Chump Change

Last week I posted on FB and Linkedin a link to a WSJ article that said:

An astounding 54 percent of online display ads shown in “thousands” of campaigns measured by comScore Inc. between May of 2012 and February of this year weren’t seen by anyone, according to a study completed last month. Don’t confuse “weren’t seen” with “ignored.” These ads simply weren’t seen, the result of technical glitches, user habits and fraud.

While I am not one who believes CMOs are blessed with critical thinking skills when it comes to the latest marketing fad, I wonder who will be the first one to wake up and realize that quite likely half of his online ad spend is useless. This, combined with the fact that some of his online ads might be posted on ghost sites and are only seen by bots, is criminal.  And this isn't nickle and dime stuff.  All the online pundits and gurus crow that online display ad spend is something around $14 billion, doing the math here shows that, if true, over $7 billion is wasted.

So far, Ad Week has identified six traffic dealers suspected of doing just this. I believe they will find more. 

The way that agencies and clients are reacting to all this reminds me of the practice we used when I worked in restaurants.  If somebody came in, ordered a big meal then said he couldn't pay for it, you don't call the cops or make him work the dish pit.  Instead, you give him a few bucks and tell him to go do the same thing to his competitor down the street. 

Channeling Oscar Wilde

Seems that brands on Facebook are treating consumers like idiots (Whaaaa?). Yes, it seems that brands have decided that the only thing worse than being talked about is not being talked about.  An Australian media site, reports that KFC wanted to start a debate about whether or not people preferred granny's cooking or KFC's.  

Looking at the comments, most preferred Nanna's roast over KFC.  The rationale for all this:

Because it all comes down to chasing algorithms.  Facebook EdgeRank decides how many people to show posts to based in part on how viral previous messages have been, and also on whether people have interacted with previous messages from the brand. If you like or comment a post, Facebook is going to show you more messages from this brand in the future.

But think about what this means in practice. The people most likely to see KFC messages next time are those who went out of their way to talk about the idiocy of the brand.

And to keep delivering this reach, brands have to do this again and again.

At best, the questions are merely patronising. At worst, damaging for the brand. And of course, KFC isn’t the only one behaving like it thinks its consumers are idiots.

For more examples of brand FAILS you need to visit Condescending Brand Page and sign up for the Twitter feed so you'll never miss another example of when marketers treat you like a total moron or fratboy.