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MARKETING | Noah Brier

Advertising Space as Media

Gawker Artists is an interesting way to get people to pay more attention to advertising space.

February 3, 2008 | RSS | EMAIL | PRINT | 10 COMMENTS

gawker artists If you've been over at Gawker lately, you've probably noticed some interesting looking banner ads. They are regular leaderboard and skyscraper sizes, but rather than featuring products they show off artists (the one on the left is by Jeremy Corff). It's all part of a program called Gawker Artists and no matter what you think of Nick Denton and his publications, this is a smart move.

So here's my thinking: I hardly ever notice banners and even if you don't buy banner blindness it's hard to deny that advertising on the web is everywhere. No matter what page your on, there always seems to be something sliding around trying to sell you something. Like most things, it's only fair to assume that the more we are exposed to, the more immune we become. Which is what makes the Gawker Artists campaign so interesting. By replacing animated banners from advertisers with static banners from artists, Gawker makes you take note of the space again. In essence what they've realized is that advertising is media, and in such an over-saturated world, they've got to sell it as such: Which means combining content and advertising.

It's interesting to think about what's brought this (a need to treat advertising space as media) on since it's not really a problem other media have to deal with. My best guess is that since every page of a magazine feels essentially the same, it's not a major issue (plus you naturally are going to flip through as you read). Television, I guess, faces some of the same issues, which is why they are constantly sticking commercials in between cliff-hangers and the such, but they're still treating the space as a different entity.

I'm mostly just babbling now because I'm not sure what else to say. I think the bottom line is that there are some lessons to take away from this and I expect many others to follow Gawker's lead and add more value to their advertising space. It's also quite relieving to me that the ads I have noticed recently have been art: As if my mind hasn't been so poisoned by terrible ads that I can't notice anymore (though I can only assume one outcome of this will be advertisers hiring these artists . . . which isn't necessarily a bad thing).

That's it.

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1Shravan

P.s: New blogger… would love to hear from all you people in my blog!! Pls visit and post comments on how i improve it!

Shravan(www.deliciousfingers.blogspot.com)

February 4, 2008

2amber

oh sigh. i like gawker artists too - I've actually checked out a lot of their sites. But sadly, Gawker serves them as filler for when they've not sold out their inventory.

Paying your editors based on the amount of traffic their posts garner has one drawback - you get through a lot of impressions pretty quickly, and they have to put something up there when all the paid-for media has been run.

To tell you the truth, I love the fact that they're promoting artists, but I think this leftover inventory could be put to better use serving ads for non-profits, or charities or something.

at least they're not running remnant ads, though. i guess they're not that greedy.

February 4, 2008

3michael galpert

I noticed Flavorpill does the same sort of thing. They intersperse artwork with ads in their emails, this way you anticipate the artwork and are presented with an ad that is designed like the artwork.

February 4, 2008

4Julie, writer surefirewealth.com

Maybe they realized that ads on the Internet are annoying enough as they are. I find that magazine ads aren't too irritating because they are pretty nice to look at anyway. Perhaps they think that by transforming the banners into something artistic, they can compel more surfers to click on them.

February 4, 2008

5chartreuse

I've noticed the Denton art thing on his sites for a while now.

I like it(and I like Denton) but I don't think it's media per say.

It's advertising.

(Just like comments on a blog is an ad for the commenter. Hence comment spam.)

Maybe Media as Advertising Space should be the real title...

Oh and Shravan, stop thinking like a 20th Century marketer. It's irritating.

February 4, 2008

6Noah Brier

Or maybe they're making the larger point that there's really no difference between advertising and media in the first place . . .

February 4, 2008

7Toad

Have to admit that my first thought was along the line of Amber's: they're running artwork to disguise the fact that they haven't sold enough advertising. Throwing a few pieces of art into the mix is a hip and clever way of hiding the fact you've only got the same 4 banners.

Not sure why we keep seeing banners as DM vehicles anyway, as opposed to the online equivalents of outdoor billboards. But that's a very different conversation.

I'd be curious to see some stats on how long-time users (of particular sites) read them- do they automatically skip over the places where the banners are - or do they scan to see if anything's relevant?

February 5, 2008

8Eamon

The web is so saturated in visual spam that I have banned all visuals from my blog (for a while at least).
At the end of the day, whether it is copy or visuals we have to ensure that both are original and interesting.

February 5, 2008

9Erin

great find Noah. I look forward to advertisers and media catching on but...it will be a while before a client is willing to put his budget to something so non-traditional. That's where smart planners/strategists like Naked come in. Let the games begin. :)

February 5, 2008

10PDF

Fascinating and thought-provoking post, Noah. I'm intrigued by the notion of using something unexpected to elicit greater attention to the expected. Thus, by featuring artists in the spots where one would usually find a traditional commercial advertisement, the marketer seems to be enhancing the ability of the viewer to focus on the advertisements (or more pessimistically, weakening the ability of the viewer to tune out the advertisements). While not a perfect analogy at all, it reminded me of the best salespersons at Sephora, who will find lingering customers and make them smell freshly ground coffee beans. After a while, your olfactory passages begin to tune out the various smells and you're physically unable to discern the differences as well. The coffee beans--strong, acidic, and unexpected--clear your olfactory passages and you are suddenly able to smell things crisply again and form sensory attachments to a scent. The unexpected Gawker artist spots make a viewer see more clearly what they were ignoring or blurring before.

February 21, 2008