Seems counterintuitive—you want your ads to stand out, right? Not exactly, Bindu Reddy of MyLikes.com would tell you and I’m inclined to agree. The vast majority of digital inventory today is banner ads and mastheads, which were created to stand out from the rest of the content on a website. Consumer behavior online has evolved and Reddy argued that digital advertising needs to evolve as well. Her research has found that consumers find current online advertising to be cluttered, irrelevant and distracting. Cluttered because there are so many ads on every site, irrelevant because the message rarely connects to the content of the site and distracting which ends up bothersome to the user. In the end, these factors do not serve the brand well either. On top of this when I consider the extremely low click through rate I know there has to be a better solution for brands online.

Reddy argued that future lies in “user generated advertising” which she is pushing through a word of mouth networking site called MyLikes.com (think Digg for brands). While I’m not sold that this is the ultimate solution for our brands, I think Reddy made some strong points which inspired me to think about the brands I work on and how we activate online.

Above all, I strongly believe online ads need to move to be PART of the regular content. While FTC and other editorial guidelines force the ad to be called out, I still believe a “sponsored” piece can be significantly more effective than banner ads which consumers are more and more conditioned to ignore. As a brand, I don’t even mind signaling that it’s an ad; in fact I believe it adds to our value of transparency. But I do think the consumer is much more inclined to read, click through, interact—whatever the call the action is.

An example of the ad fitting the “regular” content is paid search. The “ads” are completely untraditional (in that they are search results versus banners), but usually end up successful because that is what the consumer is looking for in that moment. Another example is DailyCandy, a female focused newsletter. The below screenshot shows how a movie was promoted alongside regular content in a “Weekend Guide” edition. Not only is the ad in the same format as content, but it is entirely relevant (going to see a movie as part of weekend plans) and then enhanced with a banner ad. I think every single website should challenge themselves to find ways to better integrate brands into their content. I see these opportunities as the future of online advertising—where brands and content are paired together as the norm, instead of as unique, expensive, custom programs. The experience is better for the consumer and more effective for the brand.