Marketers Test Ads In E-Books

RockdaMan · 12-13-2010, 11:28 AM

Quote:

with sales of bound books under pressure, the introduction of sleek e-readers and the emergence in the industry of such big players as Apple Inc., Amazon.com Inc. and Google Inc. is fueling new enthusiasm for e-book advertising.

Quote:

Imagine an ad for a sports drink that says "Is your day feeling like the worst of times?" that appears in "A Tale of Two Cities" next to the line "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times," or ads for condoms interspersed through "The Scarlet Letter," says Forrester analyst James McQuivey.

"It would be an unpleasant distraction in the middle of a narrative," says literary agent Ann Rittenberg. "This is going to be a lot more complicated than putting an ad at the back of a paperback."

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000...#ixzz180fgKhxa

TallMomof2 · 12-13-2010, 01:03 PM

The first ebook that I buy that contains advertising will be immediately returned to Amazon.

abookreader · 12-13-2010, 01:09 PM

me too.

and then the name of the Publisher will be noted and I will never buy from them again until I have an assurance the practice has ceased.

khalleron · 12-13-2010, 01:23 PM

The article cites putting ads in 'Gulliver's Travels' as a movie tie-in.

Putting ads in a PD book is particularly vile.

Just say no.

Ravensknight · 12-13-2010, 01:23 PM

Ads at the back, where I can ignore them if I please, would be fine by me. Just like in mmpb books now :-)

ProfCrash · 12-13-2010, 01:37 PM

This is why I fear interactive books. It will be so much easier for ads to be slipped into the bonus material.

If I paid for the book I should not have to worry about advertisments.

Graham · 12-13-2010, 01:42 PM

It's quite telling that as I was reading the article, with some interest, an ad popped up over the top of it and I quit the page in disgust.

I've got no problem with ad pages at the back of the book, but if it breaks the flow of the narrative I'll be returning the book as not fit for purpose.

Graham

Logseman · 12-13-2010, 01:43 PM

Mmm... advertising INSIDE the ebooks would be naughty. Nevertheless, I wouldn't object to, say, an edition of Ulysses which contained advertising to visit Dublin at the end of the book.

queentess · 12-13-2010, 02:04 PM

Since ebooks are easily updated (unlike their pbook counterparts), I could see it taking the route that video game advertising has, where the ads are generally unobtrusive and can (reasonably) easily changed. For example, maybe the protagonist is drinking a Coke. But the next time you download the book, it has changed to a Pepsi. I would really date the books though... I've read some older Stephen King books where I have to look up what a product is because I've never heard of it. Some of the brands that were around in the 70s just aren't ubiquitous today.

From the article:

Quote:

Some Wowio e-books have three pages with promotions: an introduction and a closing page each with an ad, plus another full-page ad.

I'm ok with this. I can ignore it if I want to, just like I generally ignore the current pbook ads for additional books (unless I'm really looking for reading recommendations from a publisher...)

Quote:

The company [Wowio] also is experimenting with techniques to insert ads between chapters and to target ads using profile information that users submit to its website

No. Just no. I read the free ebook version of a Doctorow book (I believe it was Little Brother) where each chapter started with an ad for a bookstore. It disrupted the flow of the book, jolting me out of the story every time. Now, as a free book, I'm forgiving of it. But if I pay for a book, there better not be ads interrupting the text.

Ken Maltby · 12-13-2010, 02:16 PM

How long before a free "AD Blocker and Removal Tool" would be available? Probably a
Calibre Plug-in, as well. There are advantages to file based media.

Luck;
Ken

Logseman · 12-13-2010, 02:18 PM

They'd bundle the ad scripts with the DRM and make their circumvention illegal then

Ken Maltby · 12-13-2010, 02:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Logseman

They'd bundle the ad scripts with the DRM and make their circumvention illegal then

So we'll need a couple of more lines in the DRM removal scripts. There are
plenty of unemployed "Script Kiddies" out there.

Luck;
Ken

jasonkchapman · 12-13-2010, 02:49 PM

It seems more likely that it would be done similarly to mobile apps; in a strip across the bottom of the page with the platform vendor being involved in display and getting a cut of the revenues.

Ken Maltby · 12-13-2010, 03:25 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jasonkchapman

It seems more likely that it would be done similarly to mobile apps; in a strip across the bottom of the page with the platform vendor being involved in display and getting a cut of the revenues.

So we are back to blocking, and "platform vendors" offering a setting to
block the ads, that or take a beating in the marketplace.

If the ads were being displayed, no matter what book file I was reading,
that device's firmware would be under attack, very quickly. If the ads
were to come with the book file, then they can be removed before they
make it to the device.

Luck;
Ken

Elfwreck · 12-13-2010, 04:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by queentess

No. Just no. I read the free ebook version of a Doctorow book (I believe it was Little Brother) where each chapter started with an ad for a bookstore. It disrupted the flow of the book, jolting me out of the story every time. Now, as a free book, I'm forgiving of it. But if I pay for a book, there better not be ads interrupting the text.

Looks like the print versions don't have that; the googlebook at http://books.google.com/books?id=x1Q...page&q&f=false doesn't show the bookstore notes at the beginnings of the chapters.

They didn't bother me at all; I read them like "quote at front of chapter;" something to skim over on first reading and potentially go back for later if the details were interesting.

I could deal with small, unobtrusive ads at chapter breaks. (I considered those unobtrusive.) But I don't imagine advertisers would be happy with the results... of all the bookstores he mentioned, I've shopped at exactly one, and that's not likely to change, because the rest aren't local to me.

The core issue isn't "can ads be made non-disruptive in ebooks?" Sure they can. Might take some creativity, but there's plenty of that going around.

The issue is, "how much will advertisers subsidize the cost of an ebook for non-intrusive ads?" Not, "how can someone make the ads not-annoying enough to let the book still sell (or be given away for free)," but "how can ads in books sell products?" And that's a much bigger jump.

Ads in magazines are seen by potentially many people. People thumb through them at the checkout stand; they share the magazine with family & friends; it sits at the doctor's office and gets read by customers. Ads in ebooks get read by--theoretically--ONE person. How much is an advertiser going to pay to reach that one person? (Or that one account... yeah, you can share kindle books with a handful of people, as long as they all have access to the same purchasing window.)

Ads in ebooks have much the same problems as ads on websites, with the extra issue that clickable ads are meaningless on some devices.

12-13-2010, 02:16 PM	#10
Ken Maltby Wizard Posts: 4,466 Karma: 6900052 Join Date: Dec 2009 Location: The Heart of Texas Device: Boox Note2, AuraHD, PDA,	How long before a free "AD Blocker and Removal Tool" would be available? Probably a Calibre Plug-in, as well. There are advantages to file based media. Luck; Ken Last edited by Ken Maltby; 12-13-2010 at 02:19 PM.

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12-13-2010, 01:03 PM	#2
TallMomof2 Kindlephilia Posts: 2,017 Karma: 1139255 Join Date: Nov 2007 Location: Snowpacolypse 2010 Device: Too many to count	The first ebook that I buy that contains advertising will be immediately returned to Amazon.

12-13-2010, 01:09 PM	#3
abookreader Wizard Posts: 1,516 Karma: 2567610 Join Date: Oct 2009 Device: Kindles - Keyboard, Fire, 2-US, iPhone, iPAD	me too. and then the name of the Publisher will be noted and I will never buy from them again until I have an assurance the practice has ceased.

12-13-2010, 01:23 PM	#4
khalleron Kate Posts: 1,700 Karma: 3605799 Join Date: Mar 2009 Location: Oregon, United States Device: MeeBook, Kobo Libra Colour	The article cites putting ads in 'Gulliver's Travels' as a movie tie-in. Putting ads in a PD book is particularly vile. Just say no.

12-13-2010, 01:23 PM	#5
Ravensknight Serpent Rider Posts: 1,123 Karma: 10219804 Join Date: Jun 2009 Device: Sony 350; Nook STR; Oasis	Ads at the back, where I can ignore them if I please, would be fine by me. Just like in mmpb books now :-)

12-13-2010, 01:37 PM	#6
ProfCrash Tea Enthusiast Posts: 8,554 Karma: 75384937 Join Date: Jul 2010 Location: Somewhere in the USA Device: Kindle1, Kindle DX Graphite, K3 3G, IPad 3, PW2	This is why I fear interactive books. It will be so much easier for ads to be slipped into the bonus material. If I paid for the book I should not have to worry about advertisments.

12-13-2010, 01:42 PM	#7
Graham Wizard Posts: 2,742 Karma: 32912427 Join Date: Feb 2008 Location: North Yorkshire, UK Device: Kobo H20, Pixel 2, Samsung Chromebook Plus	It's quite telling that as I was reading the article, with some interest, an ad popped up over the top of it and I quit the page in disgust. I've got no problem with ad pages at the back of the book, but if it breaks the flow of the narrative I'll be returning the book as not fit for purpose. Graham

12-13-2010, 01:43 PM	#8
Logseman Orisa Posts: 2,000 Karma: 1035571 Join Date: Feb 2010 Location: Ireland Device: Onyx Poke 5	Mmm... advertising INSIDE the ebooks would be naughty. Nevertheless, I wouldn't object to, say, an edition of Ulysses which contained advertising to visit Dublin at the end of the book.

12-13-2010, 02:18 PM	#11
Logseman Orisa Posts: 2,000 Karma: 1035571 Join Date: Feb 2010 Location: Ireland Device: Onyx Poke 5	They'd bundle the ad scripts with the DRM and make their circumvention illegal then

12-13-2010, 02:49 PM	#13
jasonkchapman Guru Posts: 767 Karma: 2347 Join Date: Jul 2007 Location: NYC Device: Sony Reader, nook, Droid, nookColor, nookTablet	It seems more likely that it would be done similarly to mobile apps; in a strip across the bottom of the page with the platform vendor being involved in display and getting a cut of the revenues.

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