Terry Heaton’s PoMo Blog

"Postmodernism is a change-or-be-changed world. The word is out: Reinvent yourself for the 21st century or die! Some would rather die than change." Leonard Sweet, cultural historian.

Rocketboom launches eBay ad auction

Andrew and Amanda over at Rocketboom have stepped out on a new venture related to their wonderful daily vlog that has the potential to start something REALLY big in terms of online advertising. They’re auctioning off advertising on eBay, but that’s not the disruptive innovation. They are insisting that they produce the ads as a part of Rocketboom content, which means they’ll be archived for retrieval via unbundled media applications.

This auction is a bid for advertisement space on Rocketboom, in addition to payment for our creative services. The actual advertisements (the content) will be created and owned solely by Rocketboom and exist as a part of our regular Rocketboom show under a creative commons, non-commercial, share-alike, license.

…We will work closely with the winner to make sure that their message will resonate with our viewers in a beneficial way for the winner. The bidder understands, however, that Rocketboom will have complete control over the commercials that we create.

This seems like foolishness for any advertiser, but I don’t think so. Firstly, Rocketboom knows its viewers, so anything they produce will “fit” their audience like a glove. Secondly, the fact that these ads will be Rocketboom content means Andrew and Amanda will give it their all — not just toss the responsibility to a production department that has agendas other than the program (as is done with local TV advertising). Thirdly, by making the ads part of Rocketboom’s content, the advertiser is actually getting what amounts to product-placement advertising, even though it’s not being positioned as such. Who’s going to tune out during an ad produced by Andrew and Amanda? Not me. In fact, it’ll be just the opposite.

I think this has the potential to create a significant disruption in the world of video advertising, assuming they can find takers for the concept. It’s a tough sell for the ad world to give up control, but in a very real sense, this is what advertisers (not agencies) have been wanting for a long time — placing their products and services in front of potential customers in the seamless context of the medium in which it’s delivered.

We’ll be watching the bidding.

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This entry was posted on Monday, January 30th, 2006 at 11:46 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

One Response to “Rocketboom launches eBay ad auction”

Ed Kohler Says:
February 2nd, 2006 at 10:41 am
KARE 11, a local NBC affiliate in Minneapolis has decided to start selling part of their morning show to advertisers. Rather than deal with PR people trying to pitch them for stories, they’re just going to take the company’s money. In some ways, it’s more honest, but may crowd out stories from people who have an interesting story to tell, but shallow pockets.

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With the exception of the essays entitled "TV News in a Postmodern World," all material created by Terry L. Heaton and included in this Weblog is licensed under a Creative Commons License.

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