Brunner Digital Blog

I’m not sure why it took me so long to post this. But our Interactive Creative Director has been selected as a key contributor to the well known Adotas E-newsletter/blog. While some may have differing views of Ernie’s often strong opinions (even within our walls), we believe that healthy debate and dialogue is good, so in the spirit of transparency we thought that we would share.

http://www.adotas.com/author/ernie-mosteller/

“We need a new site. The old one is ugly, buggy, and doesn’t do what we want. We want one that looks like ___________. That’s a really great site.”

I wonder how many times those words have been spoken in conference rooms across the country. Heck, across the world, even. It’s only natural. Each of us has a favorite site, or sites – we like how they look, we like how they work, we like the way we’re able to use them when we use them ourselves. So it’s only natural for us to want to re-create an experience we already know we like for our customers and prospects.

Unfortunately, it’s not that simple.

Because your customers and prospects may be (probably are) looking for something very different from you than a duplication of your favorite website. And what your customers are looking for from you is, in the end, what you need to deliver.

Try this exercise:

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In an earlier post, I sang the praises of the advertising model offered by Pandora.com. Another site that is taking an innovative approach to advertising within broadcast media content online is ABC.com.

As television networks continue to make more programming available on the web, they have taken different approaches to incorporating advertising into their online program streams. Most of the networks have basically created a video stream that mirrors their on-air model. They play a portion of the program, then switch to a 30-second advertiser’s spot, then continue on with the program.

But ABC.com has taken a different tact. Within ABC’s online video player, advertisers have the option to load in a branded web page or even a microsite during the commercial breaks. This branded page is completely under the control of the advertiser, allowing the brand to include a variety of content - video and audio streams, flash product demos, user polls, online games - whatever the brand want to provide. A countdown timer keeps viewers on the advertisers page for the length of a standard TV spot, and after that the user actually needs to click to continue with the program - it doesn’t just start again. This model is really forward thinking for a television network because of all that it offers both the advertiser and the viewer:

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