From Absence, through Protest, to Legitimacy – the Advertising Penetration Cycle

I generally dislike discussions about new media that start with ancient history and the development of the Internet in the sixties of the previous century. We’re beyond that. This said, however, there is much to learn from comparisons of the Internet’s evolvement with other media in the past. And if there is one clear pattern that repeated itself in all media – newspapers, radio, broadcast television, cable television, and lately the Internet – it is the penetration of advertising.

We’ve seen it before – from a medium where ads are not allowed, to organizations who protest against the appearance of first ads, and on to the understanding that advertising helps reduce the costs of media access to the general public, and therefore should be embraced under reasonable restrictions. From absence, through protest, to legitimacy – advertising penetrates all media.

This pattern was the same with when ads first appeared in newspapers, then with TV, then with the web, and it has also happened all over again with each new method of advertising in each of the media types. Whenever a new type of advertising appeared, it had to go through the same cycle – from early interest, through protests, and on to recognition and legitimacy. Instead of looking back deep into history books, the best example can be found by flipping back just a few pages: the introduction of ads on the email service from Google.

In its early days, Gmail was available by invitation only and when the ads showed up, the early adopters actually liked the idea of a free service financed by the exposure to ads (before that, except for maybe Hotmail, we had to pay for most good email services – remember that?). When Gmail started to spread, suddenly the ads surrounding the emails became the target of privacy organizations and concerned citizens. The new Big Brother is reading our personal correspondence! And then, a short few years later, it became the standard. The advertising within the email service from Google has become legitimate and millions of people and businesses use Gmail worldwide, enjoying a good free service sponsored by ads.

In Text Advertising is not different than other forms of advertising and it’s going through the same cycle. At first, as a new and exciting method, it was the talk of the day. The online leaders looked into it and the online giants Goolge, Microsoft and Yahoo all made early attempts with the technology. Then, it was shortly deemed intrusive. The same type of people who were once against ads on TV and then on Gmail found the new form of ads as “too much” because it rode on parts of the website’s content. If you keep reading, I will discuss the advantages of in text ads and show how in fact they are the least intrusive, but, as any new advertising method, in text advertising had to take some heat. And then, the protesting calmed down, and during 2008 and early 2009, in text ads became legitimate. From absence, through protest, to legitimacy – in text advertising now penetrates more and more websites.

CNN published an article (Feb 6^th, 2009) about in-text advertising, calling it the “one bright spot in online advertising”, where I picked up an example to the penetration of advertising:

“It’s hard to imagine a news site like the New York Times (nytimes.com) signing on (to in-text ads) without some uproar from readers and staff. Then again, the newspaper recently decided to sell ads on its front page to attract more revenue. And that, too, was once unthinkable.”

And indeed, many other websites are already displaying in-text ads. Here are a few examples: Fox News, MSNBC, iVillage, JPost, BookRags, and eHow. Not convinced yet? Here are some more: esnips, The Hollywood Gossip, Ask The Builder, Money Control, Answer Bag, and so many more (by the way, I used examples of websites who have in-text ads from different providers, not only from my own work place).

By now, I can roughly estimate that over 100,000 websites have tried in text ads, including major websites with substantial traffic. This significant number means that most surfers have seen by now such an ad somewhere. It also means that in each vertical content category, at least a few sites have implemented in text ads, sowing the seeds of legitimacy that spreads on quickly.

On the other hand, despite being a large number, when looking at 100,000 websites out of over 150 million websites worldwide, it is still only a fraction. Take this fact, add the legitimacy factor, and multiple with the crazy fast growth rate, and boom – you get the phenomenal potential of in text advertising. I bet you that the Internet giants will join this party soon. In text advertising is on the verge of being everywhere online.