Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered weak and weary,
Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore,
While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping,
As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door.
'Tis some visitor,' I muttered, `tapping at my chamber door
- Only this, and nothing more.' -- "The Raven," by Edgar Allan Poe
Let's talk about behavioral targeting (BT), loosely defined as: an advertising methodology in which an advertiser's creative is shown to users based on the sites they visit and/or what the user does on those sites.
Conventional wisdom (…pondered weak and weary) dictates that you need to know your target before you can reach it. This is the same conventional wisdom which, in concert with the latest BT data, has produced industry-average CTRs of a whopping .3% (that's 1-in-333 for anyone who's counting).
But wait just a second…how can that be? How can we know exactly where our prospects are, where they've been and what they're thinking, yet still fail to engage them 99.7% of the time? Maybe it's time to ask ourselves a more cogent question about behavioral targeting: Why bother with it at all? Besides, we already know that video viewing is the dominant (and still growing) online behavior, and that video snacking is the dominant form of video viewing. So do we really want to target consumer behavior in the hopes of guessing right, or do we simply want to tap the behavior we know for certain already exists (…and nothing more)?
Allow me to introduce you to Vidsense, the first and only performance-based video ad network that -- like search marketing -- taps consumer behavior instead of targeting it. Vidsense takes its cue from the early days of radio and television (…many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore), when advertisers hosted their own branded content and the audience came to them -- by choice, of course. With video snacking now the dominant online activity, Vidsense is the only video ad network capable of tapping this demonstrated behavior and putting it to work for you.
Vidsense engages users through a simple process that places thumbnail links to popular TV and movie clips (from its archive of more than 80,000 fully licensed, family-friendly video clips) across an extensive network of more than 50,000 safe-for-workwebsites. Each time a video-hungry consumer clicks on one of these virtual treats (…suddenly there came a tapping), a new window opens (…rapping at my chamber door), transporting both snacker and snack to a demographically compatible advertiser's website where the clip is then viewed within the exclusive confines of that advertiser's branded surroundings. The result is a satisfied prospect whose random appetite for video snacks has been fulfilled, courtesy of the host advertiser -- a triumph of human nature over technology (…only this, and nothing more).
With Vidsense you can forget everything you ever heard about targeting your audience. Remember, your only objective is to attract visitors to your site. Once you see Vidsense in action you'll understand that success online has nothing to do with putting your ad in front of the right people and everything to do with putting the right people in front of your ad. And what better way to lure prospects to your site than with the iconic sights, sounds and personalities that define who we are and what we feel?
Do yourself a big favor. Throw your BT software in the recycle bin and cancel the updates. Stop targeting behavior (…never -- nevermore)and start tapping it instead, with Vidsense.
About Mike Einstein and the Brothers Einstein
Mike Einstein is one-half of the Brothers Einstein, a creative strategy and branding boutique. The Brothers Einstein work with select rapid-growth clients to help define and execute healthy brand strategies in a toxic media environment.