Internet advertising is a fact of life and is here to stay. However, all too often the fundamental rules of advertising are tossed aside in predatory attempts to hijack the Internet users’ attention.

Shopping for goods and services on the Internet is regarded and touted as timesaving and efficient. But the Internet-user, all too often, finds himself in a minefield of flashing banners, time-wasting rich media introductions, screen spam, and pop-up advertisements.

At one time or another, every Internet-user has been bushwhacked by unscrupulous advertisers and unknowingly shanghaied onto a totally unrelated site. At that point, the experience becomes infuriating, and often, it is a time-consuming nightmare to get back on track.

Curiously, these predatory advertising techniques (cheap tricks) are becoming a standard feature on many mainstream corporate websites.

Edward Bernays’ wrote in “Propaganda” his definitive 1928 book on public relations and advertising:

“The public has its own standards and demands and habits.
You may modify them, but you dare not run counter to them.”

The bottom-line is that people don’t take kindly to being force-fed advertising and sales-pitches or tricked into viewing an advertisement. These sorts of 'Assault and Battery' advertising practices are contrary to most people’s standards and are regarded more as an obnoxious intrusion than providing a consumer service.

Aggressive, ‘in-your-face – within the page, over-the-page, between-pages, and in-stream’ advertising may be somewhat effective for the short term. But like other intrusive approaches to advertising and sales, they have a short life expectancy. Once the initial novelty wears-off and the Internet-user becomes desensitized to the visual trickery, the technique becomes ‘just another irritating advertisement’.

Internet ad agencies are seemingly oblivious to the fact that the Internet is an entirely different medium than television or print. Presently, they are erroneously equating browsing the web as being the same as watching television or reading a magazine.

If a person is being entertained (legitimate entertainment) or has a specific need, they will tolerate intrusive forms of advertising. But if there is a viable alternative without intrusive ads flashing up on the screen, you can bet, they will move-on to more a user-friendly site.

The advertiser should ask, “Why are EBay and Amazon so phenomenally successful?” The answer is that most consumers can easily find what they want without being subjected to a barrage of annoying, intrusive advertising.

In the ‘get-rich-quick’ feeding frenzy of Internet advertising, Internet ad agencies have grossly underestimated the sophistication and inherent cynicism of the consumer.

For instance, pop-up ads are popular and essentially impose a message upon the user whether it is of interest or not.

However, in the past several years ‘Pop-up Blockers/Killers’ have also become a popular standard feature included with firewalls, antivirus programs and on browsers.

Ads for pop-up blockers read as such: “Sick and Tired of Irritating Advertising Pop-ups? Hate being "spammed" like that? Kill those unsolicited pop-ups! ” The copy reflects the seething resentment of the Internet-user at that sort of intrusive advertising. On Google, there are pages and pages of sponsor click-through advertisements for pop-up blockers and related software.

The overwhelmingly popularity of ‘pop-up killers’ should indicate to the advertisers that intrusive pop-up ads are not a readily accepted form of advertising with Internet-users.

In spite of the irritation factor and possible alienation of potential customers, advertisers still extensively use the pop-up and pop-under type ads.

The fundamental problem is in the advertisers’ approach to communicating with the Internet-user. The users are treated as if they were a captive television or movie audience, but unlike the other venues, they are indiscriminately force-fed advertising.

Advertisers’ seem unaware that the Internet-user is not held hostage by interest in a television program and has discretion over the material viewed. If the user becomes irritated at the content or advertising style, he can click onto another site in less than a heartbeat.

Enlisting intrusive ads incorporated with faddish tricks may increase sales in the short-term, but once the Internet becomes inundated with the same techniques, they lose their effectiveness and tend to alienate the prospective consumer.

Instead of assaulting potential sales resistance by direct attack, e.g., utilising a bombastic, "BUY NOW!” banner or pop-up ads, try utilising simple, emotive images and copy. Create circumstances that will swing the consumer into identifying with your product by playing empathetically to the psychological and emotional undercurrents that fulfil people's need to satiate their unconscious desires.

The best approach to devising an advertising/marketing strategy is to look back and remember the first company logo that caught your eye before you learned to read. From that moment on, the product was imprinted on your psyche and will remain as an indelible watermark throughout pages of your life.

It is doubtful that anyone will recall anything but symbols such as a simple logo or an image, and it was probably one of your favourite sweets or soft drinks.

The next step is to start relating to that logo or symbol as if it were a signpost for events that occurred in your life. Unless someone is extremely obtuse, there will be a flood of memories associated with the symbol or logo.

While your tastes and desires may have changed over the years that product remains indelibly imprinted in your psyche - an integral part of your very being.

Then analyze how that particular product affected you in developing social relationships, first impressions of people and developing friendships. You will find that you were more likely to identify with a person who, for example, you saw drinking the same brand of soft drink that you identified with since early childhood. Basically, it was the mutual identification with the product which created an initial bond.

There is a commonality/social comradery between people who drink that soft drink although it might be the only thing that binds them together in a group identity. If a person drinks that fondly remembered soft drink, the immediate unconscious impression is that you both have something in common which makes it easier to spontaneously communicate with the individual.

For the small marketer, it’s about finding a common thread to create a symbiotic relationship with an existing products that have an established market. For instance, if in your visual advertisement you introduce an image of a mass-appeal product unrelated to your product, you are suggesting that people identifying with that product also have reasons to identify with your product.

By nature, people identify with stereotypical group images and the visual symbols and products that are representative of those groups. Even when alone, their minds retain predictable patterns of behaviours imprinted from group influences.

People in a specific psychographic group are rarely aware of the actual reasons that motivate them to purchase a specific brand even when they could purchase the identical product as an off-brand for half the price.

They may offer concisely reasoned explanations for purchasing the more expensive product. However, they are most certainly deceiving themselves. There are underlying reasons as to why a person would purchase a specific brand, when they could buy the identical product at half the price.

Successful marketing/advertising is about understanding those stereotypical groupings in relationship to the individual desire for products that satiate the unconscious need of the individual for group acceptance.

The effectiveness of an advertising campaign doesn't so much lie in clever visual trickery, but basic marketing techniques and strategies. Know your market – their psychological motivations and unconscious desires. If the marketer understands those motivations and unconscious desires, they can be utilized as tools in designing marketing and advertising strategies to effectively sell product and increase market share.

The most important axiom to keep in your mind when considering an Internet advertising strategy is, “The public has its own standards and demands and habits. You may modify them, but you dare not run counter to them.” (ends))