Bloomport U

I have had way too much work and in fact, I really should not even be writing this blog… but when I read this article (How to Dethrone Google) in the HBR voices, it got my futuristic mind channeling.  The point of the article is that marketers need to think in terms of delivering value in the message, not just delivering the message to promote recall.  Google does this effectively through its pay per click campaigns.  When my wife and I started an e-business in 2005, we learned that regardless of how much you paid for a Google advertisement to show up on the Google “sponsored search”, part of the algorithm that decided if your advertisement would show up was how many users actually clicked on your advert.  While at the time it was interesting, it was not until I read this article that I understood the full power behind the concept.  In fact, the more interesting your advertisement is, (as driven by the number of people clicking on the advert) the cheaper the advertisement actually gets!  This means that if you are advertising “ballerina slippers” when people searching for “hiking boots”, it does not matter how much you pay for that advertisement, if people don’t find the advertisement interesting as (indicating by clicks) the less the add will be displayed.

Let’s make this concept bigger.  Last night, I spent about 20 minutes searching through Craig’s list and eBay for a 1969-72 Jeepster Commando (relatively obscure and particularly ugly Jeep) with little success.  Here is an example of where I (a motivated buyer) was forced to go search different platforms for the product.  Due to the obscurity of the product + my specific needs, the product was not identified thus no sale was made.  Likely I will repeat this search again next month.  Now, what if that product came to me automatically through any website I happened to visit?  What if a profile could be made that would channel products direct to me in the moment that whatever fancy crosses my mind?  Advertising at that point becomes a novel service, not noise to be avoided… put another way, the ballerina slippers of online advertising would all go away and be replaced with a slew of Jeepster Commandos.  Now that sounds like the future!