This is a really good looking ad. Do you know what the problem with ads like this is? They don't work. Ads that don't stand out, that blend into a seamless UX that allows a person to navigate a content company's media platform quickly in a goal-orineted manner; they don't fucking work. They get ignored.
So the marketing company or the sales dept turns up the juice a little bit. They allow them to stand out a little more. They give them special bells and whistles the user created content doesn't have. They let them animate, float over content or auto play video or sound.
Why? Because it makes the product a little better for the customers: the advertisers. Instagram, just like their Facebook overlords, are now in the business of making their product as good as it can be for the advertisers while keeping the users just happy enough not to leave.
I really dislike this cycle in the startup world. I don't know a good way around it. I'd like to see someone disrupt that.
Ads are the only form of micropayment that is currently widely-available. If you solve the micropayment problem, you have a chance of shifting control from advertisers to consumers. I'd pay $0.001 to read your blog post.
Of course, many companies like to double-dip, like the NYT with their subscription charges and ads, so I think ads are going to be around for a long time.
I signed up for cable without previously experiencing it, and I honestly expected no commercials, since I was 'paying for it'. I was not a customer for very long.
"This is a really good looking ad. Do you know what the problem with ads like this is? They don't work."
Actually, they do. They become part of the brand story. Whether you realize it or not, Instagram has evolved the SAME WAY as TV commercials in the Post-WWII world.
What started as TV shows sponsored by brands (the Coca-Cola Hour!) became magazine style ads interspersed between the show's content (TV commercials as we know them today).
Instagram started with entire channels sponsored by the brands (@NikeRunning) and now are moving to the magazine/tv commercial model of putting branded content between in-stream photographs.
This is not new. This does work. Stop fighting change just because you think "startups" are above it. They're not. Originality is the art of concealing your sources. Embrace that and just make it work as best as possible given your product + audience and get on with it.
So the marketing company or the sales dept turns up the juice a little bit. They allow them to stand out a little more. They give them special bells and whistles the user created content doesn't have. They let them animate, float over content or auto play video or sound.
Why? Because it makes the product a little better for the customers: the advertisers. Instagram, just like their Facebook overlords, are now in the business of making their product as good as it can be for the advertisers while keeping the users just happy enough not to leave.
I really dislike this cycle in the startup world. I don't know a good way around it. I'd like to see someone disrupt that.