Aisle of plenty

Advertising has always fascinated me. Over the years it has changed considerably from print media and ITV, to the web site and more TV channels than you can ever watch.

Most advertising is wall paper, there but not seen in any detail. Occasionally a TV advert would strike a chord and some brands (e.g. Heineken, Mars bars, Coke, Gocompare.com and comparethe market.com ) are known by their adverts or strap lines. TV adverts are designed sometimes to be so bad that you remember them for that reason.

While they always try to sell you their product or service, some advertising now appears to have a second aim, that is to get you to go to their website or Facebook page. Which is pretty obvious as that has a much better chance of closing the deal as you can study the target detail.

It's the change of website to Facebook page as the targeted destination that I find most interesting. Some firms are now actively seeking you to go to a page on a corporate website to find their page. That firstly puts Facebook in a position of strength as in  part "the web" is becoming Facebook. Secondly it means that once you go to that Facebook page all it seems to do is direct you back to the company website!

What I actually think it means is that advertisers understand that increasingly we are all watching adverts with one eye while reading Twitter or Facebook with the other and it's far easier to get some one to go to part of the website that you're already on, than come off of it (or open a new tab).