While the internet has this reputation of accessibility and instancy, lately I've noticed that advertising has been getting in the way.
About a year ago, I go into Mad Men on the hiatus between season 3 and 4. While Netflix had seasons 1 and 2 available instantly, I had to buy season 3 (the latest one at the time) on Amazon. What a clever tactic: tease viewers with instant and free access to a bulk of the show and THEN make them pay when they're really hooked.
While for most consumer, paying ten dollars to watch around 15 episodes of a show isn't that awful of a price (especially compared to DVD prices), the mindset of "free and instant" is definitely a major factor in deterring viewers from paying for episodes.
About a year later, I am trying to catch up on the not-yet-completed first season of Walking Dead. Not so easy, let me tell you.
Episode one somehow slipped through the cracks and was online for free (although the sound quality was awful--sheet rustling sounded like a bomb). But episode two on are not available so easily. I have two options: pay $10 for the entire first season on Amazon (of which episode 4-6 are on my TV's On Demand section and episode 1 I've already seen) or fill out an obnoxiously long survey before I can see if for free.
Now, I would fill out a survey, I would. However, I have gone down that road before. Whoever came up with this brilliant idea needs to reevaluate. These surveys require you to "opt-in" and give up a lot of personal information, most significantly, your email address.
Advertisers think they are being clever by finding out your interests and sending you millions of emails about all the wonderful things you love! This is not working, in my opinion, and only deters people from "opting in" more often. If advertisers can figure out a better, less invasive way of advertising, maybe more people would "opt in." I wouldn't mind a few emails, but these surveys are definitely not pinpointing my interests very effectively.
So, while the idea of customization is definitely appealing, as of now it is still idealistic. Give me a survey I can fill out in less than five minutes, pinpoints my interests and sends me under 5 emails, and then, THEN, I will opt-in. For now, I'm going to bug some friends about watching Walking Dead on their DVR. :)
2 comments:
Last night while I was finishing our term paper, I was looking for episodes of the show I was writing my paper on. While do this, I realized how much advertising is getting in the way and that internet is loosing its reputation of the accessibility and instancy you are talking about.
Also if I wanted to watch a full episode of my show, I had to pay a fee for just that one episode and it included advertisements. I have become exteremely disappointed with the internet.
I would have to agree with you Melissa...
I think advertisers are realizing that their is a line to be crossed when it comes to the intrusiveness of advertising. People like to have things that they may enjoy suggested to them, sure, but not at the expense of their privacy.
There are a lot of pro's and con's associated with overly intrusive advertising in the modern era. I'm sure this is largely due to the fact that the means to reach small fragmented audiences with such specific advertisements is increasing at a startlingly high exponential rate given the constantly evolving nature of the internet.
I mean look at facebook (yeah, I know... a facebook example.) Based on how you describe yourself in your profile, you receive suggested advertisements. I put engaged as a joke (granted, a stupid joke) in my relationship status, and I immediately get bombarded with marital ads.
I think we will see this intrusiveness begin to fade away after advertisers recover from the initial shock of having so much power at their finger tips. People value their privacy too much to buy into these overly-intrusive ads.
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