Some minor issues

Question 5 in Philippe’s new marketing FAQ: “How intrusive should I be? (expandable formats, videos with sound on by default)”

Good question!

It’s a balancing act. You want to be noticed by your target group, and transform some kind of message. But at the same time you don’t want to annoy, or piss off, people.

There is a theory in television sociological studies about watching the least annoying channel. In short: as long as you don’t annoy your viewers they don’t switch channel. Of course this only counts while zapping.

I think this is a valuable lesson for online advertising, in fact advertising in general. But how do you check this?
Some empathy can help. Put yourself in the shoes of people not interested in your product. Not interested at all, no prospects. Suppose you would see or experience the ad. Would you be annoyed, or would you just skip the ad like you don on regular advertising? If you would be annoyed: the ad is too intrusive.

Also note that in your face advertising might only work for a short time. Remember the popups. CTR was great, attention too, and so was the level of irritation. As a result popup blockers are integrated in browsers nowadays.
Media buyers still want to sell popups. CTR stays great. They try to sell it by saying blocked popups won’t be considered successful, and are in other words not using budget. They still don’t get it ..

So don’t waste the market by being too intrusive. In Belgium the IAB set out a self regulating standard, stating not to start audio by default for example (only on roll over). This standard is signed by the sales houses. I think this is a good thing.

But! How to be noticed?
Personally I think it’s more important to be creative than to be intrusive. Again: interactivity does help!
Always keep your target group in mind: What do they need to see? What will be the trigger to catch them? Only qualitative leads are important, so it’s in your own interest not to make false promises.