Week 6: Advertising, Promotion, and Public Relations in the Web World

Materials:

• Read Business Model Generation: Strategy text
• Read Secrets of Googlenomics
• Read Facebook article
• Read Pinterest article (in hopes of understanding my wife)
• Watch Pinterest video (see above)
• Read Social Networking Sites article
• Read article from Online Advertising Playbook

“Pinterest: Is it the New Facebook?” by Jennifer Van Grove, CNET, Feb. 2013 and “What is Pinterest?” CBS News, Feb. 2012

This was an interesting week of reading. I joked above about hoping to understand my wife’s use (obsession?) with Pinterest - and I have to admit that reading the article and watching the video it seems that her interest is not unfounded. However, I took the time to discuss with her how she uses Pinterest and found that for a “social” networking site, it seems (at least in her view) to be a bit less social. For instance, she said she doesn't follow “pins” of anyone she knows in real life, and doesn't interact with anyone,  instead she uses Pinterest to search for ideas to braid her hair in a new way, find a great gluten-free recipe, or inspirations for decorating our house, and put them on a virtual bulletin board - without getting (or desiring) feedback from other users or any real interaction. So at least in this one case, and based on my observation, the question of whether Pinterest is the new Facebook is a silly one in terms of all comparisons except the early struggle of both startups to find how to drive revenue from their popular product. For a highly valued startup like Pinterest, revenue production is critical to sustain financial success, but how does Pinterest do that without ruining what people enjoy about the site? When I asked my wife if she would want to see sponsored results from Barilla Pasta when she searched for a Baked Ziti recipe, she said she wouldn't mind, but that she also likely wouldn't be drawn to clicking on that pin, as she goes to Pinterest for something different. This article seems to suggest that Pinterest founders are aware of the touchy nature of commercializing their product.

This next article highlights ways that they are seeking to drive revenue without impacting the consumers of the product.

I’m not sure this article gave me any desire to start pinning home improvement ideas or ways to do my hair (pretty sure there is only one) but it did give me some thought-provoking insight into the challenge of making a product people want, and then making it generate revenue without ruining the features that drew consumers in the first place.

“Secrets of Googlenomics: Data-Fueled Recipe Brews Profitability” by Steven Levy, May 2009

The Googlenomics article was also fascinating - and made me realize how far advertising has really come as an industry and business model. The advance of internet search has made ads that really can be tailored to the user for the first time ever in quite specific ways, as the article points out.  One thing that struck me was that even early on, before Google’s founders realized the value that advertising would bring to the company, they felt that ads should be “useful and welcome - not just annoying intrusions.” Before sitting down to write this blog, I went downstairs in my condo complex to get my mail. Laid out below the mailboxes were the tossed rejects of my neighbors - the 100% advertising circulars. Everyone in the building (and the block, and the zip code, and likely the city) got the same one. I have no interest in the kids sale at Macy’s (no kids in our household) or the coupons for McDonald’s (there’s not one anywhere near here) - but I get them nonetheless, and see them (as my neighbors clearly do) as wasteful intrusions. So now, as I sit at my computer and check the ads that pop up on my Google search - I can see that they are targeted. There’s that tent that I checked out on REI’s website a few days ago. And, next to it, a camping stove that I hadn't thought about getting - but probably should. And I did click that ad, because it was relevant, and not obnoxious. (Once I got past the privacy issue... but that’s another blog post, another time.) Comparing the two business models and utilization of advertising dollars, it’s clear how far the internet has allowed advertising to come, and the incredible value that advertisers can find in internet advertising - thanks to products like Google’s Adwords.