It has often been said, that if you want to do well with your splash pages on traffic exchanges then you should aim to stick out like a sore thumb.
Make a noise. Get yourself noticed. Stand out from the crowd. Be different.
It is also said that perhaps it is not always a good idea to insult your customers or offend those potential customers you would hope to sign up to the program you are promoting.
Well Traffic Power Plus owner Jeff Gudgeon has decided to stand out like a sore thumb, with his latest advert currently running in several traffic exchanges.
Actually his advert manages to stick out like a fully extended middle finger – that somewhat offensive gesture known as “the bird,” “the highway salute,” or simply “giving the finger.” I am sure you get the idea.
Now I find it funny, I liked it the moment I first saw it but I immediately thought that many might not have the same opinion.
I mean the gesture the little kid is making is hardly friendly now is it? In fact it is very offensive and thus many people may find the whole tone of the splash page itself offensive.
Just the other day I noticed that some people were calling for a ban on nudity or near nudity on the Sweeva adverts so what would they make of an advert which features a young child giving viewers the bird?
Perhaps most people will literally laugh out loud like I did but there will be some for whom this page is just an advert gone too far.
Certainly the first impressions are rather favorable, I hear. The first time this ad appeared on Sweeva it was shown to 30 people of which 20 gave it a thumbs up, nine gave it a thumbs down and one person was unsure whether they liked it or not.
Not bad for a first outing. Even better was when Jeff checked his stats fifteen minutes later and found that he had five new signups at his traffic exchange on the back of the Sweeva advert.
Not only that but some of his new signups had taken advantage of his one time offer and Jeff had around $149 waiting in his PayPal account.
Now for me those results are nothing short of fantastic and represent further proof that personal branding and just daring to be different really works.
The people who are offended by pages such as this are not going to sign up but that is not the point – you can never expect to reach the entire audience with any campaign you run.
Far better to target a certain segment of the audience just like Jeff has done with his latest advert.
The “giving the finger” promotion actually followed on from the advert (left) where Jeff first tried out his idea of insulting his would-be members.
Under the headline “You’re Not Using Traffic Power Plus yet?” he accused people who had not yet become members of living in Jurassic times with the insult: “Go chat on AOL you dinosaur.”
When that first insult led to signups and sales, site owner Jeff thought he might be on to something with his new campaign when”You Dionsaur” received 44 thumbs up overnight at ThumbVu the first day it was shown.
Jeff said yesterday: “The dinosaur advert was shown to 31 people, it got 21 thumbs up and immediately led to three new members and $77 in my PayPal account so I knew I was on to something.
“Yes I realized that some people might be offended but you can’t hope to please everybody so I decided to go with the insult theme.
“I wanted to come up with something even funnier than the dinosaur insult and when I came across the picture of the boy at the baseball game I knew I had the one.
“I was looking for a way to stand out. I find the page humorous and when I showed it to some of my friends they loved it too so I decided to run with it.
“Some of my best friends are guys who can put me down in such a way that they have me cracking up about it and that is what I intended from this ad.
“If people can’t see the humor in it then they should really take a step back and calm down a little bit. To me, it gets funnier every time I see it.”
So my guess would be that the offensive Traffic Power Plus adverts from Jeff are here to stay. He will certainly win many new friends with this campaign but perhaps he might attract some enemies too.
For me I can’t see any harm in this and if some people are offended then so be it but I would love to hear your views.
Do you find this advert to be a step too far or just an example of good old-fashioned, in-your-face marketing?
Is it insulting? I think it is insulting to non Boston fans, and I believe those were the 9 that gave this ad thumbs down. Cornerstone of advertising says: sex, kids, cute animals – they sell whatever product may be. Other than that, Jeffs ad (both of them actually) targets phenomenally: it is, by default, insulting to non-buyers of his product/service. Win-win.
Twitter: hotflashhits
June 24, 2011 at 4:33 pm
Dinosaur Ad = Funny
Flipping The Bird = Offensive
There is a fine line between funny and offensive.
I hope Jeff finds the balance which works.
Twitter: clutchtool
Those kid’s they do the darndest things.
Offensive? If you choose to be offended, then yes.
I myself am not easily offended.
Clearly the ad worked, it got our attention or we wouldn’t even be discussing it.
Many people find Lady GaGa offensive, but i bet there is not one person reading this that hasn’t heard of her. (hmmm, gives me an idea, what if i put lady gaga flipping the bird with lots of cleavage showing of course, while holding a talking baby, and riding a two-headed sheep with cute cuddily kittens on it’s head, and……oh i better stop i don’t want to give all my new edgey and original idea away.)
I’m just wondering how far will all this “sticking out like a sore thumb” with our splash page madness take us.
Can i show you my product and how it can improve your life and or business or must i entertain you first.
Will it go so far that eventually black text on white background will be the New Extreme Edgey thing to do, and then eventually a blank white or black page will be the new bold original concept.
Which leaves me to ponder, is there really and truly such things as new and original ideas.
Oh well, that’s the reason i get out of bed every morning(noon), is to see what happens next.
Great post and subject matter Patrick.
John
Twitter: chattopatrick
Lady Ga Ga. I think I have heard of her. She gets lots of press exposure (and I think exposure is probably the right word here) because she sets out to shock and it works.
But is the stuff she is doing new or original…I think not.
Madonna did all that stuff years ago.
Before her there were even eyebrows raised at Blondie I seem to recall.
I am with you and I find none of the above even slightly offensive but the term is so highly subjective that there must be few things which would be described as universally offensive.
I like what Jeff is doing but I know that others don’t approve of that sort of advertising. So what is going to happen? Well he will win fans and subscribers from those who like his adverts and have people who won’t consider using his services because of the way he promotes things.
But he is getting noticed and he is getting results and the price of getting noticed is that people will form an opinion as to whether they like you or whether they don’t.
The way we advertise has to continually evolve to keep people interested and I agree that the current “let me entertain you” splash page madness as you call it will, no doubt, be overtaken by something else and that will be replaced by something else as well.
Personally I love it when people are creative and make an effort. Long may it continue.
Patrick.
Twitter: JeffGudgeon
June 25, 2011 at 4:22 pm
Thanks for the write up Patrick…good journalism once again.
I have to admit to being torn as to whether or not to show the ad.
It was a ton of fun creating it and being silly, but in the end i found it to humorous not to at least try it out…and i was the most surprised at the overwhelmingly favorable reaction I’ve got from people regarding both ads, as well as the results which came from them.
Everybody whose been able to comment to me directly or indirectly so far have loved the ads.
Catherine Whites opinion, short and sweet as it was helps me to keep this type of campaign in perspective and has clearly stated where to draw the line.
This is a business, and as such I am torn between professionalism and just plain having some great fun doing this, and so far fun is winning out and offensive is tripling sales and sign ups. Yes…what to do …what to do?
Fear not though, everyone has to grow up sooner or later.
Twitter: chattopatrick
I think there is a difference in setting out to offend and setting out to shock.
As far as I can tell you are setting out to make shocking splash pages. Pages which make people sit up and take notice.
I think the creativity we see on traffic exchanges from people like you and other thoughtful marketers is to be applauded and encouraged.
I hope you have got a few more adverts up your sleeve in this current series.
I, for one, really look forward to seeing what you come up with next.
P.
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