Link: Why Traditional Advertising Formats Fail On The Web - Publishing 2.0. Scott does a great job in this post of illustrating why most online advertising doesn't work. Only Google has cracked the code by tying ads to utility value for consumers. But this analogy works also works for other industries that are making the shift online.
Take the legal industry. How does a law firm go about getting some Google juice? Who in their right mind links to a law firm website? Well there are obviously ways to get links but the key point here is that law firm sites often are comprised of nothing more than a canned sales pitch, which might be good for the firm but provides very little value to potential consumers. But this need not be the case (excuse the pun). There are any number of ways that firms could provide content that is engaging and useful; but they don't. Why? Because while they may be online their thinking is not--it is still tied to the world of atoms.
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