Skype's New Ad Plan

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I read the quote below and all I heard was marketing marketing marketing kool aid marketing marketing high on marketing marketing blowing smoke up my marketing marketing totally lost touch marketing marketing lost customers marketing marketing.

While on a 1:1 audio call, users will see content that could spark additional topics of conversation that are relevant to Skype users and highlight unique and local brand experiences. So, you should think of Conversation Ads as a way for Skype to generate fun interactivity between your circle of friends and family and the brands you care about. Ultimately, we believe this will help make Skype a more engaging and useful place to have your conversations each and every day.
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Thanks to everyone that sent this one in.
 
Ugh.

Here's a philosophical question: If you could kill all of one profession, which would it be? Lawyers, or Marketers?
 
Does anyone in the first world still use Skype? I thought everyone knew that it's poison. It's been getting worse and worse at a steady pace for years now. This garbage from them comes as no surprise to me.
 
Dark Shade said:
Ugh.

Here's a philosophical question: If you could kill all of one profession, which would it be? Lawyers, or Marketers?
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Lawyers, probably. At least you can ignore marketers for the most part. Lawyers have a part in setting legal precedent. :(
 
lawyers it would take 99% of congress out with them >.>
 
Dark Shade said:
Ugh.

Here's a philosophical question: If you could kill all of one profession, which would it be? Lawyers, or Marketers?
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Lawyers, without a doubt. Marketers can shape things indirectly, Lawyers forge law via incessant attack.
 
S-F said:
Does anyone in the first world still use Skype? I thought everyone knew that it's poison. It's been getting worse and worse at a steady pace for years now. This garbage from them comes as no surprise to me.
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You see it used a lot in certain research sectors. Collaborative efforts often involve colleagues from all over the globe and Skype is often used for meetings.
That said, I think it's a pox on humanity.
 
any on topic i use skype and its not bad for PC to PC calls
other then that meh
 
gahh lack of edit
also the ads arent bad i dont see them most of the time because keep skype minimized to the system tray when i use so its really a non-issue
 
We use skype for gaming chat a lot. But, if they make it an annoyance I'll find something different. The advantage of skype is you don't need a server to run a group call. Haven't found anything else that operates effectively that doesn't need a dedicated server.

If anyone has any suggestion other than Ventrillo and TeamSpeak, I'm all ears. :)
 
I want to know what data they are using to determine what brands are important to my fellow skype callers and I. Eavesdropping?
 
ViperGrendal said:
We use skype for gaming chat a lot. But, if they make it an annoyance I'll find something different. The advantage of skype is you don't need a server to run a group call. Haven't found anything else that operates effectively that doesn't need a dedicated server.

If anyone has any suggestion other than Ventrillo and TeamSpeak, I'm all ears. :)
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Whats wrong with popping up a TS/Vent/Mumble server? Its trivial.
 
Makes it sound like they will be listening to the conversation and deploying adds based on that ha.
 
Spire3660 said:
Whats wrong with popping up a TS/Vent/Mumble server? Its trivial.
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Teamspeak isn't trivial, I've done it several times. The newest version is total BS to setup. Vent and mumble servers I haven't set up, but the vent client is a complete mess to try and help someone setup, especially if they have no technical inclination whatsoever. Mumble, I might need to look at now that you mention it.


The biggest thing with skype is any techno dork can set it up and use it, and it's easy to help someone if they are having issues. Then it does have some nice features like screen/file sharing that is really easy to use. I just hope they don't start with popup adds and crap. It will be uninstalled in a hurry if that happens.
 
I'll never understand how in a capitalistic society where two thirds of the economy is based on consumer spending why people have so much hate towards marketing. I'm no lover of it but its need seems beyond obvious considering the nature of our civilization.
 
"users who do not have Skype Credit or subscriptions" <--- Rage averted.

Why do I use Skype? Calling the US/tech support. I even have a Florida number.
 
heatlesssun said:
I'll never understand how in a capitalistic society where two thirds of the economy is based on consumer spending why people have so much hate towards marketing. I'm no lover of it but its need seems beyond obvious considering the nature of our civilization.
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People don't hate marketing, they hate obtrusive, invasive, and poorly planned marketing.

"Oh, you use our program to make no-frills voice calls to people you want to talk to? How about if throw up an ad so that you and your friend can talk about it together?"

That is beyond stupid. I don't use Skype to join focus groups about products (In fact, I don't use Skype at all).

I love good marketing, a la Coca Cola and Visa with the Olympics and solid low-key advertisements that actually show me things I want. I don't like it when ads are shoved in my face as if I'm just a pair of eyeballs with a wallet. Good marketers show you things you want without being obvious. Bad marketers are like door-to-door salesmen: they show up with stuff you didn't want anyway, and no matter how much you want them to go away, they continue to push their ads and products on you.

There are several websites I don't go to much anymore because of the ridiculous prevalence of ads that interfere with my experience. If I get one more "fake homepage ad overlay" from Fox News, I'll probably re-register Democrat. I don't like some of MSN's partner sites because it takes 40 seconds to load because of all the BS javascript and flash, not to mention it makes the actual content jump all over the place as ads expand, collapse, and slow load.

Marketing isn't the problem. Bad businesspeople trying to inject marketing into something it shouldn't be in is the problem. When the marketing becomes an artificial experience that actually interferes with what you're trying to do, it's not only ineffective, it's annoying.
 
That's really invasive, I work in advertising (for a good agency). Our ethos is to make a user experience better, to give someone something... You want somebody to like your products, that is why we don't do pop up banner ads or anything that inteferes with somebodies end experience.

I can't think of a more intrusive and irritating way of presenting an ad than jamming it in the middle of somebodies conversation. This is the worst ad idea since banner ads, in fact it is worse than that. Any company stupid enough to pay money for this are morons. All that is going to happen is an immediate and big emotional reaction to where both users will hate the product that is presented.

Whoever came up with this concept should be fired immediately, rehired so they can be fired again. I rarely use skype but I won't if I encounter this.

What next? radio ads during peoples cellphone conversations.
 
I'd be willing to bet all the belly achers here have hardly even used Skype.

While its not a perfect landline replacement, we've been using it for well over five years as our landline replacement. We have a Philips Voip841 dedicated Skype phone that connects directly to the router. Been a really good phone, fine sound quality. We purchase a phone number and the Skype Pro plan (grandfathered in, make calls to US & Canada +voicemail)

Total cost is around $70 a year, compared to around $360/yr for a landline.

While the service is not perfect and we've had the very occasional times when the service is down, overall its been a very good experience and a heck of a lot cheaper than a landline.

My only thought on the Ad plan is, being a paying customer, I'd better see none of it!
 
I'm just glad they arent interrupting your phonecall to play an audio ad.
 
Main reason I use skype is because it's still the best for open-mic communication - noise canceling with other VOIP programs isn't quite there yet.
 
ShadowVlican said:
skype is easier. period.
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Only marginally easier than mumble.

I got tired of having an account on skype and running their bloated application plus the poor voice quality. I downloaded and had a mumble server up in less than 10 minutes. Pretty much just spam NEXT NEXT NEXT on the install, open port, and done.
 
I didn't read the article, but I hope that this won't show up on my Skype app on my phone. The wife and I use it since I'm deployed, and the bandwidth over here is marginal at best and any ads in the app will make the call quality worse then it already is.

I hope this doesn't show up in the iphone app.
 
Read the article, says it will only be in Skype for windows. The wife and I skype on iPhones.

winning
 
And I will continue using Trillian (since I paid for it and don't have annoying inline ads) which to my knowledge will run the Skype protocol but not show these obnoxious ads. Also, Steam doesn't do this, Vent doesn't do this, and Teamspeak doesn't do this.

So, yeah.
 
CacaSapo said:
"users who do not have Skype Credit or subscriptions" <--- Rage averted.

Why do I use Skype? Calling the US/tech support. I even have a Florida number.
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Yeah, that basically makes it a non-issue for me. I added $1 of skype credit "just in case" years ago, so I'll never see these ads :D
 
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