Pick an independent variable and create two different ads based on that variable. Then run them against each other. There is always a clear winner.

In conclusion, display ads are a great way to target your ideal client and drive them to your website. Three marketing tactics to keep in mind when crafting your display advertising include: research, good design and testing. You too can beat your national industry average of click through rates. If you want to know more information about online advertising, click here now.

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The average display ad click-through rate across most industries is a disappointing .05%. We always assumed it was around .18%, but we were wrong. This means the average campaign uses 2,000 impressions before someone clicks on one ad. We have seen much better response rates for our clients and decided to give three reasons why most display ads need tweaking.

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Although the article had valid points, it was short, and other articles we used were more resourceful.

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The prices that people are paying for online display ads are collapsing. Which is a pretty obvious indicator that they don't work.

But why don't they work? Well, here are some purely practical reasons from a few of us who have worked to create noticeable ads for years.

1. Online media are generally terrible places to put ads. Most sites that take ads, take lots of ads, so you're competing in the sort of cluttered, busy environment that the human brain has trained itself to ignore.

2. The ads are too small. When we advertise in a static medium like a magazine, we'll buy the biggest space we can afford. It's been proven to pay for itself, since the ad is more likely to get noticed. It also gives the message space to breathe. The online environment generally squeezes display ads down to ineffective sizes where they become invisible.

3. So should you run an ad that beeps and shouts for attention? Only if you want your reader to hate you forever. Ads that shout put people off. Perhaps because online advertisers are embarrassed by the smallness of their offering, they often compensate by being louder. As with certain men under similar circumstances, it's all very off-putting.

4. The context is rubbish, too. To advertise a B2B product, you want to be where buyers are going when they're thinking about B2B products. A page on Facebook is not the right environment. And so far, good B2B online media remain vanishingly rare.

5. One of the great promises of online advertising was that people would enjoy clicking on your ads and 'engaging' with your brand. But people have hated advertising for at least 100 years. If anything, they hate it even more now it's online. The job of advertisers has always been to overcome that innate resistance. Then, and only then, might they start to engage.

6. Online ads can be blocked. Ad blockers are now available for almost all browsers, which very quickly strip away all your ads anyway.

7. Last but not least, eye-tracking studies confirm that even without the automatic blockers, the human brain does a very good job of screening out anything that even vaguely resembles advertising.

So have online display ads ever worked for us? Well, yes - when delivered solus in a relevant industry newsletter, or an email.

And, of course, there's no more important online display ad than your own website.

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Why online advertising doesn't work | Stanton Shallcross, Cambridge

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The prices that people are paying for online display ads are collapsing. Which is a pretty obvious indicator that they don't work. But why don't they work? Well, here are some purely practical reasons from a few of us who have worked to create noticeable ads for years.

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Why Disruptive Advertising Doesn't Work An

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Why Disruptive Advertising Doesn't Work An

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This article was one of the older articles we came across. We felt newer content would be more relevant in the constant evolving ad tech world.

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For most businesses, to be able to succeed and grow they need to carry out a certain amount of advertising. While customer loyalty is important, if no new customers are sought, a business will soon diminish. So, for that reason, companies turn to advertising.

There are basically two major benefits of advertising: awareness and promotion. Unless you own a company like Google, Amazon, or Apple, it will take time for people to get to know you and what you have to offer. So, making others aware that you exist is the first thing any company should focus on. The second thing is promoting and showcasing what's on offer. Not only will this benefit new customers that know nothing about the company, but it will also remind existing customers just how great your product or service is.

What Is Disruptive Advertising?

When it comes to advertising, there are various different methods that companies use to attract new customers in and to entice existing ones to spend more. Obviously, some of these are more effective than others. One of the more traditional methods used in advertising is called disruptive advertising. This form of advertising is essentially one that "disrupts" the person watching or listening as is unexpected. Back in the 1960s, not many brand owners could afford TV advertising. Those who could didn't really have to make much of an effort as there was barely any competition due to the high costs involved in making commercials. So, rather than come up with a clever advertisement that tried to convince customers that they needed their product, these wealthy brand owners simply came up with a brand-focused, disruptive ad that was loud and would make people remember the brand.

Disruptive Advertising Examples

Other examples of disruptive advertising can be seen in campaigns such as Coke's "Share a Coke" or the UK's "Compare the Meerkat." Both of these advertising methods are seen as disruptive as they're both highly engaging and bought something new to the world of advertising that we'd not really seen before. And it worked, too, for quite some time. Up until a few years ago, disruptive advertising was considered to be the most successful form of advertising. Now, however, it's now seen as unwanted, unnecessary, and ineffective.

Does Disruptive Advertising Still Work?

Times have changed and so have people. It takes time for consumers to build trust with firms. With pretty much any product or service you can think of, there's so much choice available. For that reason, consumers aren't simply going to jump on board with companies because they have a pretty ad that pops up in their face every five minutes. These companies need to earn their trust and to do that they need to find a way in which to connect with the customer so they make a lasting impression-not simply annoy them by being repetitive. Disruptive advertising also takes a lot of time and planning to make happen. In a world where markets are changing so fast, it is vital the businesses have a more flexible marketing strategy and disruptive advertising is not it.

Businesses are moving away from traditional forms of advertising, such as billboards, newspaper, radio, and TV ads and instead are moving more towards digital forms of advertising. Three of the most effective forms of digital advertising used today are:

1. Social media advertising: A lot of people today have at least one social media account that regularly log into. Whether it's Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or one of the other social media platforms out there, people love to stay connected with one another and see what's going on in the world around them. Many of these social media sites recognize this obsession and have helped businesses out by allowing them to set up targeted campaigns on their site. What this means is that for a modest fee, businesses can choose who they want to see their ad, focusing on those most likely to be interested. It makes more sense for companies to target potential customers in this way. Not only does it allow them to concentrate more on people who want their services, it saves times and money wasted on those that almost certainly won't be interested.

2. Content marketing: Like social media advertising, content marketing is very much about pitching to the right audience. You'll never be able to please everyone-no matter what product or service you offer. However, by targeting your target audience with content that is most likely to have them take an interest, you're hedging your bets and playing the odds. And, for this reason, are more likely to get quite a good return from it. Content marketing also allows businesses to offer their clients a more personalized, digital experience.

3. Video advertising: This form of digital advertising has really taken off in the past few years as we become a much more digitally-focused society. Sites, such as YouTube and Facebook now offer businesses the opportunity to advertise on their site, very much the same as TV ads have done for years. The number of people to visit these video sharing sites on a regular basis is rising steadily and is an opportunity too big for businesses not to take advantage of. It's much cheaper than TV and may reach a wider range of people too.

There are many different ways businesses advertise today. These are just some of the more popular and more effective methods used. Although disruptive advertising was once very effective in making brands a "household name," it's clear that we've moved away from those times and no longer is it quite so easy for firms to win customers over with a good advertisement. Now it's much more about building trust and confidence and offering customers a product or service that they really need, instead of just something that they've remembered because in an advertisement.

disruptive advertising, marketing news, marketing trends

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Why Disruptive Advertising Doesn't Work Anymore

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For most businesses, to be able to succeed and grow they need to carry out a certain amount of advertising. While customer loyalty is important, if no new customers are sought, a business will soon diminish. So, for that reason, companies turn to advertising. There are basically two major benefits of advertising: awareness and promotion.

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Digital Advertising Doesn't Alway's Work (But It Can!)

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Digital Advertising Doesn't Alway's Work (But It Can!)

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This article wasn't used strictly based off the article layout. There were no sub headers with important topics. For a quick reader, it would be a quick pass.

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Digital Advertising Doesn't Always Work (But It Can!)
This post is bi-lined by Christina Martin, Executive Director, Real Estate Marketing at USAA and a seasoned Digital Marketer with over two decades experience in financial services, including roles at Moneygram, United Capital Financial Advisors, and First Horizon Home Loans/First Tennessee (MetLife Home Loans). She shares her perspective here from speaking at Leads Con 2017 in a session entitled: From Search Campaign to Lead Qualification & Transfer - Using Data Analytics to Drive Volume. USAA is a LQ Digital client.
It may be time to take a different approach to avoid spending budget on wasted leads

It's no secret that digital advertising has been steadily on the rise for a number of years now. In eMarketer's latest quarterly projections for 2017, digital ad spend in the U.S. alone will grow by 15.9 percent to a whopping $83 billion in total revenue. Of course, it should come as no surprise that Google and Facebook continue to dominate this space, commanding 60 cents of every dollar spent.

These trends don't show any signs of slowing, even as more marketers turn their attention and budgets to mobile advertising. In fact, the digital advertising industry is about to set a new milestone: by 2018, digital ad spend will surpass TV ad spend for the first time - and continue growing. That shouldn't be news to marketers. The time to take action was yesterday; just look at the data. As digital continues to pull share away from TV, there's no question that it should make up a big part of any marketer's media plan in the year ahead. This basically means that the way we approach, plan, and execute digital advertising campaigns needs to fundamentally change if we expect to break through the noise and connect in a meaningful way with all-too-easily-distracted digital-first consumers.

So, given the relentless rise of digital ad spend, your knee-jerk reaction may be: "we must spend more to reach more consumers." Generally speaking, you wouldn't be wrong in making this assumption, but, in doing so, you are missing a big piece of the puzzle. Sure, by spending more on digital advertising, you will undoubtedly get a leg up on the competition in terms of overall impressions. But just because you reach more consumers doesn't necessarily mean you're reaching the right customers with compelling messages that motivates them to buy into your brand's value proposition and eventually become actual customers. The problem here isn't your spend; it's how you're spending your advertising dollars as well as what you're doing to engage your target consumers.

Consider this a myth busted: greater spend doesn't mean more positive results. If anything, it just gets you a lot more wasted leads and wastes your precious marketing budget. Industry-wide, it's not all that surprising anymore to run into situations where, say, only eight percent of leads generated by a digital advertising campaign actually convert into something more substantial. When you do the simple math, that means the remaining 92 percent of those leads are basically useless or, in other words, deliver no value whatsoever. And in spite of the fact that many brands oftentimes see little return on their advertising spend (ROAS), they continue to pour more budget into advertising in hopes that the tables will eventually turn in their favor. It's a nice idea, but, quite frankly, the wrong approach.

Additionally, it's important to remember that digital advertising is not linear, nor is it executed via a "black and white" strategy either. ROAS in one channel may have a residual and beneficial impact in another, especially as ad spend grows. Social advertising is a great example of this. A recent Facebook study conducted with Nielsen Total Ad Ratings found that marketers who use Facebook ads to complement TV their ad spend can "boost audience reach and enhance the efficiency of their campaigns, particularly among younger audiences and light TV views."

What's the big takeaway here? It's about time marketers got smarter about how they use (read: not spend) their digital advertising budgets. Here are a few pitfalls to avoid. First, ads need to be placed in the right channel. We know that all consumers are not created equally; digital advertising platforms aren't either. Placing an ad in a channel that either fails to reach the right consumers or doesn't incite the kind of action you need from them is a big waste of your budget. Don't place ads on "popular" platforms just because they cater to a large audience. If your target consumers don't spend their time there, you shouldn't either.

Second, once you figure out where your target consumers spend their digital time, you still have to crack the code on how to speak to them - at least, in a way that gets them to act. Simply put, your message needs to resonate. Here's some good news: practically every part of your digital advertising campaign can be optimized in real-time. Unlike that TV spot or static billboard you have running, you can test multiple digital ad units at the same time to see what works and cut out what doesn't, instantly. Playing the digital advertising game is more than just purchase, create, publish, and wait. Every step in that process can be refined non-stop to drive results. Don't just sit around until a campaign ends. If your message isn't resonating, change it. The longer you run an ad with a mediocre call-to-action, the more budget you waste. Simple, right?

Lastly, if part of your digital advertising effort involves asking consumers to fill out a form to get more information, then be ready to get them that information immediately. Don't make them wait. This isn't dating. There's no reason to be coy, but you shouldn't stalk either. If you ask consumers to fill out a form for more information, only ask questions you absolutely need them to answer in order to make initial contact with them. If part of that information includes them giving you their phone number, then pick up the phone and call them back immediately. Doing so in less than one minute after receiving an inquiry can more than double conversion rates. Unfortunately, this is all too often where leads go to die. You've succeeded at getting consumers through the funnel to a point where they give you their contact information, only to keep them waiting. You've placed an ad on the right channel with the right message. Don't lose that momentum while you're already ahead.

If you're following where I'm going with this, be sure your digital advertising spend is less about generating more leads and more about generating the right leads. This may be a lot to grasp at first because we've all become accustomed to measuring success through volume-based "vanity metrics" (more leads, more clicks, more impressions). Unfortunately, volume rarely equates to ROI. Why? Think of it this way: what's the point of generating hundreds of leads if none of them actually convert? (Hint: it's a waste of time and budget!)

Brands need to refocus their digital ad budgets on targeting only the most profitable customers or, more simply, the consumers who will generate the greatest overall lifetime value. There's plenty of data and insights available to pinpoint and find the exact consumers we want to reach. So, in all honesty, knowing what resources are available to us to ensure every digital advertising campaign we run gets us closer to our most desired and relevant consumers, it seems silly that we're still talking about wasted leads today. With the right planning, it's avoidable.

To bring this idea around the "profitable customer" to life, I'm going to use an example from a talk I gave at LeadsCon Las Vegas earlier this year. USAA worked with LQ Digital to test paid search performance for a campaign effort intended to help veterans to purchase a home using their VA loan benefit. The goal was to reach VA-eligible veterans who weren't already USAA members in a cost-effective way. So, that's what we did - and LQ made it possible to track leads at every stage of the funnel, from initial search to loan purchase, to help us understand if we were, in fact, reaching the right customers at the right time.

Fortunately, we know a lot about what our members care about most and, from past campaigns, have learned what converts the best whenever we've got a new offer to share. For this campaign specifically, we worked with LQ to create a number of assets, from paid search ads to landing pages, that we knew would generate both interest and a response. Given the intensity and time-sensitive nature of this kind of purchase, we knew that adding things like call-back phone numbers on search ads (desktop and mobile) and providing a form to fill out on the landing pages would be most effective.

Here's an interesting curveball (but something you should ultimately see less as a curveball and more like a best practice). Although the foundations of this campaign were built almost purely on digital, the magic really happened when a customer picked up the phone. During the run of this campaign, we saw the majority of qualified leads come from click-to-call (CTC) inbound mobile calls. These drove the highest conversion rates - more than desktop and mobile clicks - as well as a lower overall cost-per-lead (CPL). Additionally, of those consumers who clicked through and filled out the inquiry form on the landing page, our member service representatives were standing by to call them back immediately. Who knew that using online to drive offline conversion would be such a success?

Long story short: a solid digital customer acquisition strategy isn't necessarily digital-only. Digital advertising alone is effective at getting the right consumers into the purchase funnel; a real conversation can move them through the funnel. Mobile CTC conversion rates alone speak volumes about the impact real human-to-human interaction can make to close a sale or win a new customer. Never discount the phone; it could be your greatest lead conversion asset.

To wrap this up, it's safe to say that digital advertising isn't really effective unless you:

1. Know your target audience ("profitable customers")

2. Understand where they spend their digital time

3. Develop (and test) messages that resonate most

4. Be ready to pick up the phone when they call or make an inquiry

5. Track and measure ROAS at every stage of the campaign journey

While this may seem like a simple recipe for success, many brands still make a number of avoidable missteps that ultimately lead to waste - wasted budget, wasted leads, wasted effort. Digital advertising can work hard for your brand as long as you take the time to set your campaigns up for success.

Keywords

Call Center Services

Optimization

Paid Search

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Digital Advertising Doesn't Always Work (But It Can!)

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This post is bi-lined by Christina Martin, Executive Director, Real Estate Marketing at USAA and a seasoned Digital Marketer with over two decades experience in financial services, including roles at Moneygram, United Capital Financial Advisors, and First Horizon Home Loans/First Tennessee (MetLife Home Loans).

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This article is from 2016. Much more outdated than the other articles we selected.

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Mark Duffy has written the Copyranter blog for 10 years and is a freelancing copywriter with 20-plus years of experience. His hockey wrist shot is better than yours.
Is it all just a big waste of space, time and money? I'm talking about all types of advertising here: internet, native, TV, video, mobile, print, branded content, matchbooks, stunts, product placement, sandwich boards. All of it.

I think it just might be.

I see you all scrambling to bring up your latest "engagement" numbers. But each and every one of those numbers is based on a different "formula" than the next one. It's all skewed - sometimes completely made-up - bullshit, and you know it. "Clicks" mean nothing. "Views," even, mean nothing. "Engage" with that.

Native advertising (and other branded content) doesn't work - nobody remembers the brand. In one survey, two-thirds of those who recalled seeing a native ad remembered absolutely nothing about it, and 95 percent of them didn't remember who the sponsor was.

Two years ago, The Atlantic asked a "dangerous question": Does Internet Advertising Work at All? Short answer: probably not! Long answer: nobody knows. Nobody. Not even your Ad Tech Daddy, "Big Data." This includes all Facebook ads and Google search ads: All of them are very likely useless. And nothing's changed about that answer in 2016.

How about social media advertising - all those retweets and likes must add up to something? Yes, they add up to approximately nothing worth anything: Only 5 percent of people say social media has "a great deal of influence" on their purchasing decisions, according to a 2014 Gallup State of the American Consumer report; 30 percent copped "some influence."

But what about the hallowed traditional creative advertising? Being an old school copywriter, I love to say "creativity" is the magical secret to effective advertising, the pixie dust that can't be measured by an algorithm. More specifically, it's the " unexpected great visual " that is the key to advertising that works, that sells.

But how do I know it works? It just does, because it has consistently worked since the Creative Revolution of the '60s.

But, uh, that Revolution appears to have run its course.

Millennials, apparently, are - somehow - immune to advertising, even creative ads and videos with great visuals and crackling copy. Way to kill my career, assholes.

What should a brand do, then? Whelp, it definitely should stop spending money on advertising its products. Immediately. And give up on your marketing MBA bullshit: no hard sells, no soft sells, no devious sells ... no selling!

Your only options left are to non-sell or un-sell. Here are some examples.

Un-ad ads are becoming more and more popular. Although they are still obviously ads, young folk seem to like their attitude. One of the most famous un-ads was E-Trade's 1999 Super Bowl spot " we just wasted two million dollars," though that ad still had too much "selling" copy at the end.

Below is a better more recent un-ad example for Seth & Riley's Garage hard lemon. The self-deprecating tagline is a nice touch, too. Agency: Duval Guillaume. See more un-ad examples here.

Then, there is the non-sell. This is tough to pull off. One way to do it is cause or issue advertising, or as it's called now, "causevertising." But you can't do in a transparently disingenuous way, like the terrible Dove "Real Beauty" hooey. You have to truly champion a cause 100 percent and never stick your logo and stupid tagline or #hashtag at the end of it, dummies. The Youngs will find out you did it, don't you worry.

In lieu of selling, you must entertain or inform potential customers. Do some of that newfangled "storytelling!" Again, forget your brand. Nobody wants to watch a snoozy tale about the "legacy" of your car or beer or hemorrhoid cream. You need to create funny or interesting short "films" (with neither hide nor hair of your brand). You need to invent cool video games or a useful app and give them away for free. Millennials expect lots of free stuff (believe me, I've seen this at BuzzFeed). But whatever you make better be damn good/damn funny, or you will be brutally mocked by the digital native commentariat.

Don't worry, you can pay for these projects easily with your old ad budget. If your current traditional or digital agency won't get on board with your new strategy, fire them and find a shop or collection of freelancers who can and will.

Advertising may or may not be dead, but in almost all of its current forms, it sure as shit ain't working.

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Does advertising even work any more? - Digiday

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Mark Duffy has written the Copyranter blog for 10 years and is a freelancing copywriter with 20-plus years of experience. His hockey wrist shot is better than yours. Is it all just a big waste of space, time and money?

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Research Shows Millennial's Don't Respond to Ads

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Research Shows Millennial's Don't Respond to Ads

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This article is from 2015. We wanted to use more recent articles that are more relevant.

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By Russ Banham

Blockchain burst into the mainstream five years ago as a secure platform for Bitcoin transactions, but the technology's use today is extending well beyond cryptocurrency to transform industry sectors on a holistic ecosystem basis.

Healthcare, banking and insurance are just three industries that anticipate tens of billions of dollars in cost savings from the blockchain's permanent decentralized ledger. Getty

Healthcare, banking and insurance are just three industries that anticipate tens of billions of dollars in cost savings from the blockchain's permanent decentralized ledger. As a result of blockchain, banks, for example, expect to generate more than $27 billion in cross-border settlements alone by 2030, according to a 2018 study.

At its most basic, a blockchain is a distributed, digital ledger with built-in security that records transactions among the network participants in real-time. Every 10 minutes, these transactions are verified, permanently time-stamped and stored in a block that is encrypted and inextricably linked to the preceding block - creating a blockchain.

Participants don't need to trust that the ledger has not been tampered with because entries are trackable and irrevocable. Another advantage of blockchain technology is business efficiency. Participants can execute smart contracts without a central controlling authority. The contracts trigger when pre-arranged terms and conditions are met.

These benefits and others - like data quality and transparency - have made blockchain the go-to technology for digital transformation, explains David Uhryniak, blockchain competency leader at the accounting, consulting and technology firm Crowe. "Blockchain is the underlying technology that fosters the required trust to enable companies and entire industries to transform around data and successfully implement other transformative technologies like artificial intelligence (AI) and the Internet of Things (IoT)," he says. It's already disrupting multiple industries in tangible ways.

In the property-casualty insurance industry, real progress is being made to create ecosystems that speed up the automobile insurance claims process - and the potential payout is huge.

Take, for example, the Institutes RiskBlock Alliance, a collaborative experiment in which dozens of insurance companies plan to share specified automobile policyholder data in a blockchain network. Other participants with access to the secure environment include third parties like car repair shops, tow truck companies, state motor vehicle departments and law enforcement agencies.

This type of ecosystem would streamline tedious and costly processes. Consider the following scenario: After a minor two-car collision, sensors in the vehicles would send alerts to the blockchain network, triggering pre-arranged smart contracts among the parties to dispatch tow trucks, which would take the cars to designated repair shops. At the same time, other sensors measuring the speed and braking of both vehicles, as well as data on weather and road conditions, could send this information to the blockchain, whereupon it would be instantly determined which party is likely at fault.

All that data is a goldmine from an analysis standpoint. "A smart contract between the two insurers of the vehicles may eliminate the need for a claims adjuster to go to the scene of the accident," says Uhryniak. "The claims process would automatically spring into motion, possibly with the claim being filed and paid that day or the next one."

That's just one industry. Uhryniak cites four key benefits of blockchain that have transformational potential across business sectors - enhanced transparency, revenue, efficiency and engagement. "There's friction within every process related to the various interactions with counterparties, customers, regulators and even the gathering of data," says Uhryniak. These inefficiencies are costly, he explains, but blockchain networks obviate these challenges.

A case in point is the healthcare sector, an industry that Uhryniak projects will be a vastly different enterprise in the next five to 10 years. Today, payers like health insurers each have specific contract terms and conditions that must be met in order for a procedure or treatment to be deemed medically necessary and, therefore, covered by the insurer's health plan. These terms and conditions could be turned into smart contracts and added to blockchains, eliminating the inefficiencies involved in verifying permissible insurance coverages, Uhryniak says.

Another benefit of this transparency in healthcare is streamlined and reliable billing. "Blockchain helps ensure a patient isn't charged for the same medical procedure by two different physicians or hospitals," Uhryniak says. "The technology verifies the accuracy of each transaction, which becomes a permanent, immutable record.

Health insurers benefit in other ways. For instance, an insurer can verify the necessity of medical treatments prior to execution and re-validate that they were in fact performed. Blockchain also addresses the problem of rising insurance claim denials. According to a 2017 analysis by Crowe of more than 300 hospitals, 9.6 percent of all medical insurance claims are denied. Used as a billing tool, blockchain could instantly ferret out whether or not an insurer's claim matches its specified contract terms and conditions, reducing delays and human error.

Banks are also poised for blockchain-enabled transformation. Only 3 percent of bank executives surveyed by Crowe expect "minimal change" from blockchain technology in the next 10 years, with the remaining 97 percent anticipating modest to significant change. In addition to streamlining the mortgage approval and closing processes, blockchain technology proposes similar process enhancements in the disbursement of funds for commercial loans and syndicated loans, Uhryniak says.

As businesses initiate blockchain strategies, Uhryniak advises that they pursue a measured approach that begins with an evaluation of how the technology will provide a competitive advantage. Firms like Crowe can help with this assessment by guiding companies to identify the right blockchain platform for their needs and in some cases may be able to build this infrastructure as a "proof of concept" prior to implementation.

For companies, adapting to the confluence of technologies involved in tomorrow's ecosystems requires thoughtful consideration - and, in many cases, raises concerns about risk. As the volume of IoT devices proliferates to reach 125 billion worldwide in 2030, and remarkable tools like machine learning become smarter through exponentially expanding computing power, only blockchain at the moment presents a system of trust in data. It's no wonder so many industries have taken notice.
Russ Banham is a Pulitzer-nominated financial journalist and best-selling author.

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How Blockchain Is Disrupting 3 Industries

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By Russ Banham Blockchain burst into the mainstream five years ago as a secure platform for Bitcoin transactions, but the technology's use today is extending well beyond cryptocurrency to transform industry sectors on a holistic ecosystem basis. Healthcare, banking and insurance are just three industries that anticipate tens of billions of dollars in cost savings from the blockchain's permanent decentralized ledger.

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We believed an article from 9 years ago would not be relevant to today's ad tech industry, since it is constantly evolving.

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The pros and cons of online advertising

When banner ads were first introduced by Global Network Navigator in 1993, few people understood the impact this would have on the advertising industry. To sum things up - it was a preeeeetty big deal. Think wildfire on a desiccated prairie.

While TV, direct mail and newspapers account for the majority of advertising spending, the Internet channel has grown the fastest since 2001. According to some very smart folks at Pricewaterhouse Coopers and the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB), digital advertising revenues in the U.S. totaled $17.6 billion in in the third quarter of 2016. This marks the highest third quarter for digital advertising spending on record, and represents a 20 percent increase over the same time period in 2015.

Many people's eyes start to glaze over at the mere mention of online advertising and its accompanying menagerie of alphabet soup acronyms. However, trust us when we say that this type of marketing can blaze a path straight to your customers.

We've put together a list of pros and cons for your consideration:

Pros

Cost - compared to newspaper placements or TV spots, online banners are still relatively inexpensive.

Measurement - there are countless ways to track the success or failure of an advertising campaign, and with digital, it has never been easier to connect the dots from an ad buy to the impact on the bottom line.

Instant gratification - your customers can see your ad, shop and buy (if you sell products online) without leaving home. That sort of convenience is hard to beat.

Testing - if you create a brochure, you have to print and distribute it before you are able to measure response. On the Internet, response (or lack of response) is lightning fast. Also, since it's relatively simple to switch out banner ads, online advertising gives you the ability to test creative campaigns and fine tune messaging. This can help increase effectiveness of your campaign and enhance results.

Geo-targeting - online advertising gives you the ability to geo-target your ads, ensuring that they are only viewed, and clicked, by your intended geographic and niche audience. This allows you to create localized messages that appear on national sites.

Constant exposure - your online ad works 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Cons

Advertising overload - every advertiser wants consumer attention, and often there is simply too much information to digest. The solution is to develop creative campaigns that will cut through the clutter and strike an emotional connection with your target audience.

Too much data? The statistics you are able to gather on your online advertising campaign are so immense that they can often become paralyzing. That's why it's important to determine at the onset of your campaign how you will measure success - is it impressions, click throughs or sales?

Scope - while the vast majority of Americans are active online, there are still a number of people out there who are relying on traditional forms of advertising as a means to gather information on products and services. That's why, in most cases, online advertising campaigns should run in tandem with other marketing efforts.

Too many choices - there are so many websites out there that it can be hard to identify the ones that will most effectively target your audience. Make sure you take the time to research the appropriate niche sites for your product or service.

As with any other form of marketing, setting goals and objectives are critical in the success of online advertising. Make sure you evaluate the pros and cons before you jump into an online campaign. And if you need some help - just give us a shout!

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The pros and cons of online advertising | MindFire Communications

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When banner ads were first introduced by Global Network Navigator in 1993, few people understood the impact this would have on the advertising industry. To sum things up - it was a preeeeetty big deal. Think wildfire on a desiccated prairie.

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20 Pros and Cons of Internet Advertising 

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20 Pros and Cons of Internet Advertising 

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This is another outdated article in the content evolving ad tech world.

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The world is becoming one that is based on digital content. For a brand or business to get noticed, this means internet advertising must become a consideration. This is fast becoming the primary method of attracting attention to goods and services that are being offered. Although it may seem like an easy choice to begin advertising, it is important to evaluate several key pros and cons before investing time and money so that an accurate view of the situation can be achieved.

The Pros of Internet Advertising

The primary benefit is that brands are allowed to reach prospects at the places their prospects are visiting on the internet every day. Internet advertising includes search engine results, websites that are popular, social media and networking, and even within product listings. With billions of people accessing the internet every day potentially searching for what a business has to offer, the amount of reach that is achieved is phenomenal. Anyone with a computer can advertise globally today with just a couple of clicks. Here are some of the additional key pros of internet advertising to consider as well.

1. Internet advertising allows for specific prospect targeting.
Mass marketing is easier with internet advertising, but so is sending a message to a specific population demographic as well. Brands are able to identify the traits of their key customers and clone them into their advertising campaign. This data helps the brand target specific prospects that would be attracted to what is being offered even if that individual doesn't realize it at first. Even specific geographical regions can be targeted for brands that aren't looking for a global presence, but perhaps want an extended local presence.

2. There are numerous price points to consider.
Everyone from the sole proprietor to the large multinational organization has a chance to expand their customer base thanks to internet advertising. Niche sites offer advantageous solutions to small businesses that are industry-related, while mass marketing can attract all demographics across several different platforms simultaneously. There are numerous price points available, but more importantly, the brand gets to dictate how much they spend on most campaigns.

3. Internet advertising is more responsive to changing conditions.
Printed media has to be changed every time the marketing environment evolves or adjusts. These costs begin to add up quickly with traditional media and there is a time gap between each evolutionary period. With internet advertising, responsive changes can happen almost instantaneously. If something isn't testing well, it can be changed with a few minutes of work instead of a few days of work, allow a brand to find the perfect phrasing for each targeted demographic. Less down time always equates to more overall exposure.

4. It is easier to test different demographics without as much risk.
If a brand is thinking about entering into a new demographic for prospects, then extensive testing is typically required. Interviews, product testing, samples, and shows are all a common part of the traditional testing process. With internet advertising, a brand can put all of this into the hands of the people to do all the work. If something receives a positive response through internet advertising, then an expansion may make financial sense. If not, time and money was saved in finding out this information.

5. Multiple creatives can be uploaded at once.
A simple tweak of a sentence is often enough to change a bad advertising campaign into a good one. Internet advertising allows a brand to upload multiple versions of an ad so that the best possible outcome can be achieved. Different ads can be tested against each other to determine their effectiveness, changes can be made almost instantly, and bad ads can be scrapped before too much damage is achieved. No other advertising method offers this unique set of specific benefits. Many campaigns even allow the different creatives to be swapped out for each other so that multiple creatives are active simultaneously and on display based on specific filters that have been implemented.

6. It provides for a system of instant gratification.
Prospects are more likely to turn into customers if they have the chance to experience something instantly and in a first-hand way. Internet advertising allows this to happen. All it may take is a click for a customer to discover more information about what is being advertised. If they like what they see and there is an ability to purchase it immediately, then a reward is experienced because the new customer feels like they discovered something amazing. No other form of advertising can accomplish this at this level wherever a person may be.

7. It gives a brand access to mobile advertising platforms.
About half of all internet usage in 2014 came from mobile devices. Internet advertising campaigns can appear on these devices, giving a brand access to people whether they are at home, at work, or standing in line while waiting for a barista to make their coffee. Brand access to the mobile market is expected to be a critical component of the future of advertising and internet advertising helps to bring a company in on the ground floor of the process.

8. Internet advertising is on full-time.
There aren't any off hours when it comes to internet advertising. It is on every hour of every day of every year. It is even on when someone might click on an advertisement and then decide not to purchase something thanks to follow along advertising. This allows prospects to research your brand's opportunities on their own time so they don't feel as pressured to purchase or sign up for something.

9. Links don't need to be directed toward a sales page.
Sometimes internet advertising isn't about sales. It may be more about brand awareness or other goals that are not sales related. The beautiful thing about internet advertising is that you get to stay in control of where prospects land after clicking on an ad. If you want to encourage more research on a topic, then this can be accomplished. Everything happens in real-time as well, which means active decisions can be made in the moment and allow for a brand to achieve its prospect goals more quickly.

10. There are multiple formats.
Videos, QR codes, text links, affiliate marketing, banner advertising, hashtags, social media contests - the amount of different formats that are available to internet advertising is phenomenal. It makes it possible for a brand to pick and choose which works best for their prospect base, implement an attractive campaign, and have a reasonable expectation for results to begin coming in right away.

The Cons of Internet Advertising

The primary disadvantage of internet advertising right now is oversaturation. Many websites have numerous advertising feeds and this causes "visitor blindness" to the advertising that is present. People tend to skip over advertising messages to get to where they need to go. Even when internet advertising is used to interrupt the visitor's experience to gain their attention, the most common reactions are to either close the window or install a pop-up blocker. In essence, many companies pay for impressions that don't make any impression at all. Here are some of the other key disadvantages of internet advertising to consider.

1. There is a healthy amount of competition.
There are many prospects that can be found on the internet, but that isn't a secret that only a select few know about. Everyone realizes that there is a lot of potential with internet advertising and they are thinking about getting involved just like you may be. There are plenty of businesses already running an internet advertising campaign as well. The market is saturated to the point that any industry-related advertising will likely be displayed next to a direct competitor. If your product's value proposition doesn't stand out from the rest of the pack, then people won't inspect your offer.

2. It is incredibly easy for internet users to block advertising.
All current Internet browsers have options available which block all advertising. It's not just the pop-up ads we're talking about here. Banner advertising, link advertising, affiliate efforts - they can all be blocked. The browser extensions are so good that even when advertising agencies attempt a work-around, the browser is able to adapt to it. This means there will always be a core group of people who will never see an internet advertising campaign, no matter what it is you may choose to do.

3. It creates a moment of distraction.
The problem with internet advertising is that it distracts people from what their ultimate purpose for being online happened to be. Most people don't log onto a website that offers free dinner recipes and expect to see an advertisement that they'll want to click on, right? They're looking for a new way to make one of their favorite dishes. That moment of distraction may seem like a good thing, but it really is not. When people shift their perspective to a new task, there is an attention deficit which occurs. It may take someone up to 15 minutes to recover their faculties. This means even clicks on an internet ad may not be as effective as they could be.

4. Advertising analytics can be difficult to understand.
To know how effect an internet advertising campaign happens to be, a general awareness of what the analytical information being collected by that campaign is required. For those new to internet advertising, this is a crash course learning curve that doesn't always produce quality results. Good data can be misinterpreted as bad and the reverse is also true. The end result is a campaign that is less effective because its operations are not fully understood.\

5. Not all of the information gathered is usable information.
A brand is forced to decide which information is the most important information to focus on when running an internet advertising campaign. Should total impressions be the focus? What about the click through rate? Should the effectiveness of an advertising campaign be measured on the amount of sales it can generate only? Many brands don't even think about these questions as they begin advertising, which makes it easier to misinterpret results.

6. It doesn't reach all potential prospects.
There growth of the internet has been exponential, but it hasn't achieved 100% saturation anywhere in the world. Even in the United States, there are at least 1 in 10 households that have no internet access in their homes at all. Rural prospects are much more likely to be without internet access than urban customers. Because of this, not every brand may fully benefit from an investment into internet advertising.

7. There really is no one go-to solution with internet advertising.
There isn't a "good" form of general internet advertising. Some forms of internet ads work amazingly well for some companies and the same kind of ad can have a poor performance for another. What we do know is that internet ads which are complimentary, such as those which are combined with other advertising mediums, tend to convert more customers than singular internet advertising campaigns on their own.

8. Random slots can create unusable opportunities.
Some internet advertising options work on a cycle over a variety of websites. Think about how many sites use Google AdWords, for example. Some campaigns are placed in a cycle on a wide variety of sites that may not always have content that is equal to what their listing offers. If advertising content appears on a site that may be inappropriate to the message that is being communicated, the end result is more than just awkwardness. It can indicate support for that inappropriate content and drive prospects away.

9. Internet advertising may not load correctly.
A website might have an uptime of 99%, but that means a website is down 1 minute out of every 100 minutes that pass in a day. That might not seem like a lot of time, but how many people could visit a website around the world in 3-5 minutes every day and wind up not seeing an ad that has been fully finances because the site is down? This is considered a normal part of life with internet advertising, which ultimately means a business is paying for advertising that won't show up sometimes.

10. Who doesn't click on the "skip ad" link when it appears?
There might be an option for visitors to skip an ad to help get them toward the content they want to see, but the delay in being able to skip an ad doesn't mean a visitor is actually going to look at it. Most people are watching the countdown clock to see when they can click past the ad to get what they want. We all do it even if we're internet advertising already. Forcing viewership is difficult to do on the internet today and if someone has seen something once that represents your brand, even if it was hysterical, they probably aren't going to want to see it again.

The pros and cons of internet advertising show that it can be highly beneficial, but it must be carefully managed in order to encourage the highest chances of success. Evaluate these key points carefully, get involved in a way that makes sense for your business goals, and you'll be able to make an empowered decision as to whether or not advertising on the internet is right for you.

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20 Pros and Cons of Internet Advertising - BrandonGaille.com

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The world is becoming one that is based on digital content. For a brand or business to get noticed, this means internet advertising must become a consideration. This is fast becoming the primary method of attracting attention to goods and services that are being offered.

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9 Reasons You Should Be Advertising Online

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9 Reasons You Should Be Advertising Online

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This article correlated with marketing mix. We wanted an article strictly related to digital advertising.

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9 Reasons You Should Be Advertising Online

If you'?ve been slow on the uptake when it comes to online advertising, you should begin ramping up your efforts. Online ad spend has seen consistent growth and is projected to overtake print, states a recent IAB report. If you haven'?t yet familiarized yourself with online advertising, it?'s time to do so. If you'?re of the belief that advertising online is wasting your ad budget, think again. These are 9 reasons you should be advertising online:

1. Insight
Know exactly which ads brought in the highest number of qualifying leads. Know how many impressions were served, where they were served, and when. Identify your optimal channels, ad copy, and ad locations. The metrics and analytics available with online advertising allow you to see the exact cost of acquiring and converting a customer. Advertising online provides you with endless insight allowing you to become a more effective marketer. Marketers went from having no data to more data than we know what to do with. This is a great problem to have.

2. Targeting
Do you know the profile of your perfect customer? Online advertising gives you the ability to target and retarget the ideal prospects. Retargeting will serve ads based on prior engagement, enabling you to identify your ideal customer profile. Once you know what your customers look like, you will know just who to target and where to find all similar users online, making sure they too are being served your ads. When advertising online, you have the ability to target a population as specific as ?men, age 18-35, who searched for Giants tickets between the hours of 7-10 pm? or as broad as ?men, age 18-35,? ensuring your message is in front of the right people at the right time.

3. Creative
Your ability to target goes beyond reaching the right customers. You can take this one step further and serve the creative that will best resonate with each target. There is a common misconception that online ads are of poor quality, when in fact digital advertising provides the opportunity to be highly engaging with video and other rich media. Using animation and in-banner video ads can increase brand recognition and highlight your competitive edge. Is one of your ads under-performing? A/B test your copy, your image, your headline and serve ads that are as dynamic as the online space in which they are living. A well-designed banner ad can turn your digital campaign from good to great.

4. Brand Awareness
Online advertising can be used to drive traffic to your site and build brand awareness. Effectively targeted campaigns can create brand influencers and reach complementary audiences. Key to online advertising is SEO, which is imperative to the success of your site. Companies that offer good SEO such as SEO South Florida can help your website reach its deserved audience. Use the endless online display space to be creative with rich media, establish your online presence, make an emotional connection, and get online consumers excited about who you are and what you have to offer. Online display enables brands to focus on their ideal audience and tailor messages that improve both recall and engagement.

5. Flexibility
Online advertising campaigns can be adjusted with a few clicks or keystrokes. You have the flexibility to respond to incoming data and make changes instantly. Similarly, you have the ability to pause campaigns or adjust your strategy in minutes. This flexibility allows you to stay in front of your customers, anticipate customer needs and adjust your ads before anyone even notices.

6. Scale
Demand-side platforms, more commonly referred to as DSPs, have centralized the buying of auction-based display media across multiple inventories and data suppliers online. Offline, you have to coordinate with multiple providers. As a marketer, DSPs allow you to scale your digital campaigns quickly and strategically, and you don?t even need an agency! Many digital marketers are turning to self-service providers to manage their campaigns- create your own ads, choose your spend, scale and optimize across your networks as you see fit. You can also use a full-service provider who will optimize, scale, and spend accordingly, but this often comes with a monthly minimum. Whichever service you choose, scaling your campaign has never been easier.

7. Cost
Digital channels are highly cost-effective for marketers. Rates are typically set through a combination of ad size, ad location, performance, and demand. Considering the reach allotted via digital channels, moving your campaigns online is often much cheaper than more traditional offline channels like radio, television, or print. Furthermore, digital campaigns have greater transparency, allowing you to adjust your cost easily based on performance. In the offline world, once you've paid for the space in a print publication or a spot on the radio, there?s no adjusting your investment after the fact.

8. Reach
We?'ve heard a lot of this lately - people are watching less live TV and turning to their computers for their favorite shows, music, and to access their news. As marketers, being effective requires staying in front of your customers; as it turns out, your customers are online, so you should be too, and sooner rather than later! Moving online gives you access to a global audience, if you so desire, and it means your ads can be working for you 24 hours a day. The options are practically limitless when it comes to your reach capabilities when you take your campaign online.

9. Engagement
Online advertising lets you know a customer?s exact level of engagement. You might have circulation and readership data for a print publication, but you can?'t know how much time customers spent interacting with your ad, how much time they spent on your website, if they researched more of your products, and whether that ad led to conversions. An online presence gives you all of this valuable data and places you in a position to learn where your most engaged prospects live.

Online advertising is an essential element of anyone?s marketing mix. It provides you with numerous benefits, including lower costs, robust targeting, and valuable customer insights, that are not available through other advertising mediums. Your customers, competitors, and prospects are online - give them the attention they deserve, while getting more out of your budget.

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9 Reasons Online Advertising Should Be Part of Your Marketing Mix

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If you'?ve been slow on the uptake when it comes to online advertising, you should begin ramping up your efforts. Online ad spend has seen consistent growth and is projected to overtake print, states a recent IAB report. If you haven'?t yet familiarized yourself with online advertising, it?'s time to do so.

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8 Reasons Why Digital Advertising Works for Brands

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8 Reasons Why Digital Advertising Works for Brands

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This article is the oldest article we came across. We believe 2014 is too outdated for the ad tech world.