Users Generate Context as Well as Content

There39s a lot to be said however about usergenerated context amp160Put simply more often than notamp160online content does not find you you find it amp160Not only do you find it you find it actively through your search choices and other browsing behavior you determine what you see next amp160You make the choice and apply judgement not always good about if and when to clickClearly there are exceptionsamp160some ads and other links are clearly designed to lead the unwary astray and this is most obviously a problem in fake news and in commercial scams Users rarely arrive unwittingly at extremist sitesIn all those cases the platforms that carry such content have a social and sometimes legal responsibility to eliminate the most egregious examples to protect users and certainly to choke off monetization and by extension protect advertisers from the risk of unacceptable content adjacency amp160It may well be that governments around the world may attempt a quotlaws of our landquotamp160approach to regulation which will be challenging for quotsupranationalquotamp160corporations but in a way is no different to other parts of commercial and industrial lawWith that disclaimer out of the way the idea of usergenerated context is worth exploring as it relates to advertising amp160In a May 2017 update to clients Brian Wieseramp160of Pivotal Researchamp160noted that YouTube now constituted 10 of video viewing among US adults and 15 of all adsupported video By any standards that39s a big number and one that suggests that YouTube should be a significant part of most video schedulesIn many cases it is significant but nowhere near proportionate to total viewing amp160In part at least this is a function of continued advertiser discomfort with large swathes of YouTube content notably gaming social humor and profanityrich music amp160It may also be a function of the industry39s struggles to create advertising that succeeds in on demand shortform video environmentsOn one level it39s understandable given our multigenerational attachment to content that has been subject to a degree of regulation or selfregulation amp160On another level it39s something that needs to be addressed and maybe even embraced by advertisers amp160If we generally accept that content views are a proxy for public taste then user preferences are not being reflected by the creative output of agencies and advertisersamp160Even among those advertisers that do embrace YouTube there is considerable quotcreativequotamp160dissonance between the ads and the content amp160For every Dollar Shave Club ad there are hundreds that are far from native to the zeitgeist of the platform amp160This represents a challenge for all amp160For YouTube more quotfamiliar contentquotamp160would be no bad thing but the real pressure is on advertisers and agencies to produce communications that are engaging and relevant and that leverage the lowercost production techniques that have been so effectively embraced by the content creation communityNo one would argue that attention is at a premium nowadays amp160In a world of Netflix and other adfree platforms as well as welldocumented multitasking it seems remiss to fail in the leverage of such scaled adsupported platforms however unconventional their content amp160Failure is guaranteed by not participating and success will be the reward for making ads that don39t look like they were made for another place or another timeamp160Of course this is not just an issue for YouTube but represents a wider need for quotplatformspecific creativityquotamp160that recognizes the context the use case and the behaviors that characterize the platform in questionClick the social buttons above or below to share this story with your friends and colleaguesThe opinions and points of view expressed in this content are exclusively the views of the author andor subjects and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillagecomMyersBizNet Inc management or associated writers

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Users Generate Context as Well as Content

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Rob Norman

FEMA and the Ad Council Encourage AANHPI Communities to Enhance Disaster Preparedness in New PSAs - Ad Council InSites

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Users Generate Context as Well as Content

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Rob Norman

FEMA and the Ad Council Encourage AANHPI Communities to Enhance Disaster Preparedness in New PSAs - Ad Council InSites

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