I woke up yesterday to see this broadcast message on Twitter by my friend Stilgherrian: “Dear Fairfax, video adverts which auto-play with sound turned on are REALLY F*CKING ANNOYING and make me hate you and your advertisers.”
I agree wholeheartedly and had said so only the day before: Neerav: “ATTN: Online advertising ppl. I hate those popup autoplaying video ads by MediaOne with a passion & so do many other ppl. Scrap them pls”
Another friend also chipped in with her comment: “Fushmush: I hate those video ads on the SMH. I leave feedback everytime one plays. My feedback usually is in CAPS and has lots of !!!”
An example of one of these annoying ads is shown below. So far I have seen them on several Australian and NZ websites. They’re especially annoying when I’m reading the Sydney Morning Herald or APCMAG because these video ads start playing automatically with loud audio so they interrupt any music I’m listening to on my computer 
MediaOne says “Our consumer research confirms that the MediaOne format makes a high impact on the consumer” – but is the fact that my friends and I want to punch them the impact they were looking for?
What do you think?
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By using Mozilla Firefox, with the flashblock & adblock plus plugins, I’ve never seen these videos or any other ads for that matter on the SMH site.
UGH yes… audio ads are to me even worse than the ones that take over your whole screen just as you’re scrolling. They somehow manage to be DEAFENING regardless of how high you have your headphones’ volume.
Placing such annoying ads will make your visitors run away. So don’t use them
I hate those ads with a passion, god damn it. It’s not even effective marketing — more like annoying marketing.
I agree… nothing like waking up in the evening (sleep all day
to read an article and having my headphones on, frantically looking to throw them across the room or mute the volume. Pop up videos are effective advertising, but for those who spend more than a few hours online (which is growing in numbers everyday) it gets very annoying.
I like a pop over that says “Click Here to View this Video Message from _____” more affective and allows the reader the privelege of making a choice.
Anything that plays sound the moment I go onto the site I automatically avoid.
I won’t even go to someone’s MySpace page simply because I don’t want to hear other peoples music blast out of my speakers.
Oh, I have been annoyed a few times by these loud ads that play automatically and whole page ads that you need to click “skip this ad”. Never going to visit those sites again.
Yeah, I don’t even do anything on my laptop anymore without the sound being muted. I unmute it maybe once every 3 or so weeks to dabble with Adobe Audition or listen to a Portishead album or something, but that’s about it.
why when visiting The Age do i keep getting the same add for the NSW govt playing… if I hear the term 60billion once more I might just go postal.
Those video adds are a waste of bandwidth and time and aren’t even targetted for crying outloud.
An autoplay anything is a violation of my time and my eardrums. I have two ways of handling this: Never go back and tell others to avoid the website. As far as I am concerned it is website spamming.
Swanie, I do the same thing. The minute the ad pops up, I get annoyed, turn off the sound and usually leave the sight right away. Grrrr.
I think they a waste of time and not effective at all!
Hi Neerav,
You have certainly made a valid point thru this post. In fact it is high time that owners of such websites realise that not only are they wasting their time and money thru these intrusive autoplay audios, they are also axing their own feet by turning away potential visitors who otherwise would have stayed at their sites & possibly convert in to customers in the near future. And this cud be highly detrimental to their online business !
The sooner they realise, the better for them…
First thing I do in the morning is read the online papers whilst drinking that well needed cup of coffee. I always try and resist clicking on any outside links for fear of an auto play video blasting out and waking my other half up. I also feel my space is being invaded with some sales pitch I do not want to hear. I need to mute the sound but forget because I love listening to music.