New advertising headaches or new possibilities?
As the world evolves and new technologies, communication tools or other innovations start to become
mainstream it is clear that there will be obstacles and close-to-the-edge issues to solve. Now we
are seeing this in online advertising, especially in virtual worlds and online communities.
International Herald Tribune covers the issue in
its recent article, titled
“
Advertisers find new headaches in lawless world of social Web sites”. Based mainly on the
recent case of advertising junk food to children in the UK, journalist Doreen Carvajal, is both
perfectly on the spot about advertisers’ responsibilities, but does not really take into account
the user-experience side. “Companies are finding themselves on the front lines of criticism about
fast-evolving standards”, she writes and is absolutely right. Thinking about services going beyond
country borders, operating the same virtual world in hundreds of countries, which law or
advertising standard should you follow?
In the world of Habbo the issue is a bit easier, since our communities operate under separate
country organizations. Due to this we work according country specific regulations, of course taking
into account global best practices and our own rules in advertising.
Interviewed for the article, Debra Aho Williamson, a senior analyst with the research firm,
eMarketer says it exactly how it is: “We're moving to a world of user-generated content and it's
changing on a minute-by-minute basis. I think marketers are just going to have to get used to it.”
At the same time it should be noted that according to many studies advertising in virtual
worlds or social networking sites are much more appealing to users than in traditional media.