This article has some compelling points about the future and the potential of online advertising. The point made in the title of my post, that no one search for toothpaste, was made by the head of Yahoo's UK division, and his argument was that video had opened up a new advertising frontier for those who couldn't gain traction with search-advertising. Is it true, does no one search for toothpaste?

I liked this:

"Unlike their parents, the YouTube generation will not be prepared to sit back and simply consume what they are given. They will expect much more control — to be able to choose when, where and on what device they watch and read about the things that interest them. Their attention will be much harder to win.

“Television companies will tell you that kids are still watching as much TV,” said Morris, “but they’re not. Television does not have the emotional pull. Programmes do, the stuff they see on a screen does.

“But conventional TV — something that’s scheduled, that I sit down and watch at a time someone has decided for me, prepared to watch the ads while it’s on — they don’t get it.”

He continued: “You ask any kids, what would you rather be without: the TV or the internet? They will tell you, we’d rather be without TV.”"

My daughter, 5 yrs old, to use an immediate example, actually DOESN'T understand tv or the radio. She always asks me to rewind, pause, or forward the radio in the car, and when I tell her I can't, she is dumbfounded (presumably with my stubborn inability to do the simplest things). Similarly, when she gets up from watching a show on tv she wants it paused and when it can't - say when she is at Grandma's house, she is speechless. She actually has difficulty imagining media that can't be controlled.

So take this for what it is worth, but when our children grow up, tv is going to be the last thing on their minds.

Labels: advertising, Old Media Deathwatch, Online Advertising