The Internet and Web Advertising

This is from an article from Advertising Age Magazine issued March 17, 2008, entitled “Think different: The web’s not a place to stick your ads.”

As we all know, the internet has only been growing as not only a national, but a worldwide medium over the last several decades, and has become arguably the most powerful mass medium in the world today. People can instantly communicate from anywhere on the globe and even though communication is a major facet of the internet, the fact that it has become such a predominant tool in the consumer market is another amazing component of the internet. Advertising on the internet however has been, and currently still is a heavily debated issue, because the internet is a consumer controlled medium and can only be controlled by advertisers to a limited extent. This is where much of the controversy comes into play.
Jakob Nielsen, web designer of the website The Art Bin, said this on the subject of the internet as an advertising medium: “The basic point about the web is that it is not an advertising medium. The web is not a selling medium; it is a buying medium. It is user controlled, so the user controls, the user experiences.” Nielsen’s strong stance on the negative aspects of the internet as an advertising medium are shared by many. Online advertising by no means in ineffective, but many are concerned about the return on expenditure because much of it as looked at as paying too much, only for reach. Ads viewed are not necessarily ads absorbed, and the “click-thru” rates are usually extremely low.
Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple, is not a big fan of online advertising even though Apple is a technological-based company. Apple spent about $32 million in measured media online in 2007, despite Steve Job’s personal preferences. Online advertising is advertising on an effective medium, there is no question about that. The opportunity for consumers to purchase so many products online is a great way to get consumers to consume, but the debate is, do online ads really encourage people to do this? I feel that the best way to get people to a specific website, is just simply through better positioning on a Google search. People use the internet, usually when they are seeking information, or looking for a quick and easy way to purchase something. A quick search into Google, or perhaps a website like eBay will bring up thousands of results for the product that the consumer is looking for. This is why the internet is so user-controlled, and looked at more as consumer-driven exposure because consumers will seek the information or product on the internet that they want. TV commercials, advertising for specific websites are a great way to advertise a website, but putting the company website at the bottom of the end of the advertisement will not necessarily promote people to visit it, unless they are looking to purchase, or simply browse a large number of products of that company.
Once on the internet, people are not very susceptible to online ads anymore. We all know that spam and pop-up ads are annoying, and we are naturally trained to ignore all banner and mid page web advertising. All of this advertising only gets in the way and inhibits consumers from getting to the websites that they really want to. I do not fully agree with Nielsen that the internet is not a medium for any advertising, but I do feel that it is more of a medium for buying and browsing, and leading consumers to a website through other mediums, is more effective advertising than online advertising. The internet is ever-growing however and will only continue to do more of the same. Only time will tell how the internet may be used in the future, and it will be very interesting to see what changes may occur.