01.17.08
Online Gam(bl)ing and Facebook
Is Facebook online gambling advertising’s NBF?
Like cigarette advertising (for South Africa - we’re not allowed to advertise cigarettes), Gambling advertising was banned from the likes of Adwords etc and had to seek other ways of market penetration. Yes, they have many resources and ways of getting those markets - there are many Online Marketing agencies focussed solely on doing that… Facebook however is still openly marketing gambling. Through applications and also flyers…
I attended the unofficial Geekdinner with Jason Hoffman last night, and one of the points brought up (I think by Henk) was whether one could subscribe or unsubscribe to which flyers you see, or rather block ones you don’t want to see. To be honest, those gambling ads annoy me for some reason and if I could I would block them…
Just because I fit the “perceived demographic”, does not mean I am a potential client etc. I guess some would argue that it would still give them brand awareness to the market at least…
Now this is where it gets tricky, as I am first and fore-mostly also an Online Marketer, and yes, I do sell this stuff…So why this opinion?
Simple, because of relevancy.
Yes, you might get brand awareness per say, but not click throughs… So just as with Search, the more targeted your ad to the demographic, the more qualified clicks and impressions you will receive. This in itself would be tricky, as naturally you want your advertising to display to the widest possible audience, but surely your return would be that much better if your viewers subscribed to seeing your information…Perhaps they could do something like they have done in the News feed page whereby you can say what you want to see and what you don’t - after they show you everything first…
What ‘irks’ me even more is the annoying little emails I started getting after I had installed one of the card game apps. Not to my Facebook profile, but my personal email address. Not at anyone stage was I asked to “opt in”. I would have understood to receive an opt-in email to my Facebook Inbox from which to choose to receive further updates, but directly to my personal account? No thanks. I needless to say disabled this feature immediately.
Some of these Apps are giving other good ones a ‘bad image’. Enter the last few ones I’ve seen: “past life” and I think also “name reveal” or similar, that require you to invite 20 friends before you can even install the App! Clearly this is just a way of building their database…IF they can get people to make this ‘annoying’ step before adding their application. Strange thing is that if you decline the step, the application installs itself on your profile irrespective, but you are not able to see your relevant report. Which is what it incentivised you with in the first place to install the App!
I think its time for a “best practice Facebook App guide”- from a users & usability point of view.
Now there’s a topic to include in the next CT Facebook Application Development Garage. Maybe I’ll touch on that 