The Itch From The Pitch

I was extremely frustrated today...

Driving around and running some errands for my wife, I downloaded a few podcasts for the afternoon. There were a couple of shows that were recommended to me, so I decided to give them a listen!

The content started out great, the discussion had me hooked and then it happened...

"Buy this product, it's awesome, I use it myself, you can buy lots of it at this website. Buy it buy it buy it..."

O.K., I thought...I'm used to ads in a podcast but this was weird. Right in the middle of it. As the discussions were getting good. No problem, they need to pay their bills...

I kept listening, and not only 10 minutes later came:

"Buy another thing I'm pitching! You need this! It's awesome! Buy it buy it!!!"

The podcast was about 30 minutes long and I had already been subjected to in your face advertising not only 10 minutes into the show. And yup, they ended the show with their 'sponsors ad' as well.

This isn't new though right? We've been force fed advertising since the beginning of time! From the beginning of YouTube videos to Super Bowl commercials, ads are everywhere. And I have been in the 'marketing' world for 2 decades now, I should be applauding whoever sold this podcaster the ad space right?

Something just rubbed me the wrong way being force fed these ads on a podcast...There's a reason I don't have cable television anymore lol

And I get it, people need to pay their bills and that's fine but doesn't it just feel weird these days?

To be...Pitched?

"Wait a minute Jongo....Didn't you just launch a website that essentially sends ads to people 24/7/365?"

Guilty!

But do you know what's unique about the ListNerds experience for me so far for me at least?

I'm actually LOOKING for certain type of ads inside the platform...I'm scanning for people's Hive blog posts LOL

I know, it's a foreign concept to me as well but this is where I think advertising is headed...

Not so much the ListNerds model, that's way too egotistical of me. But the idea that as a consumer I know WHAT I want and I will pay money for it. And I will seek it out....

Permission based advertising, being rewarded for your time and attention...Whatever you want to call it, I do think we're at the beginning of something very unique in the advertising industry.

There will be the purists that will go down with the ship. They way it works now is effective they will argue. What they are really trying to confirm is their reason for being in business, most are in their comfortable little bubble and will do everything they can to stay away from change.

As an entrepreneur, this too, is a foreign concept to me. If I'm comfortable in business, I'm not taking enough risks. And to me, the bigger risk in traditional advertising and marketing is...Not adapting.

Here's the truth, customers don't want to be PITCHED, but they DO want to buy! So as a marketer and advertiser in today's day and age, our job is to provide them with opportunities to buy, and not force feed what they have no interest in, down their throats.

That being said...

Super Bowl is a few weeks away. And gigantic corporations will spend a small fortune to get your attention in 15 or 30 seconds...It's not dead yet...But the power truly is being shifted from the seller...To the buyer!

What do you think?

Do you count down the seconds before you can 'Skip Ads' as well?

What are some new ways, traditional advertising can adopt and change to the markets?