Media Mayhem Signs Exclusive Deal with AboveTopsecret.com - Building the Company

reply to post by VIKINGANT

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I live with a die hard anime fan...

The relationship with Media Mayhem was mentioned here and the Advertising on AboveTopSecret.com link at the bottom of every page provides a bit more detail.

Media Mayhem is now "repping" our advertising space to advertisers and ad agencies. In doing so, they would sell ads that would appear on ATS in one of two ways...
1) Directly purchased to run on ATS only.
2) Purchased as part of the "Sci-Fi" vertical (like-minded sites).

The long term goal is to improve the overall quality of advertising that appears on ATS, and as a result, have fewer ads because the better-quality ads pay a higher rate.

The press release from them is their first step in promoting ATS to their clients and contacts.

reply to post by SkepticOverlord

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Cool -- don't let my skepticism detract from what is a great growth opportunity for Above Network . Congratulations!

reply to post by Duzey

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I got to agree with you here. This is a site that a sci-fi junk would like and it should be advertised like that, the same way it could be advertised as a conspiraci site or an Alt News site. a chitchat site what ever.

WhenI came here I came because the UFO related topics but right now I am active in more 10 forums, so the point is to get them here and then new membera can find their own place here.

reply to post by Ian McLean

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He says with a sudden change of heart now that SO has joined in…

Now if you could pedal forward as quick as that back pedaling you would make the Olympic team…

Lol... quite true. But really, I'm of two minds about this. ATS is a privately-run website, not user-owned. So, we're guests here, and I of course appreciate the opportunity for expression. In my opinion, anything we can do to help the site owners make a better, more marketable site, and make them money, is well deserved. Really.

ON THE OTHER HAND

I have two questions, from my uninvolved sinecure as a 'common user'. I will wrap them up with an observation or two, and a single question:

- Media Mayhem is not an ad network. They offer, for their advertising clients: "we allow our advertising clients to pick and choose which websites they wish to advertise on. We also provide full integrated opportunities such as skins, road-blocks, rich media units, editorials, contests and custom units." *

- Previously, with a diverse range of advertising providers to choose from, no one agency could necessarily exert 'monopoly' pressure for ATS to, for example, filter content on the site home page, deploy pop-up ads, etc. If they tried to do so, the owners could simply not carry that agency's content, and choose from an alternative source.

Will this exclusive deal with a single advertising representative (and presumably, revenue provider) make ATS, in terms of editorial discretion and site administration, more vulnerable to external pressures?


( And, again, S.O., thanks for ATS )

Sci-fi is legit...I love ghost hunters.

Would be AWESOME to see a ATS show on Sci-fi. But I got to agree that this will clearly bring is massive amounts of members- we're doomed to have hoaxers, meaningless posts, and issues...yet at the same time I'm hoping it brings some real hard evidence on the table for a lot of issues we read about.

This is a good thing. More money to be used towards making ATS bigger, better, and a larger scale.

The positivity outweighs the negativity on this one.

Congrats ATS!

absolutely not. the content on this site is provided by the members and the guests (anons) and the staff does their best to ensure that everyone can have their say.

I've mentioned this before but we have lost advertising revenue thanks to some of the topics that appeared on the site when potential buyers were perusing the site. We refused to remove the content then and we will refuse to remove the content now. The Terms and Conditions remain the same and the actions of the staff will still be done with the T&C in mind.

reply to post by Crakeur

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That was my main concern on reading that 'ATS had gone on another company's roster' ... that advertisers (and the other company) might start to influence the content and topics in order not to find themselves on the wrong end of an ATS topic, discussion, revelation, or criticism.

Good to know that won't happen . It would be a real shame if in order to grow ATS had to diminish it's edge, and openness.

I've mentioned this before but we have lost advertising revenue thanks to some of the topics that appeared on the site when potential buyers were perusing the site. We refused to remove the content then and we will refuse to remove the content now. The Terms and Conditions remain the same and the actions of the staff will still be done with the T&C in mind.

The demographic target that the advertisers seems to be drooling over, is that us?

As a member, I have no sway on such matters, nor do I expect to. But does this mean that we should start seeing gobs of threads on 'entertainment industry' stuff started by those who want 'attention' (like marketeers)?

Already I have noted a couple of X-files threads that seemed to focus on 'fans'.

Movies and entertainment industry stuff is antithetical to my interests, unfortunately I am something of a pessimist, and foresee unpleasant developments ahead as the 'commercialism' of the forums is plumbed for data mining. Please don't reveal my identity to those jerks.

Hopefully, I'm just being overly negative. When it comes to 'advertisers' I always expect exploitation.

Before leaving my full-time job to do this, I was an "advertising executive," with a focus on Internet/digital advertising. Those who are socially aware and proactively involved comprise the most-important demographic that advertisers seek.



I suspect those will be more focused on BTS. There may be more threads about entertainment like the new X-Files movie, since that's more compatible with ATS topics, but I don't see "gobs" of them in any way.



Our Privacy Policy, linked at the bottom of every page, promises that we never will.

So really then, the only difference we the users will experience from all of this, is that ads will be more 'targeted' to the interests expressed on ATS? Maxmars points out great concerns.

But at the same time, I tend to think that is the only thing this deal will accomplish. The same thing would be done on any other site, like joining something like commission junctions, and then hand-choosing one campaign at a time that would appeal to your visitors... Let's see what happens with that, then. *shrug*

Long as no one is data-mining, or representing ATS as something it is not, then really I think the only difference will be the ads being more 'targeted' and less 'general', than they have been. Personally though, I didn't see anything wrong with Vonage and Pizza Hut advertising on this site. They seem targeted enough to everyone, and sometimes just reminds one that pizza is a good idea.

reply to post by SkepticOverlord

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Thank you kindly for taking the time to reassure me. (See, that's why I like this place so much!)

Yes... and, hopefully much fewer ads throughout the site since the higher-end ads will pay much better than the lower-end ads we have now.

the begining of the end of ats . if you think that there is a bunch of irrational nut jobs here already just wait for the flood gates to open . trolls for as far as the eye can see .
as for the moneymoneymoney comment ,,,,,, what do you expect from them ? they have to make a living like everyone else.

[edit on 23-7-2008 by ironman433]

They won't all be. If we're talking about sci-fi people, here; then you can expect some brilliant minds.

The Media Mayhem arrangement will have no impact on traffic-building.

And if you're concerned about the ownership making money, can you point to one moment in ATS's history where new ad revenue from obvious growth wasn't reinvested back into making ATS bigger, better, or with more free services for members?

reply to post by ironman433

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Nobody is going to be advertising ATS and traffic building in a hurry. Seriously, the only difference it sounds like we are going to see, are more targeted ads on the site. The trolls will come if they are going to. Nothing anyone can do about that.

But, youve got a lot of expenses with a website... Plus people trying to make a living, hopefully this new targeted advertising will make it easier.