Hello. I'm Scott Robbin. I enjoy making things to use, read and see.

It seems like it was only yesterday that my friend called me and exclaimed, “Something’s wrong with my computer….my Internet isn’t optimized!”

I scratched my head for a bit, hopped in the car, and minutes later I was staring at an ad similar to this:

Gah! What kind of sleazy bastard would try and bait a helpless consumer with an ad like this? 10 years ago it was probably a guy wearing a button-down shirt with too many buttons down, however today’s advertisers have taken cue from their older, less hygienic counterparts.

We recently placed ads on Songza. At first, advertisements were contextually relevant, like ones promoting the Joy Division documentary. However, in the days since, we’ve gotten the likes of these beauties from AT&T (Note: I’ve done some Photoshop magickery to show you what the transition looks like. It ain’t good, but I don’t want to give these ads more attention than they deserve).

and this….

Oh no, my poor Internets! I must have done something wrong. A virus, corrupt registry…how bad did I break it? Oh, thank goodness, it’s AT&T….my hero!

What do all of these have in common? If you’d ask the ad designer, I’m sure they’d say they were trying to ‘grab the viewers attention’, but to me…it’s just scaring people.

I find that, in this way, advertising is trying to achieve the same goals as SEO: drive traffic to a site by any means necessary. “It doesn’t matter how you get ‘em, just get ‘em!”

But what does this do to the user experience? Is the customer appreciative that you’ve saved them from the fright that you created? Doubtful. How very Homeland Security-esque of you…

How then, do you attract users? How do you get heard through all the noise? Answer: If you make something good, people will like it.

To capture this idea, I’m reminded of a story that Harper once told:

He was at a conference and approached by some SEO fanatics. They asked him, “How do you optimize Threadless? Do you backlink, cloak….what?” Harper’s answer, “We make good products, and people like them.”

It’s simple, yet true. Viral marketing is not an art of trickery; it’s a thoughtful conversation that you have with your users. You listen. You create. You listen, again.

Make good products, build a good community, and you’ll succeed. It’s a practice that companies, both small and large, can learn from.