Perhaps you do the same as me… tune out or switch channels every time the adverts come on TV. Quite frankly, TV advertising annoys me - but pop-ups and flashy banner ads annoy me even more. If I get a pop-up fly in my face the first time I visit a site, that annoys me - sometimes to the point where I’ll just leave the site.

As a marketer, I should know better. After all, they’re just getting attention, aren’t they? What could be wrong with that?

Nothing, if you don’t mind a hand being waved in your face saying, “Look at me, look at me!”. Aren’t there better ways of getting someone’s attention?

Personally, I’m drawn by subtle ads that arouse my curiousity, are not immediately obvious as ads (but seem to blend in to the content), hit my personal hot-spots, and get me thinking, “Hmmm… I wonder what this is all about?”

I call these stealth adverts, and I admit that they’re a lot more effective on me - not least of all because I didn’t initially recognize them as ads! (Or if I did, I’m still curious enough to click.)

For example, one site which uses stealth ads effectively is Worldnetdaily.com. This is a news site, with the main page consisting of lots of headlines linking to news articles. However, some of those headlines are actually for commercial products, with a ”news” style headline. A new visitor to the site might not be able to tell the difference. (I can usually tell which are ads, only because I’m a regular visitor, so I recognize them.)

Big networks such as Google Adsense don’t like stealth ads, and insist on having their ads on your site clearly labelled “Ads by Google”. The trouble with these is they risk getting zoned out in a visitor’s mind - like the TV ads, or the annoying pop-ups.

If you’re going to advertise directly on a third-party site, why not design your ad to “blend in” with the site - even down to the use of their fonts and colours, and maybe even a “continue reading” link (if you’re advertising on a blog). You want your ad to look as little like an ad as possible. Obviously you’ll want to check with the site first - and not having a big “Sponsored Link” box round your advert always helps!

Stealth advertising is, to a certain extent, counterintuitive. After all, everyone else is using flashy banners, “Sponsored Links” boxes and “Ads by Google” slots - which must be the correct way to do it, because everyone else is doing it that way, right?

Actually, if everyone’s doing it one way, this is a great reason to do the opposite. In an advertising world of flashy banners and “Sponsored Link” boxes, the stealth ad stands out and is just inviting you to click.