Intrusive advertising is THE cornerstone of capitalism...

[Dien Rice]

Originally Posted by -TW

Basic truism (I came up with) -- "The initial spark that leads to the vast majority of transactions, emanates from the marketER, not the marketEE."

Capitalism cannot exist without intrusive advertising.

Intended audience(s) cannot be ALLOWED to ignore the ads (or capitalism will fail).

The success of capitalism is directly proportional to the intrusiveness of advertising.

Hi TW,

The way I like to look at it is in the following way...

There are welcome intrusions, and unwelcome intrusions...

For your advertising to have maximum impact, in my opinion you want to be one of the welcome intrusions...

Many things can be welcome intrusions. If your relationship is falling apart, and your tear-stained eyes see an ad for a book that promises to help fix disintegrating relationships - that could be a very welcome intrusion! That's because it helps to solve a problem that's stabbing you right in the heart at this moment.

An email, letter, or phone call from a long-lost friend can be a welcome intrusion (and some companies have "ridden" on these - like those promotions you used to find at the bottom of emails sent from free email services, like Hotmail, once upon a time, or those notices that pop out from nowhere which you get from friends via those various services on Facebook).

Or information about something you have an interest in could be a welcome intrusion. For example, you may be the president of Hollywood star Scarlett Johansson's fan club, so if you see a promotion for the next movie that she is in, that could be a welcome intrusion.

A free discount coupon could be a welcome intrusion, if the coupon is for a widget that you're interested in.

I know a restaurant that gives out free falafel balls to passers-by, to promote their restaurant. That's a welcome (and yummy) intrusion for me, every time I walk by there...! (And yes, I have eaten there too, so perhaps it worked! They keep doing it, so I suspect their "free sample of yummy food" promotion must work...)

Of course, there are unwelcome intrusions too. It's not that they don't work - they may work to some extent, but I feel they are probably less powerful than welcome intrusions.

However, what is welcome for one person, is unwelcome for another. One person may love Scarlett Johansson with a passion, but another person may feel like screaming in agony whenever they see her - so an ad for her next movie could be welcome for one person, yet not for another.

Anyway, I think it's a good idea to always strive to make your promotions welcome intrusions, rather than unwelcome ones...!

That doesn't mean you have to please every Tom, Dick, and Harriet (which is impossible) - but in my opinion, it's great if your promotions are "welcomed" by your target market...!

Best wishes!

Dien