Quickness compromises usefulness.....
I understand
the need for information to be delivered on-demand.
It’s what we
demand at the end of the day. We want information immediately and companies
must be alive to the possibility to feed it too us, or fear losing out to other
competitors to satisfy our needs.
In a world
where people want information and demand it immediately, it emphasises the
importance for companies to be efficient in delivering the message. However,
by being quick in communicating to the target audience, are you compromising your
usefulness to the consumer?
YouTube for
example, is a mere platform for companies to demonstrate their uselessness. This
is achieved every time an advert pops up as your viewing mid-video. From a
personal view, there is nothing more annoying than being interrupted mid-video
by an ad. I’m not alone, as most YouTubers
share the same view (Pikas & Sorrentino, 2014):
A higher level
of annoyance, as seen below, has a positive correlation to the likelihood of
agreeance that YouTubers will skip adverts:
These charts
demonstrate quite clearly that consumers on YouTube don’t bat an eyelid to
promotional material from companies. There can be a simple explanation for
this. Adverts mid-video are not relevant to the content being consumed at time
of viewing.
“You’ve got to be relevant to consumers
needs in the moment and connect people to the answers they’re looking for” (Google
Micro-Moments)
So ill
repeat myself.
In the
pursuit of companies to communicate the message quickly to consumers, is usefulness
compromised?
Feel free to
discuss by leaving a comment below.
I think that YouTube adverts fail to capture viewers because of the lack of connection towards the video’s context. That’s probably one of the reasons why viewers feel inclined to look for the ‘skip button’ immediately as an ad comes up.
ReplyDeleteHi Tristan, thanks for the comment,
DeleteI would concur with this statement you have put out; more often than not we do skip the ads on YouTube because of the fact it is irrelevant to us and the context of the video we are about to watch. But that's part of the challenge of marketers who do promote using YouTube and other streaming services like Netflix. How to make the content relevant so that people don't skip?
Well for one they need to plan better to ensure they understand the type of consumer who would watch a certain video (i.e. demographics, interests etc.), because it goes a long way towards attaining the right audience for the promotional material you are running.
From a personal perspective, it seems that niche interests seem to have suitable and relevant promotions exposed to the viewer. For example, I have a love of Japanese cars (a niche interest). As I got on to YouTube one day I saw an ad for Toyota, promoting a special edition of its 86 sportscar, something I would take a second look at.
I believe marketers who would want to promote on streaming services like YouTube may have an effective way of doing so. Target the niche interests in people.