Wahoo and then some...

Mark Simon at AdAge has posted a lovely little article t"Ditch the Lunatic Web Content Craziness." There's a bunch of random (mostly ad) blogs out there that somehow think he's wrong or at least too bold in saying what he says, but for the most part, the guy is right. Maybe a little off, but overall right. IMHO that is. Full article here. My summary follows... MS's top 10 things to are:

1. ANYTHING HAVING ANYTHING TO DO WITH VIRTUAL REALITY.
actually, he really should have stated "Second Life" outwardly since that's all he talks about. VR is here and now as people continue to live their lives through social networking sites. Call me a purist, but that's a virtual reality, n'est ce pas?

2. ANYTHING HAVING ANYTHING TO DO WITH THE PHONY-RECOMMENDATION INDUSTRY.
aka pay-per-post. I hardly knew this existed. People actually do this? I suppose I do know someone who fell for the equally-inane Nigeria scam, but... really?

3. "SMART ADS" THAT AREN'T SO SMART.
aka Behavioral Targeting. Same day an article gets published about behavior targeting being 22% more effective that contextual targeting. Oh the debates!

4. "SEARCHLESS" ADVERTISING.
aka running a traditional campaign without thinking about sem/seo. Scarily close to my reality at times.

5. AUDIO-RELIANT VIDEO PRE-ROLL SPOTS.
aka Users often surf the net without sound for 9 million different reasons so why does your video spot require that people listen to it? Another fantastic example of content that's created for the brand and not for the user. I absolutely despise anything that requires me to put my Pandora/Deezer on pause. In fact, the site's content often loses out to Pandora... even if I don't like the song.

6. "HUMAN-POWERED" SEARCH ENGINES.
Yeah I don't know. I'm not an expert here so I refrain from comment. But it doesn't feel right in the gut.

7. KNEE-JERK ALGORITHMIC MEDIA BUYING.
aka Google is a big shiny object so let's ditch our tv campaign. Also a bad idea. Traditional media has a place. I don't think it's as cool as online, but hey, that's just me. Online is fantastic for optimization/personalization/granulation/etc. , but what about those broad messages to large audiences? Besides, traditional media reps are much better about giving away cool presents/toys.

8. BEHAVIORAL TARGETING THAT GOES TOO FAR.
aka this is just an extension of what was already stated in #3.

9. TWITTER AND ITS MICROBLOGGING ILK.
He states it perfectly: "What could be more annoying and less useful than a site where thousands of people are given 140 characters to shout out about what they're doing at every moment of the day? The amazing thing is that enough people out there think this mindless stream of ephemera ("I'm eating a tangerine," "I'm waiting for a plane," "I want a Big Mac") is interesting enough to serve as the basis for a viable advertising platform."

10. INTRUSIVE MOBILE MARKETING.
take the mobile out of there and he's even more right. I say I work in online advertising and the first question 110% of the time is "Are you responsible for pop-ups?" Often said while sharpening a rusty knife for a bloody demise if my answer dare sound anything like a "yes".