This would seem like common sense, but common sense is not always so common:
Don’t advertise so much that you’re annoying your customers.
On Sports Illustrated’s Monday Morning Quarterback section, this six minute, twenty-six second video has seven ads for Microsoft Windows: one at the beginning and six fly-ins of a Windows 8-like layout that comes and goes so quickly it communicates nothing except annoyance.
That’s in addition to the Windows logos prominently displayed not once but twice on the set.
Okay, we get it: this video segment is sponsored by Microsoft Windows (repeat that six more times).
And here’s the predictable reaction: viewers are really annoyed. For example, “Love the MMQB. Not big on video’s but thought I would give this one a try. Enjoyed the interview but will be the last video I ever watch on here due to the constant advertising. Completely ruined the entire video.”
This qualifies as a fail under customer experience, and it reflects badly on the advertiser and publisher, the latter of which is being informed by this and other negative comments that they’re going to be losing out on CPM dollars because viewers are not going to watch their future videos.
The 30-second spot at the beginning, on-set logos, and a logo at the end would have been acceptable for a video of this length.
There are opt-in video advertising formats, such as Google’s TrueView. If you’re going to require people to watch your ad, don’t do it to the point of annoyance.
Duh.
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