Contextual advertising – the perfect storm for dealing with negativity?

I have always been a fan of contextual advertising or content ads for specific brands. I used to advise clients that the main reason to run within content networks was to be present at the point of interaction with your brand. I was reminded of this story recently on Fred’s blog discussing Verizons move working with Federated Media to be present to consumers where there was some negativity around their new product the Blackberry Storm.

This brings me to a question I used to get all the time from SEM clients;
“Why would I want to advertise next to someone slamming my product in a review site or a forum?”

The answer is that you want to be present at the point of thought – whether positive or negative. The reason for being present is that the alternative is having no voice at all in the matter. By being present, stating your brand message, and being the official site behind a product at a point of negativity shows that you care what people are saying – good or bad.

Lets face it, nobody every gets 100% positive reviews all of the time. Advertising around positive outlooks of your brand makes sense – but those people are the converted. Having the ability to have a one to one conversation with your potential customer at the time they are reading something negative is a great place to be. You provide them with official links and information and hopefully the power to make the choice for themselves.

Running within a content network when doing a search marketing campaign is not for everyone. Having your brand present at the time it is being discussed is.