In advertising, there’s no such thing as a captive audience. It’s easier than ever for people to tune out experiences they don’t like (although, sadly, this doesn’t apply to boring meetings).
YouTube codified this with the “Skip This Ad” buttons on the ads that run before the content you actually want to see.
In one sense, that reinforces the definition of ads as unwanted interruptions. They seem to say, “we know watching this ad is a chore, but you only have to wait 5 … 4… 3 … 2 … 1 second to forward past it.”
In another sense, it sets up the challenge to advertisers to create ads so good that people choose to watch.
This dynamic reminds me of a quote I heard from Cindy Gallop: “People hate advertising in general, but they love advertising in particular”.
The “Skip This Ad” phenomenon makes it more important than ever to create the advertising people love in particular.
(Marketoonist Monday: I’m giving away a signed print of this week’s cartoon. Just share an insightful comment to this week’s post. I’ll pick one comment at 5:00 PST on Monday. Thanks!)