I have to admit that I really enjoy playing Literati on yahoo.com. Recently, Yahoo's site started downloading video ads that run for at least ten to ifteen seconds before the viewer can access the game room. Everyone on the web seems to be working hard to "monetize" their online products. I certainly understand that ... and Yahoo certainly has a checkered history (at best) of being profitable.
What I wonder about, though, is the value to the advertiser.
First of all, Yahoo's setup doesn't seem to target very well. I am a male in the 50+ age demo. I'm seeing lots of ads for Herbal Essence shampoo and other products targeted for women.
What's worse is that the advertiser may be paying for more exposures than they're actually getting. In order to play Literati, the player has to go to the "game room" and connect with another player. Clicking on a player initiates the ad. But the ad can be "skipped" after about ten seconds. Is that counted as exposure? What's more, when you get to the player's profile, very often they are not active or choose not to play. So, I end up going back to the game room and starting the process over (many times) with the same result: seeing only a short segment of an ad that may not even be targeted for me.
I wonder if the advertiser is paying for all this worthless exposure. The last time I attempted to connect with a player, I probably saw the first ten seconds of the Herbal Essence ad about ten times. Yes, there was some exposure, but it was really worthless for the advertiser.
As advertising on the web matures, someone out there has the opportunity to get very rich by inventing a secure system for auditing the actual value of exposure.
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