Two years ago, Yahoo turned down Microsoft's $44 Billion offer.
At the time, people thought Yahoo was crazy. They were right Yahoo was crazy!
But most people think Yahoo was crazy because of the downturn in advertising revenues, but I think they were crazy because of their advertising model. Yahoo makes money from search (but just a little bit) and display advertising (banners).
I believe that display advertising has a very short shelf life. Why???
Because of a little "killer app" that is just the first of many others... Adblock Plus!
What an amazing product that is changing the online ad game. This is a free extension for the widely popular Firefox web browser from Mozilla. (Yes, only 17% of web users browse with Firefox, but is because the rest of you are just ignorant of the greatness of Firefox).Firefox offers users a FREE and flawless online experience. No hackers, no viruses, and best all it is open code, which means thousands of brilliant programmers are creating extensions and add-ons for the program.
What is an add-on or extension, well, they are free program enhancements that allow users to have the ultimate in personalized browsing. And the greatest of all of these add-ons is Adblock Plus!
Adblock Plus was created by Wladimir Palant and it was designed to block all of those annoying banner, rails, skyscrapers, cube ads, etc. It helps your browser load sites faster and without all of that annoying clutter!
As a web enthusiasts, I love the quick, clean web pages that I receive by using Adblock Plus!
As a advertising consultant, well...let's just say that it makes my job a lot tougher!
Do you know how many clients are clamoring to move advertising dollars away from newspaper and television????I'll tell you...ALL OF THEM!
We all know that newspaper readership is free falling and with the advent of Tivo and On Demand, television viewers are avoiding commercials like they were a Paris Hilton movie! (sorry, low blow)
And now, the Holy Land of advertising's future...the Internet...has it's own ad avoiding technology. Yikes!
Well, at the moment, I'm not 100% sure what the answers are for you or for me, but I do have two suggestions:
1) Short Google and Yahoo stocks. ;-) (Seriously, don't take that as a recommendation on investing. I'm being sarcastic...but all internet companies need to consider this as a possible threat.)
2) Find ways to blend advertising and content! This I believe is the future of advertising...combining the best of editorial and advertising to create a new medium. No, not product placement. It must become product integration!
More on that to follow....
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