This is a post I originally wrote over on Funny Strange, but is much more appropriate for this site so I am excerpting it here as well.
The other night I was putting Netflix movies into my Netflix queue when…a Netflix pop-up ad popped up. I don’t even think I need to explain all the subtle layers of funny we’re dealing with here, folks. I will say, though, that someone somewhere in an “online ad buying agency” is in big trouble, because this is a super big waste of advertising spend for the year.
On the other hand, I AM the target market for a Netflix free trial pop-up ad, so maybe it’s not so wrong after all.
Just kidding. It’s totally wrong. First of all, a site you’re already using should NEVER pop-up an advertisement. Are they kidding me? I’m paying to use their product, which pretty much makes me off-limits to ads at that moment. The only way I should see an ad in conjunction with Netflix is MAYBE if I get an affiliate-style email, offering me a deal on something ELSE I might use, like a deal on something on Amazon or Gilt.com (depending on how much demographic profiling they’d done for push-marketing purposes). Secondly, I’m sorry, but aren’t we done with pop-up ads yet? They’re annoying, historically they don’t have a high conversion rate, and every once in awhile, just maybe, THEY’LL POP UP ADS FOR THEIR OWN PRODUCTS.
Pop up ad = fail.
