Re: [projectvrm] Demand based advertising

[Charles Oppenheimer < >]

By the way, I want to point out that "Demand based advertising" is a misnomer. 

Maybe.. of course it isn't anything right now, more of an experiment, to see if there is a market for Prizzm (VRM?) described this way.   I was trying out tag lines, I had kicked around a number of other options:

"reverse advertising"

"ads that don't suck"

 "fixing crappy ads"

"state your intentions"

"whatcha want?"

"i wanna..."

"you choose"

"your intention - not your identity"

"vendor relationship management"

"stop  adveritising suckitude"

"broadcast your intention"

"your data, your choices"

"track this!"

Or as my wife said: "maybe it should say something that's more about the end result of the ad - good ads targeted to your interests means you get introduced to the products and services you would actually be interested in, because you're in control of what you want to see, not because they steal your profile and search info to put ads that companies *think* you want to see. 

Now put that into a tag line. "

Right??   

I was even considering a drop down list where people can choose the tag line they like right from the page.. just for fun, and the spirit of buyer control.

So - here are some datapoints from this "launch" thought I'd share:

~ 90 signups so far - out of 247 visits per google analytics. ...  A 36% conversion rate is extremely high - I wouldn't expect it to continue being that high, I marketed on this list, betali.st and twitter, so maybe more receptive folks there.  But there is some interest.  And in this landing page, the "privacy policy" is the main selling point.. if anybody wants to iterate or reuse a version of that for your own VRM marketing efforts,  do so/let me know, these datapoints point to there being some market for this message.

- The hacking/prototyping is not going as well.  Some of the questions Judi Clark brought up, summarized thusly "Advertising isn't a very compelling end-point to me. I am not likely to go anywhere to see it" is spot on, and I'm getting that with everybody  I work with to ask what type of things they might want to see based on their "intentions".   I thought I might be able to pull something together that is "fun" - but not working so far.  

It is pretty tough to make an compelling advertising experience based on generalized "needs" you put in.  Inventory and the look and feel of ads are a big problem.. they just aren't fun to look at or something people want to do.  Ultimately shopping is more direct - and Amazon and Google have kind of nailed that.

So - experimenting.  I think it is much more likely the first version of the application is extremely focused on a vertical, very specific "need broadcasting", so those needs can be met,  and a bit more likely to be mobile.

Thanks for all the response on this list so far.

Charles

On Jun 11, 2012, at 1:55 PM, Jim Bursch wrote: