Hostile takeover

Know what I love?

A good page takeover.

OK, that's nowhere near the truth.
No one likes loves a good page takeover.

You show me someone who does and I'll show you someone who never skips the pre-roll ads on a youtube video.

Someone who actually clicks banner ads.

Someone who answers every damn Buzzfeed quiz and is eager to share with the world what kind of bug/flower/dog breed/quilting pattern he or she would be in another lifetime.

In Barcelona.

In terms of annoying media choices, the page takeover is the digital equivalent of the urinal cake. It's there. It's unavoidable. And if we could we'd squeeze our sphincters and obliterate it with a steady and strong stream of annoyed piss.

And yet we, the advertising industry, persist and sell this malarkey to our clients in the interest of appearing 360 degrees or fully integrated or media agnostic.

The fact is, no "campaign" gets out the agency door unless it's accompanied by a slew of page takeover options. These are usually conceived and designed at the very last minute. Triggered by a sharp account coordinator going over the deck and making sure all the deliverables are in order.

"Oh shit," usually uttered 45 minutes before the foam core boards are packed away, "we don't have any page takeovers."

I know this sounds like old school heresy.

We tell our clients that a good idea can come from anywhere. But, in all the years I've been doing this, and I'm 44 so it's quite substantial, I've never seen a Chief Creative Officer say, "This is a great page takeover idea, let's develop some TV, print and guerrilla ideas that support this."

Never.

I'd love to see the research that documents the effectiveness of advertising page takeovers. Actually I'd rather have more painful dental surgery than wade through that. Besides there's nothing anyone say that would convince me these page takeovers have any effect on consumers.

People visit a website for news.
Or sports results.
Or stock quotes.
They don't want to be interrupted and have roadblocks placed between themselves and what they want from the internet.

Know who doesn't do page takeovers?
The porn industry.
(So I hear)

If you ask me, we can learn a lot from the porn industry.