Social Opportunities
Please allow me to pay an annual fee NOT to see advertisements. It’s so creepy how I can be discussing my craving for a double sausage egg and cheese from McDonalds and the very next day I’ll see an advertisement from McDonalds for the delicious breakfast sandwich I was just discussing.
They need to double down on their monetization scheme. One of my bosses only makes clothing purchases through ads targeted to him on Instagram. As strange as I find this, he swears by it and loves the functionality of buying through the social platform. Great! Let him continue to do this but please also take my money in exchange for ad-free social media.
Take a page from Spotify’s playbook and let those who like ads be advertised to. Let those who want an ad-free service pay for the privilege. Double-down! Look at each user and create an algorithm to determine how much each person is worth in advertising dollars and then add 20%. So, if each Instagram user creates $20 worth of revenue based on advertisers paying to target them, allow me the opportunity to pay $24 NOT to see targeted ads and you’ve created an additional $4 worth of revenue per user. Multiply that by the millions who are just like me (there have to be others) and you’ve further solidified your base of loyal followers.
YouTube
I was listening to the BBC yesterday and there was a segment about how young children are no longer watching television. Instead, they gravitate to YouTube and watch for hours on-end. If Pewdiepie and the Paul brothers are the trend on this platform, doesn’t it stand to reason that YouTube should be charging high value content creators to upload their videos? Why should the celebrities named above be able to monetize through their use of the service and ad-related income streams without paying to play?
An argument why YouTube shouldn’t do this is the rare possibility that the creators band together and mutually decide to leave YouTube for hosting platforms like Vimeo or DailyMotion. I find this highly unlikely because YouTube has a community that is unmatched—it’s far more social than any other video hosting service. For this reason, I feel like they’re missing out on a massive opportunity to charge for their service. If the Paul brothers and Pewdiepie left YouTube it would hurt YouTube just as much as it would hurt the celebrities. In biting the hand that has fed them, these creators would have to trust that their subscribers will follow them to another, lesser-known platform.
Sponsored, embedded and landing page advertisements are fine but I think they’re missing a huge opportunity to capitalise on the fact they’re the worlds largest video sharing service and music and entertainment are becoming increasingly dependent on their service in order to survive.
I wanted Vero to work SO badly for this exact reason. Instagram took a hit—learn from this experience and improve. You’re the greatest thing we have but please evolve!