The Dirty 30

Image from Brandweek

Have you ever been on a website and said to yourself, "This page needs more 30-second advertisements between pages,"? ShortTail Media hopes you do. This summer, it will be launching a beta for what they call a Digital 30, or "D30" for short. It will be a full-screen ad unit between pages that will run 15 or 30-second television style commercials that users can't avoid.

Is this the solution to solve the dilemma of selling effective online ad space? Or is this an example of duct-taping an old solution to a new problem?

This quote from the Brandweek article gives me an indication of where their heads are at with this one:

Back in February at the Interactive Advertising Bureau's annual meeting, Payne [CEO of ShortTail] delivered a speech urging the industry to adopt bigger, bolder creative and to be less sensitive to user experience.

I have no problems with bigger, bolder or creative. But being less sensitive to the user experience sounds like a huge no-no, especially in the world of online. Part of the reason why television and television advertising isn't working like it used to is because of the user experience. Consumers that want content and want it now will not sit through your 30-second advertisement. They'll flip the channel. Part of why the online world is big to consumers is the ability to avoid 30-second commercials.

Online, the user-experience is critical because the user has all the power. They have near-complete control over what it is they want to experience when behind a computer. If a user doesn't want to watch your 30-second ad, odds are they can probably get the same content from somewhere else that serves the same stuff without those ads. Or they'll pull up a new window or tab and look at something else.

Payne says, "Companies have tried things like this before with mixed results. But we may be reaching a stage in the growth of our industry that for video users tolerance is higher." I really don't think we're there yet. And I'm not sure we will ever be.

I'm not disrespecting video (or even the D30 altogether), but this really feels like the old guard trying to force their way back into the world of new media. The world of new media comes with its own unique set of challenges and opportunities, including a number of ways to get people to go out of their way to watch or be a part of advertising. This solution doesn't feel like it takes any of the aspects of the Internet into consideration and instead comes off as a selfish cash-grab that I don't think people will tolerate.

We'll find out together I guess when the beta rolls out this summer.