The Cheng and Ch'i of Online Advertising - Jaffer Ali - MediaBizBlogger

British General Then I think I can speak for Field Marshal Montgomery He39d say you39re asking the impossible of your menGeorge S Patton Of course he would Cause he39s never realized that39s what we39re in business forI39ve been spending a lot of time lately writing about the soul of online advertising Much of what I39ve written has been either misinterpreted or misunderstood for which I accept most of the blame My only defense is my contention that dialectical concepts don39t necessarily lend themselves to simple narrative andor articulationMy intended audience is the growing culture of online advertising professionals my perspective one of an insider who makes his living from the fruits of our labor My point of departure is my abiding belief in the profound potential of what we39re in business for This matters a great deal to me because I am distressed by how we have reduced history39s grandest communication tool to specious analytics that belie our purposeConventional media wisdom has always been to invest our trust in the numbers because the numbers don39t lie Let me suggest that there is no wisdom or truth to this misguided notion and that we39d perhaps be better served by taking a long look back to see how best to move forward With this in mind please allow me to introduce you to the ancient concepts of cheng and ch39iNo cheng and ch39i isn39t some Bteam comedy duo armed with a ZigZag endorsement Cheng and ch39i were first promulgated 2500 years ago by the Chinese general Sun Tzu in his brilliant treatise Art of War I am in debt to military strategist John Boyd and even more so to Chet Richards for introducing these twin concepts to the business lexicon Cheng and ch39i defy strict translations but for our purposes here are the definitionsCheng Conventional tactics or strategy That which is expected Ch39i Unconventional tactics or strategy Going beyond that which is expectedPatton a student of chengch39i knew that doing quotthe impossiblequot obviously went beyond the expected This was ch39i which was the driving principle that inspired himCheng and ch39i are like yin and yang in that the two are complimentary and inextricably entwined They can also be transformed into each other Think about this for a minute What is at first unexpected becomes expectation over time For example witnessing your child39s first steps is delightful ch39i After a few months it becomes cheng or quotold hatquotIt can also be the case that one person39s cheng is another39s ch39iLet39s apply these precepts to our common cause For the quants among us online analytics based on sophisticated metrics is mother39s milk It39s both necessary and expected pure cheng if you will Accordingly only the newest fastest most complex behavioral algorithms can achieve ch39i status in their eyes But neither today39s quantifiable cheng nor tomorrow39s equally vapid ch39i move us any closer to understanding what we39re in business for That39s because cheng and ch39i comprise a belief system that transcends measurement With this in mind allow me to share with you the inspiration behind our own online business model VidsenseVidsense is a payperclick video network cheng pure and simple Vidsense uses a conventional metricamp8212costperclickamp8212as its coin of the realm Approximately 50 of all online advertising is sold on a perclick basis with Google the largest practitionerNot so long ago payperclick was new and innovative It was delightful ch39i compared to its CPMbased predecessor But paying for clicks is no longer revolutionary innovative or particularly clever Paying for clicks is now decidedly chengWith Vidsense we place our weight of effort behind a new paradigm that achieves the ch39i necessary to keep us focused on what we39re in business for We deliver clicks like any other payperclick network but we do it in a manner that forges a genuine bond between brand and consumer Essentially we transform advertisers from their traditional role as hunters into a more actionable portrayal as the hunted Let me explainVidsense engages consumers on their own terms predicated on our belief that the best way to target your audience in an ondemand medium is to let them target you instead For example we recently conducted a successful campaign for Just for Men39s Touch of Gray The objective was clear Get boomeraged men to visit Touch of Gray39s website where they could take advantage of a lineextension launch promotionTo do this we placed demographically targeted thumbnail links to popular TV and movie clips across compatible publishers within our vast network of more than 20000 safeforwork websites Consumers who clicked on a thumbnail were transported directly to Touch of Gray39s website where the chosen clip was then viewed within the exclusive confines of Touch of Gray39s carefully branded environmentThe results speak for themselves Of the 165000 Vidsensegenerated clickthroughs fully 85 fell within Touch of Gray39s prime target demo of men 45 90 were unique visitors and more than a thousand took advantage of a free coupon offer These 165000 visitors collectively spent nearly 6600 hours on Just for Men39s website literally surrounded by the Touch of Gray brandTechnically we were selling the click cheng But we delivered something totally unexpected ch39i By honoring viewer choice and fulfilling expectations we delivered a happy camper directly to the advertiser39s online showroom The hunter became the hunted and everybody was satisfied The content served as a common meeting ground reminiscent of advertising times gone by Cheng and ch39i were employed together inextricably entwined in pursuit of what we39re in business forIn another recent article of mine Has the Online Industry Lost Its Schwerpunkt I invoke another military stratagem to analogize how and where to best place our weight of effort I suggest by proxy that there is an appalling lack of ch39i in today39s online media ecology From my insider39s perspective measurement is necessary but not a means to its own end Numerical analysis ad nauseum is the easy partamp8212that39s what computers do best But this is not ch39i This is not where we should focus our intent not where we should place our weight of effort I believe we can do better as an industry than to settle for the same old cheng Or worse try to convince ourselves that our cheng is ch39i We need more creativity We need innovation that reaches beyond algorithmic reduction We need to embrace quality at every turn We need to position relationships at the fulcrum of everything we do We need cheng AND ch39i Our schwerpunkt demands it and to paraphrase George Patton it39s what we39re in business forAbout Jaffer Ali Jaffer Ali is CEO of Vidsense the Web39s largest video advertising network With more than 80000 advertiserfriendly video clips licensed from major film and TV studios the Vidsense network of more than 20000 safeforwork partner websites delivers millions of qualified visitors directly to advertiser websites on a pure PayPerClick PPC basis Vidsense is to Adsense what video is to print a far more engaging and compelling environment for consumers and advertisers alike

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