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Monday, August 14, 2006

Ads Paid Per Viewer (APPV)

Television networks still won't admit it, but advertising on TV is losing value and becoming overpriced.

First, I always thought it hokey that they set their ad rates during sweeps periods. You mean you want to charge me for viewers you garnered in May when you aired season finales, series finales, and blockbuster movies and specials; yet the next two months you're airing junk that results in the lowest viewership of the year? I suppose I'm naive that way, but it seems to lack common sense.

Second, advertising was always hit-and-miss with the mute button, channel-surfers, kitchen-snack-makers and bathroom-breakers. Now there's DVR (digital video recorders) technology that enables me to skip ads entirely.

I read a book on buzz marketing that estimated television ad production to be about $16 per viewer! Yes the ad rates are advertised at only about 3/10th of a penny per viewer, but once you subtract all the commercials not seen due to the previous examples and the cost of producing the ads, the cost is probably mucho higher!

So my idea is to take ads directly to viewers, one-on-one, in a manner that pays them directly and ensures the viewer pays attention to the ad.

The way my idea works is this: 30-second ads are loaded up onto a tablet-PC laptop in the form of .mpg or .avi files. I take that laptop out to the local park or beer festival (wherever there's lots of people). I have a big sandwich board sign that advertises 'Watch Ads for $ Now'.

People sign a simple 1-page contract that has them provide their name, address, and phone number (verifiable by ID), and that they agree to pay attention to two 30-second ads you will show on your laptop, and they earn $5 for their minute.

If you have enough ads, you can even let them choose their ads (would you like Coke or a furniture store?) You play them for one person at a time, and watch their eyes. If they look away for more than 2 seconds in the 60 second period, you have to restart or not pay them if they can't do it.

You then pay them $5, then do the next person. Groups of friends would be great for this, because everyone's going to at least hear the ads playing while they wait, so ad exposure is actually greater than the 1 person being paid to watch.

You then turn in those contracts to prove you played the ad for people, and each contract pays you $2.50 per 30-second ad ($5 per person ads are played to).

I see this as a method to generate advertising buzz because people are not used to being paid directly for watching advertising. Most people would sit for 60 seconds to earn $5! That's a rate of $300 per hour! You could further stipulate that the same person could only watch 1 set of ads each hour, so you don't have some cheesehead bleeding you dry.

Advertisers would only have to pay $5 per 30-second ad, much cheaper than actual costs for television advertising, and better spending because they know the ad is being seen and who is seeing it. An advertiser could even specify 'show this only to middle-aged Hispanic women' or whatnot is their target demographic.

Finally, a choice of advertisers would be the deal sealer, because people would likely choose ads of products they are likely shopping for at that time, so the ad has better chances of resulting in sales.

Plus, it would be pretty cool to walk around and show ads from a laptop slung around your neck for 10 or 20 hours a week and get paid better than most 40-hour jobs.

Any ideas on the price point of this from advertisers?

school loan consolidation

This is pretty shady, but I always wondered about a method whereby one person agrees to take on the school loans of others. This person must have absolutely perfect credit (especially no bankruptcies), and they somehow shoulder the federal college school loans of say 10-20 other people paying off their student loans. This person consolidates the school loans in a way of speaking, consolidates their college loans, and those people are free and clear.

Now I understand this person with the school debt load of 10-20 people could not declare bankruptcy, but there are two ways out for them: flee the country or wait 30 years.

If this person knew they were leaving America for good (or for a few decades at least), they would leave and the consolidated school debt would be left behind in their name. The original school loan debtors would not be prosecutable, because the government would have to agree to allow that one person to take it on.

If they can wait 30 years, don't most school loans get written off? Maybe it's only certain loans. I guess the government figures if you've been too poor to pay your school loan consolidation debt for 30 years, it's time to let go of you?

Again, shady deals, shouldn't encourage anyone to do it, but schemes like this may crop up in the next years as school loans debts rise and consolidation solutions are dreamed up.

DQ Machine: computing, voice communications, and dessert

When I worked for Qwest communications (a regional phone company), and VoIP (voice over IP) technology was getting big, I had the idea for Qwest to manufacture a PC card dedicated to VoIP, or partner with a big PC maker like Dell computers to co-manufacture a computer that had built in VoIP/free telephony appliance built into it.

I said we could call it the DQ machine (for Dell and Qwest), and market it as a simplification device so people could get rid of their home phones.

Oooooh! If we called it the DQ machine, I reasoned we could also bring in Dairy Queen as a partner and create a computer/phone/soft-serve ice cream dispenser!

Now who wouldn't want a computer and phone in one where you could also pour ice cream cones whenever you wanted?

Concept

I have too many ideas.

I don’t know if I’m autistic, just sick, hyper-imaginational, ADD/ADHD, or have some pittiful need to attract attention. I just come up with lots of ideas, many of them for potential businesses. Some are obviously jokes, many could be really cool if a few key challenges could be overcome, and some are rock-solid that just need expertise and investment.

I rarely have expertise in the rock solid ideas I have, and certainly have no investment. I’m sharing these ideas with the world as my personal outlet, to see if any can be made into real businesses by others (please let me know if it works for you), and maybe someone will like my way of thinking and want to contract me (oops, there’s the fanciful wishing again).

If nothing else, I hope to give ideas that are outside of the box, and sometimes make people laugh.