Targeted Ads on FOFC

[albionmoonlight]

In looking at the movie ads on FOFC, I see things like Final Destination 3, Doom (staring the Rock), The Hills Have Eyes, UltraViolet, etc..

Now, leaving aside the merits of these various films, I think that we can agree that they all fall into a general pattern: Basically movies that "Blow Up Good." Lots of action, lots of explosions, some suspense. I came, I saw, I spent $4.50 on popcorn.

So, are those ads properly targeted to this board? Granted, I think that they would be properly targeted to a general board dealing with sports video games--but do they really maximize the value of the space on FOFC in particular?

Sure, they are a better bet than advertising the re-release of the A&E Pride & Prejudice. But, considering that we have a weekly thread dedicated to the Office & Earl. And considering that a lot of people here are big history and politics buffs. . . and considering that this is just not quite the stereotypical football/video game crowd . . . I wonder if they would be getting more value for their money by advertising movies like Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind . . . or DVD collections of history or political documentaries. Or detailed sports websites like footballoutsiders.com. Or even things for parents of young children--of which we seem to have a lot.

I can think of people here that would be interested in any of the above categories--not so much people who are going to rush out to watch the Rock.

[JonInMiddleGA]

So, are those ads properly targeted to this board?


That's one of the drawbacks, IMO, of the state of internet advertising right now -- there's so many niches online that it's hard to avoid the sort of mistargeting you're talking about.

In the context of Gamespy overall, the ads are pretty well targeted I imagine.
But FOFC, as you noted, is a bit different than a lot of the other site in their group. And that's where this comes from ... because I'd almost guarantee that no one at the advertiser (or their agency, or the buying service sub-contracted to handle the online advertising) has ever seen or heard of FOFC.

In other words, we're getting those ads because we're part of the larger Gamespy network as a whole.

An analogy (albeit somewhat stretched) might be buying a flight of ads from a company that does a series of gardening-oriented forums. Would seem like a good place to put, say, ads for a new weed killer. But, unbeknowst to the typical media buyer, one of the forums in the network is devoted to strictly organic gardening - no chemicals of any kind. But the ad ends up there anyway ... because nobody at the buyer checked out all of the sites individually, they only looked at the network of sites overall.

[Huckleberry]

An analogy (albeit somewhat stretched)...
I thought it was a well-conceived and very descriptive analogy.

I decided to jump at the chance to agree with you on something. :p

[FrogMan]

I thought it was a well-conceived and very descriptive analogy.

I decided to jump at the chance to agree with you on something. :p
And I agree too. I didn't see that analogy as particularly stretched by any means....

FM

[NoMyths]

I would say that yes, those ads are targeted towards the majority of the FOFC board.

[JonInMiddleGA]

I will take advantage of this opportunity to give myself a little professional pat on the back -- one of the things that I believe we do a better job than most agencies at is checking out the details. Always. Everytime.

I would never dream of putting money into something like a Gamespy network without looking at every single site my ads were going to appear on. Granted, a cursory examination might not reveal the differences that albion is talking about, but it's still better content control than what 99.9% of the money spent through agencies today gets.

[bbor]

If they used ads specifically targetting a Text sim board.......Don't you think it would be all Dating services ads and porn ads?

:D