Letting consumers choose advertisers? Brilliant!
Letting consumers choose advertisers? Brilliant!
The idea of a single sponsor during a user’s surfing is something I’ve advocated for a long time, and now the folks at WeatherBug have taken it one step further by allowing users to actually select the advertiser. I think this is outstanding, for it fits beautifully into a post-mass market world. Previously, WeatherBug permitted users to select an advertiser for a couple of days, but now that’s moving to a whole month. Here’s now MediaDailyNews describes it:
“We decided to give consumers complete control over their ads, instead of giving them a sponsor for a few days,” says Andy Jedynak, WeatherBug’s senior-VP and general manager. “Once they’ve selected their sponsor for a few days, all the [other] ads go away for the rest of the month.” The ads, mostly rich media-enabled, link directly to an advertiser’s Web page. The goal, according to WeatherBug, is to deepen the relationship between the marketer and the individual to deliver better results. At the end of the month, consumers are asked to choose another advertiser from among the WeatherBug categories.
Postmoderns (Pomos) reject the passive role of “viewer,” especially as it relates to advertising. Why do you think Madison Avenue is so afraid of TiVos? The Internet is fertile ground for creative minds, those who would rewrite the rules of advertising in a Postmodern world. By empowering its users, I think WeatherBug has taken a major step forward in this creative process.
