It was interesting to hear millennial entrepreneurs bemoan the state of online advertising last week, during a “Reset 2018” gathering of young entrepreneurs at the Yahoo Finance office in New York.
Even more interesting was listening to them talk about the type of online advertising that works best with younger users.
“We all know that internet ads are broken,” said Alex Chung, co-founder and CEO of Giphy, a company that launched in 2013 as a search engine for GIFs.
Chung complained about pop-up ads, which he described as annoying, and native ads, which he described as trickery. “Every time I click on a native ad, I feel a little dirty and duped,” he said.
Chung’s company has followed what he called “digital fashion” advertising, and he cited Nike as an example. Kids, he said, become human billboards when they wear Nike because they want to be associated with its brand.
“Our business model is about putting in ads that aren’t ads,” he said. “You won’t even notice that ads are happening. You’ll be sending the ads.”
Chung used the tax preparation service H&R Block, as an example.
The company came to Giphy looking for a campaign to become “cool,” Chung said. Giphy responded by making a bunch of “Making It Rain” GIFs that it used around tax day in mid-April.
“Every time tax season comes around, these GIFs are all over,” he said. “If you can make H&R Block cool, you can make anyone cool.”
— John Ourand
