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For years, someone somewhere is always talking about the next "big thing" to happen on the Internet. I don't believe there will ever be the next "big thing." Progress comes in the form of smaller, bite-sized pieces that we may not realize as true progress until after the fact.
Anyway, many people, including myself, accept the challenge of trying to find these smaller chunks of progress before we realize in hind-sight that they were significant developments in the maturity of the internet.
PREVIOUS MILESTONES...
In regards to advertising, I believe there have been a handful of noteworthy milestones:
- 468x60 Banner ads
- Affiliate Marketing
- Opt-In Email Marketing
- Pop-Up/Pop-Under Ads
Now not all of these are as effective as they once were, but they continue to be used, which further supports the fact that they are indeed, milestones.
So the question is always, "what's next?" Better yet, how can we identify it and take advantage of it while it's still very effective before it becomes overused and abused and loses its effectiveness?
CRITERIA
There are several things that would indicate that a marketing method has the potential to be the next "bite-size piece." This first phase might be called "Measuring Up." Does the method itself meet the criteria for being used on a wide-scale basis?
PHASE I - MEASURING UP
- Effectiveness - Preliminary tests show that the new method is effective on a broad-based scale. And not effective for just one market segment, but applicable to all categories of web sites, visitors and advertisers.
- Scaleable - The solution must have few or little barriers to implementation. For example, patent-protected code, software and/or methodologies with outrageous license fees must not exist to prevent widespread dissemination. Or it shouldn't take 100 hours of expert programmer and graphic artist time to create the solution and/or content.
- Reproducible - Can other sites reproduce the results? Can other sites use the same techniques and achieve similar results?
If the first three criteria in Phase I have been met, you have a methodology that has a good chance of "making it out of the laboratory" and becoming a major milestone. So, the next question to ask is whether the method is "catching on."
PHASE II - ADAPTATION
If a methodology passes Phase I, the next question then is when will it enter Phase II - Adaptation?
- Utilization by Large Web Sites - Are the larger web sites using or starting to use the methodology? Do you see ad campaigns using the methodology being run occasionally at the larger web properties?
- Utilization by Large Ad Networks - Are the larger ad networks offering this as a service or starting to offer this as a service?
If you can say "yes" to these two questions, you're probably at the beginning stages of the next significant milestone in internet advertising.
SO WHAT IS NEXT?
So, now you're probably wondering whether any new advertising method currently falls into Phase I or Phase II. The good news is that we think we have found a method that is in Phase II right now. It has no common name right now, so I'll just describe it for now. It involves taking a traditional banner ad (of just about any size) and making it more noticeable by the visitor by using motion in a way that's hard to ignore.
For more details on this methodology, including an example, test campaign statistics and much more, visit our sister site, AdMinder and read the article by Sam Robbins.
Then, you can tell everyone that you were at the beginning stages of the "next big thing." ;)
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