Brits Prefer Ads in People Form

This just in from Forrester Research: according to a new report, "UK consumers are getting more annoyed with advertising, but less so with viral marketing. And consumers who like to exchange viral messages also have a higher appreciation of advertising in general. Marketers can improve general ad campaign targeting and results by preseeding it with a viral campaign."

I'm no big fan of ads, either. However, I recognize their purpose (to support the media outlets we rely on for information and entertainment or merely to promote goods or services). What I'm getting at is even though I don't like being bombarded with advertising, I'd much rather know when advertising is present. In the same way that I like my media content (news reports, TV sitcoms, films, whatever) distinctly separated from commercial content, I want my interactions with others separate from ads, too.

I wrote about this in SPSII:

"Sure, many companies today provide communication tools (refer a friend forms, community discussion forums, etc.) that enable already interested, possibly-loyal brand fans to readily share information about or recommend a brand. Send the latest Budweiser TV spot to a friend, Send your buddy a personalized SoBe ecard, Record your own Firefox testimonial: these kinds of things seem pretty harmless. However I'd argue that the proliferation of such tools and features has helped acclimate people to sending and receiving branded messages when communications would otherwise be less-dominated by them."

Here's another excerpt from SPSII that explains why I think this is significant and something we should contemplate:

"Whatever the tactics used -- evangelism, buzz, viral, blah, blah, blah -- the ultimate mission of WOM marketers is to insert their brands into our conversations. Considering the fact that in most cases, our conversations are the foundations upon which we build our relationships with one another, we shouldn't take it lightly."

I think that says it all. Plus, I'd much rather be playing sudoku or readin' the paper right now (it's gorgeous here in the backyard) than pecking out opinion on this damn machine.