Today I was shown a presentation given by a publisher (who shall remain nameless) to a brand (who shall also remain nameless).  It was a very impressive pitch, but one line in the presentation leapt out at me.

There’s a slide that sells the virtues of running TVC’s online.  The presentation describes pop up TVC’s with ‘Automatic sound on’ as a ‘Brand Benefit’.

Just think about that term ‘brand benefit’ for a moment. I would interpret it to mean something that would positively shift a viewers perception of the brand. I fail to see how auto-play sound does anything but cause a negative shift in brand perception.

Do marketers who buy these pop-up video ads with auto sound honestly believe this is good for their brands perception?

[caption id=“attachment_146” align=“alignnone” width=“300” caption=“Video-pop ups with auto sound are the Crazy Frog of online advertising…annoying as hell!”][/caption]