I don’t understand why so many of the traditional media sites still don’t get the Internet. They think because they have an online website or blog or “ooh, a facebook page” that they are now net savvy marketers. Not so fast guys. Just because you are placing your content on this new medium (to you) does not mean you have all the the skills mastered. Even more importantly, Internet advertising is not just about technology or tactics. It’s about connecting with people in a way that no other medium has ever afforded. I wish these traditional media guys would start thinking how to make those affordances more available and give people more symbiotic advertising methods.

To truly be Internet marketing savvy one needs to understand the spirit of the medium and what drives people to use it. Not only understanding their intent but knowing the best ways to help them accomplish what they came to your site do do in the first place. How does a site provide an “authentic experience” that provides people not only with what they came to do but a memorable experience so they will want to come back. Especially if you are one of many sites in the google search results displaying the same story or similar content. People in the hospitality business get this, brands like Apple get this and companies like Nordstrom built their brand on delivering an incredible experience. The medium does not take away the importance of delivering something people will remember as a positive emotion.

What brought me to write this post was my “experience” today with Inc the business magazine. A colleague had referred me to an article about facebook about companies selling product from their facebook fan pages. I decided to check out the article and I have to say the experience was horrible!

After the initial superstitial ads when the site was loading I finally got to the page. Not a fan of superstitials but fine, not a big issue. But then, as I was trying to read the article I get the survey popup ad, dancing right in front of the text of the article I was reading. No thanks, click and go away. Then another, larger ad pops up and blocks the text I was reading. This last one had no cancel button and no way to get it out of the way of the text I was reading. wtf?! See the picture below. I thought this might be a bug so I tried the same page with three different browsers and all did the exact same thing. In the words of Metallica, “sad, but true”.

Here’s a screenshot of what I’m talking about. Has anyone experienced similar? On Inc or other sites? Maybe we should start collecting all of these and media companies might get the point and stop trying to ‘throw ads in front of us so we can see them’. It’s actually worse than turning the volume up on tv ads.

Inc throws ads in your face