Yesterday, I woke up to an email announcing that Aladdin is coming to Broadway in a few months. Did I want to purchase discounted tickets? Yes. I took my provided code and was off to the seat-finding races. Date availability confirmed on calendar? Check. Seats passed the husband approval test? Ditto. The time to make my purchase to this magical show had come.
Then I was met with the inevitable security code entry portion of e-commerce. No problem, we’ve all done this a gazillion times. Crossing my fingers in hopes that the code would be one I could easily decipher, I was completely unprepared for what awaited me next: an ad for The Hopper. What sort of genie magic is this? Why is an ad for Dish’s whole-home HD DVR interrupting my ticket transaction? And just like that, an unsuspecting moment was turned into an advertising opportunity by Ticketmaster.
I’m always amazed as I see little bits of previously un-advertisable territory suddenly transformed into a money making opportunity. Not upset, necessarily – after all, advertising is what I do – but surprised. After a second of silence during which my fingers would normally have been loudly clacking up a storm to complete the transaction, I decided that this new form of advertising was pretty logical. What difference does it make to me if I’m typing in robot-generated phrases and numbers or a sentence about “DISH” to show that I’d read the HOPPER ad? Heck, maybe this ad actually helped fund the discount on my tickets, I reasoned.
Either way, before the clock struck 6:00am, I discovered “a whole new world” of advertising opportunity. Thanks, Aladdin: your theme song will never be the same.
~ @AdvertGirl
