Marques Brownlee, better known as MKBHD
In 30 minutes, I'm going to buy a new phone on contract.
I'll choose the Samsung Note 4. It's on Telenor.
Now, why did I, a nerd and a heavy user of phones, choose that phone?
The simple answer is, I've done my research. And like 632834 people in the last week, I did that by going to see what Marques Brownlee thinks of it. He's the best phone reviewer out there. He makes a little bit of money, but it's not even close to what he should be making. Cause he's heavily influencing purchasing decisions. Unlike almost any ad I've ever seen.
More ranting below the video:
So why does this mean that online ads, and I include my loved category of podcasts in this, broken? Blame Google is the short answer. Their choice that the click should be the ultimate measure of how effective an ad is, has been the number of killer in the media industry.
What was a decision of scale for Google, which serves billions of ads, has become a standard in the industry. They refer to it as a number of things, but the measuring stick is always based on a click. Clicked a youtube video (and didn't click out after 5 sec which makes the ad not paid btw), clicked a banner ad, remembered to click in the coupon code from a podcast you heard 2 weeks ago when you are making a new website on Squarespace.
Yeah, this is an awful system. And the internet based content producers gladly take it on the chin, and go even lower end. Trying to emulate Google even more.
This is all wrong, and will be the biggest reason for why most of the stuff online still looks amateurish due to very low budgets, and stuff on TV keeps looking epic because of very big budgets. TV people are smart enough not to bow down to advertisers, and that industry, despite what you may think, is doing really well in many markets.
See, TV got it. Never ever measure. Just tell people. It works.
It does work. Maybe not as good as they like to believe, but that doesn't matter.
And online media needs to sit up, grow some balls, turn prices up 1000%, turns number of ads down 95%, make the ads look cool and natural, stop measuring, stop with the pre-rolls and start making real money.
And podcasters who do Stamps.com ads? Stop. Please stop. Unite. Leo Laporte, Joe Rogan, Dan Carlin, Marc Maron, Chris Hardwick and even Ira Glass. They all take it in the ass from the lowest of low end advertisers. Mostly it's super boring things like stamps.com or some shitty food delivery. These guys controls the minds of millions and sell stupid stamps?
They need to unite, to be a stronger force, and start to be what they are. Radio that people listen to in their earbuds. It's even more powerful than radio. Even more personal. And the better ads, the more time they can spend on it.
The internet just needs to stop being so ashamed of itself.
But I gotta run. I got a phone to buy.