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i Altman
Recently I got tired of watching the same movies over and over on
Netflix Instant or Flixter or whatever they’re calling it these days. I
switched over to Hulu primarily because they get new content on a
regular basis. So far Hulu is great.
What is not great is the way Hulu does ads.
Having a web-based television platform allows for a lot of flexibility compared to what’s possible with cable. This extends to the ways you do advertising—the web is obviously a much more versatile medium. So far though, Hulu hasn’t really taken advantage. They outline their approach to the Hulu Ad Experience in a post on their blog.
Here are the biggest issues with the way Hulu does ads as well as some ideas to fix them:
1. The overall pool of available ads is really small. Sure, it’s nice to pick which ads you like (or are willing to tolerate), but it doesn’t do much good when there aren’t that many options to begin with. You end up seeing the same ads over and over and over. Getting to choose between three ads for the Prius C isn’t really choice. Actually, considering how bad the Prius C campaign is, it’s like picking which method of torture you want to subject yourself to. There has to be simple way to get better ads: Let viewers create their own, show funny ads from other countries, show ads for products featured in the shows, something, anything.
2. The process of “selecting ads” is annoying. If you hook up your computer to your tv, every time Hulu asks you to select which ad you want to watch, you need to go back to your computer to make the selection. This is particularly annoying because I don’t have a preference between the options 99 percent of the time (see point one). If you don’t make a selection, you have to wait 15 seconds for Hulu to select an ad for you. Worse than watching bad ads is waiting to watch bad ads. It would be a lot easier if the ‘ad selection’ process was removed from the viewing flow. This way, there’s one place to tinker with your ad settings and it doesn’t get between you and what you want to watch.
3. Late last year Hulu released Ad Swap which basically allows you to stop watching a given ad and switch to one that is “more relevant.” Who is going to watch an ad, realize they don’t like it, and then switch to another full ad? It seems a lot more plausible to just wait out the rest of the ad you’re already watching. Again, if you remove ‘ad selection’ from the viewing flow, this becomes a non-issue.
The research says users want choice. This is nothing new. Users always want choice. It’s a ‘non-finding.’ When people fill out surveys they always imagine that if they could customize their experience, they would enjoy the result. Sounds simple enough. The problem is, most people have no idea what they want, especially when it comes to trivial stuff like ads — things they don’t spend too much time thinking about, and would probably prefer to live without.
This is also troublesome for advertisers. When you pick the “ad experience” you want, you’re making the decision based on knowing the brand, the title of the ad and a small static image. Considering people barely have any information at this point, it’s basically a brand decision. Which brand’s ad do you want to see? You have no idea which ads are going to be good or funny or interesting. Isn’t the point of ads to influence peoples’ perception of brands and products? It’s hard to imagine people are going to change how they see your brand if they aren’t even electing to watch your ads. And considering it’s practically impossible to know a good ad before you see one, who can blame them?
Read more »
Some ads are no fun for everyone
What is not great is the way Hulu does ads.
Having a web-based television platform allows for a lot of flexibility compared to what’s possible with cable. This extends to the ways you do advertising—the web is obviously a much more versatile medium. So far though, Hulu hasn’t really taken advantage. They outline their approach to the Hulu Ad Experience in a post on their blog.
Here are the biggest issues with the way Hulu does ads as well as some ideas to fix them:
1. The overall pool of available ads is really small. Sure, it’s nice to pick which ads you like (or are willing to tolerate), but it doesn’t do much good when there aren’t that many options to begin with. You end up seeing the same ads over and over and over. Getting to choose between three ads for the Prius C isn’t really choice. Actually, considering how bad the Prius C campaign is, it’s like picking which method of torture you want to subject yourself to. There has to be simple way to get better ads: Let viewers create their own, show funny ads from other countries, show ads for products featured in the shows, something, anything.
2. The process of “selecting ads” is annoying. If you hook up your computer to your tv, every time Hulu asks you to select which ad you want to watch, you need to go back to your computer to make the selection. This is particularly annoying because I don’t have a preference between the options 99 percent of the time (see point one). If you don’t make a selection, you have to wait 15 seconds for Hulu to select an ad for you. Worse than watching bad ads is waiting to watch bad ads. It would be a lot easier if the ‘ad selection’ process was removed from the viewing flow. This way, there’s one place to tinker with your ad settings and it doesn’t get between you and what you want to watch.
3. Late last year Hulu released Ad Swap which basically allows you to stop watching a given ad and switch to one that is “more relevant.” Who is going to watch an ad, realize they don’t like it, and then switch to another full ad? It seems a lot more plausible to just wait out the rest of the ad you’re already watching. Again, if you remove ‘ad selection’ from the viewing flow, this becomes a non-issue.
The research says users want choice. This is nothing new. Users always want choice. It’s a ‘non-finding.’ When people fill out surveys they always imagine that if they could customize their experience, they would enjoy the result. Sounds simple enough. The problem is, most people have no idea what they want, especially when it comes to trivial stuff like ads — things they don’t spend too much time thinking about, and would probably prefer to live without.
This is also troublesome for advertisers. When you pick the “ad experience” you want, you’re making the decision based on knowing the brand, the title of the ad and a small static image. Considering people barely have any information at this point, it’s basically a brand decision. Which brand’s ad do you want to see? You have no idea which ads are going to be good or funny or interesting. Isn’t the point of ads to influence peoples’ perception of brands and products? It’s hard to imagine people are going to change how they see your brand if they aren’t even electing to watch your ads. And considering it’s practically impossible to know a good ad before you see one, who can blame them?