Is Internet a good medium for subliminal advertising

In the Sloan Marketing core class on Wednesday, we had a discussion on subliminal advertisement. Srijib referred to a very interesting video by Darren Brown. Is the internet advertising also subliminal in a way…..? 

To define subliminal - Advertising intended to influence an audience subconsciously, especially through images shown very briefly on a movie or television screen (dictionary.bnet) 

A subliminal message is a signal or message embedded in another medium, designed to pass below the normal limits of the human mind's perception. These messages are unrecognizable by the conscious mind, but in certain situations can affect the subconscious mind and can negatively or positively influence subsequent later thoughts, behaviors, actions, attitudes, belief systems and value systems. The term subliminal means "beneath a limen" (sensory threshold), this is from the Latin words sub, meaning under, and limen, meaning threshold. (Wikipedia) 

To illustrate further, lots of print ads have subliminal messages hidden (the messages are mostly around sex). The enclosed link gives a very good illustration - http://www.artistmike.com/Temp/SubliminalAd.html 

On the insertion of frames in normal videos or TV programs, the enclosed food guide video has McDonald ad inserted. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=amnZX-jjBD8 

The reference to cocaine evident in the coke cans - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ztTCbbXE24I&feature=related

 Some of these correlations seem far fetched (figment of imagination at times), and in any case subliminal advertisement has no empirical correlation to sales and has been declared illegal. 

On internet, tracking the behaviour of the user and placing ads accordingly, isn’t it a form of subliminal advertising? Depending on the sites he/she visits, color she likes, books she buys, movies she watches, her spending behaviour and zillions of such things decide the ads placed.

Moreover, with such ads banned in traditional media and internet laws applicability not so clear, Internet becomes a rich medium of subliminal explosion.

Should the current form, therefore, fall under the purview of the existing law?

Internet Community as a Marketing Framework

The number of consultants and marketing firm which come in the organic search of “Internet Marketing” and related topics and the plethora of ads speak volumes about the subject. For current generation marketers, it seems as if this medium is to be ignored on your own risk…

Internet community – nicely explored through analogy…

http://www.nysun.com/blogs/culture-of-congestion/2008/08/are-internet-communities-cities-1.html

Internet community as marketing tool – though the site has an annoying popup asking you to join…

http://www.marketingprofs.com/6/collier1.asp

Measuring Effectiveness: Not much reading and research though…Seems like a topic people are shying away from..

http://www.networksmarketinggroup.com

Hall of Fame:

http://www.blogstorm.co.uk/the-top-10-viral-marketing-campaigns-of-all-time/654/

Not many Integrated campaigns appear as case studies though….

My experiments with Internet

“My experiments with truth” is the autobiography of Mahatma Gandhi. I feel the same after 3 sessions on Internet Marketing.

For me it has been a world of new opportunities and new area opened up. Strategy, Marketing, Brands, Organisation Behaviour, Teams, Leadership and all the other jargons is what I have been living with. And here comes IM. Wow! So much to learn, experiment, create, innovate…What a new subject! Might sound a bit archived to youngsters, but that is what it is. Net to me till date has been a vast source of information, websites, jobsites etc and the usual stuff. But to discover it as an alternate business model, create enterprises around…. Now that is new…

Sites like Madbidding, Clickfraud, are completely new and innovative models. Skepticism is around the profitability, real value and so on, but I am impressed with creativity at the moment.

I am struggling to set the Adsense account and get it to work on my blog…I am sure that I shall overcome one day….

Hail CPC, CPA, GPT, DNI, TCP, IMDB……

Fortune Cookie...!?

Last evening we were celebrating Chinese New year with the Sloan fellow mates in a Chinese restaurant (where else?). We were served with Fortune Cookies to start with. The blog is not about the advent of fortune cookies and so forth but on another thought with tickled my mind because of the message which one of my friends got in the cookie. It was a kind of message which one would not expect in something which is named “fortune” cookie.

I could not get this thought out of my mind and late night, in another session, we got talking on issue of destiny, fate and its role in one’s life. I think this is one thought which is common across the world, irrespective of culture, race etc etc. God and Fate are well understood words across cultures. The degree of belief might vary but it is very uniting on the other hand. I might write another blog on the religion but would dedicate this space to my thoughts on issue of “fate”

We do like to believe that we are in control of our destiny and our actions cast our future. But have we ever wondered that the future is largely dependent on the postal code on address. Is this destiny by birth? One might argue that people from same postal code do not end up in similar circumstances… Point taken, but how many of us are able to completely adhere to our plans of the school we want to study or the job we want to get into… Inspite of all our efforts, we make compromises and end up somewhere else. How many times has one heard from successful entrepreneurs “It was a chance meeting/idea which led me here.

I am not prescribing that we leave things to fate but is everything in our perfect control? 

Recent trip to India (Shining)

I had been planning to blog for some time (not wanting to miss the bandwagon) and fortunately the IM program has pushed me to do it... Here is my first stab..

I think the best way to start my first feed would be write about my feelings during my recent trip to India.

Amidst the fog and the air traffic chaos, my flight landed in time and I was pleasantly surprised to breeze through the immigration and the baggage receipt. My vehicle arrived in time and the Delhi traffic was also well managed (I mean it). I felt as if we have mastered the efficiency trick in middle of the chaotic boom. Watching latest movie in the plush mall with zillions of shoppers and the International Brands, young employed citizens, mobiles chiming and packed restaurants made me feel proud of the buzzing India…

The construction of the mass transport system “Metro” and related “unending infrastructure dug roads” reminded me of Prof Andrew Scott and his theory of Capital Led growth. Whatever… It is fine as long as we continue to grow.

180 km away from Delhi, in a small town “Saharanpur”, the Xmas and New Year parties were probably as rocking as were in cities like “Bangalore” or “London” (no exaggeration). “Happiness Index”, whatever way it is calculated, seems high and the talk of Recession is much less. Newspapers do not kill you with the “R” word and the interest in Politics and Elections is as high as ever.

The spirit is fighting the 26/11 and back up and running..

I believe that the heart remains the same and we are slowly but steadily realizing our dream – a dream of making Indian Shining..