valerielundberg wrote:
Cranberry wrote:
I think you're right. It's just odd because it's such a major shift and it's happened so quickly. I mean, the article I quoted was from
August. Sometime within the past four months, Dohring threw his (by all accounts) highly successsful "immersive advertising only" strategy out the window and decided to go with horrible banner ads as well? Why? What happened? And are these ads really making him more money than his previous strategy?
I'm also wondering why he's not more worried about this. Here's a paragraph from that same article I quoted before:
If there's any marketing Neopets.com that may raise an eyebrow from the children's privacy watchdogs, it's the e-mail marketing offers that riddle the site registration process. Several auto-checked boxes promise marketing e-mails, which begs the question of whether the site's young audience is savvy enough to understand the full implications of an opt-in. If the children's privacy watchdogs are worried about opt-in forms, won't they throw a fit at this spyware, these tracking cookies, and the unsuitable ads? Let's hope so.
I wonder if the Neopets marketing team will trumpet their new banner ad strategy in their
press kit like they did immersive advertising. For some reason, I doubt it.
Exactly. Pump and Dump. Make all the money while you can through advertising while the place is at it's peak...and take the cash and run.
I think that's why he's not worried.
I think he knows exactly what this is doing to the site, but as long as the clickthoughs are guaranteed by large visitor number of the site...and banners get seen a lot (and add in refreshing statistics the banners make a full cycle...like...why not add in an avatar you have to refresh for *cough* space faerie* wheeze* or a new BD challenger so those banners get a full rotation?)
Make it hard, make it fast, get the cash and out in a dash.
Seems very typical, and the kids are going to be the ones who pay the price. But there is very little business ethics anymore in the corporate world these days...even when it comes to kids.
Seems like, sadly, this is what's happening to Neopets.
Now that we have so horribly large banners, it looks like Dohring is using the 'Pump and Dump' economic strategy you explained.
Ever since around 01/02, Dohring's been gloating about his 'Immersive Advertising'. I haven't seen a new one of those in at least 3 months, not including the rampant games if they count. Since 01, Dohring's been saying there would
never be any banner ads or pop-ups on Neopets. Now, we have giant banners, some of that have spyware/adware, another one of the no-gos that Dohring's said that would never happen. Cash grab, I say. I do feel that Dohring may be pumping out the last fivety or so million dollars from Neopets before it gets sent to the dot com graveyard.
Yeah. Notice how all this happened in only around a month? And how much are they making out of this?
Yeah, the users will pay the price for this cash grab that may be happening...
When the TCG and Plushies came out, I said Fine, I mean, how bad can it be, and really, all we have is the games and sponsors. Then when the Sloth Plot was canceled, I got angry. Now, it seems it won't be long before everything is Economic based. Meerca Chase? No, Mcdonalds Burger Chase.
Think if that happened. At this rate, that'll happen.