NBC Mishandles Gemini Division: Ad Overload

In my post, “Gemini Division Preview” I said that even if I had a way to remove the integrated ads, I wouldn't want to. Not so with NBC's abuse of banner ads.

Upon page load, NBC’s Gemini Division site begins the ad bombardment onslaught.

There are more ads for Intel than there appears to be Gemini Division content. At the top of the page is a large Intel banner ad. To the right, there is the same large intel ad. In the middle of the screen an Intel pre-roll ad commences. And, if you missed it, to the right of the title Gemini Division is another “powered by intel ad”.



NBC redefines the concept of banner ad and takes it to a whole new level. Here, NBC takes Gemini Division, the supposed content of the site, and features it much less prominently than Intel. Gemini Division becomes the “banner ad” for the content that is Intel. In fact, Intel is featured more prominently at geminidivision.com than it is even at Intel’s own website.

This further evidences that NBC still doesn’t understand: today’s viewer, new media content, ad integration, Electric Farm Entertainment, or the companies who buy ads.

NBC needs to learn to listen, adapt, and change, or they will lose out. For instance, Electric Farm Entertainment could have made money by including car/battery ads alongside AW, however they chose not too as it would have taken away from that content as Brent Friedman explained in the video “How to Monetize Web Video”.

Likewise, EFE may make money by selling distribution rights to NBC, but when doing so negates the ad integration concept that EFE was trying to accomplish in the first place, it isn’t worth it. NBC’s mishandling of Gemini Division negatively affects that content and I don’t think Electric Farm Entertainment will take this lightly.

On a positive note, this may be one case where geoblocking (though still a practice to be avoided when possible) works to the advantage of those who have to wait. International customer's may actually get a better experience than US early adopters. Sony would do well to learn from NBC's faltering blunders(i.e. don't brand ARG components, don't mislabel recap video segments as viral, don't preroll ads with ad integrated content, make sure basic html links work, etc., etc., etc., ).

So far it appears that Electric Farm Entertainment was much better off when NBC wasn’t a part of the picture. For instance, consider Afterworld’s main portal site.



Here, the content receives the focus and the ads do not disrupt it.

Not so with NBC. In addition to what has already been pointed out, NBC’s pre-roll ads for 3-5 minute of content is beyond overkill, particularly so when the content has already been ad integrated, especially so considering that viewers have options, and even more so when there is a growing resistance to blatant ad practices.

Ad branding and advertisement in general should be subtle, it should add to the content, it should not take away from that content, and it definitely should not be featured more prominently than the content itself!

[Update: 10/14/08 - [The below is no longer recommended. It appears that NBC has tightened up their ad enforcement and I don't think you can double-click the video anymore to get it to start. (This article must have caught their attention I guess).]

For those viewers who want to watch Gemini Division the way it was meant to be watched by Electric Farm Entertainment, you may want to add the following line at the end of your “hosts” file located at c:\windows\system32\drivers\etc\hosts.

127.0.0.1 ad.doubleclick.net

Then you can view Gemini Division like this:



Without the protection of that little line, NBC’s site makes me feel as if Intel has been painfully seared/branded into my ethos, into my being.

When you are at NBC’s streaming site, this line does cause the following to appear. “We are having trouble connecting to our server. If you have any ad blocking software running please disable it.”

If you see that, just double-click the video you want (this starts up the video), and advance the progress bar just a little bit. Then you can watch NBC content without pre-roll or banner ads.

I am enjoying Gemini Division in spite of NBC’s disconnect. Unfortunately again it is in such a way that I fly under the radar, without being noticed by NBC. It appears that once again, NBC can’t gauge or account for the new consumer, or the new viewer. Hopefully this will change.