gADget

Om Malik, the man who would be Bond’s next villain has a great article about Google attempting to turn widgets into ads and it’s inherent dangers.

 ’I give you voice over internet protocol Mr. Bond ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha…. (strokes pussy), ha, ha, ha, ha…’

‘Gadget ads can incorporate real-time data feeds, images, video and much more in a single creative unit and can be developed using Flash, HTML or a combination of both. Designed to act more like content than a typical ad, they run on the Google™ content network, competing alongside text, image and video ads for placement.’

The qualifier here is ‘designed to act more like content than a typical ad’, I’d argue they need to be ‘content’ whereby the brand sponsors the widget, not uses it to actively sell - sure it’s logo can sit there, ever present, heightening brand retention, but trying to fool users with gadget ads masquerading as content and then turning into eye popping flash ads, ain’t going to work - make the content viral and the brand will spread - think less about a visual assault and direct message and more about association and recognition.

Posted in Appvertising, New Business Model, Viral Marketing, Web Apps, Widget Marketing | No Comments »