Are Interruptions the best way to engage?

I just read a wonderful article in AdAge about how Marketers need to Think Differently in the world of internet marketing. The basic point was that many large marketing spenders are used to spending on Advertising, yet in internet land, Advertising is but one of many vehicles and it may not be the most effective.

This is similar to many writings by Seth Godin about interruption marketing.

In the old world, companies got attention from consumers by interrupting their intended activity with an advertising message – commercials in the middle of your TV program, ads in the magazine that you were trying to read. In the new world, users have more control of their medium – they are becoming better at ignoring interruptions – TiVo, Pop-up blockers, Satellite radio, Banner Blindness, etc. How, oh how will marketers get through to them?

Marketers have a tougher job. Without interruption marketing they really have to get the right message to the right person at the right place at the right time, in the right way. Wow. What does this mean?

At Blog World Expo one of the speakers (anyone remember who??) demonstrated the concept with this example:

If I’m taking a hike in the forest I don’t want to see your billboards advertising water, I don’t want you to hand me a coupon for $1 off your water. I want to be left alone to hike. However, after an hour of hiking it would be great if someone offered to sell me a bottle of water.

The point? When I am online trying to get through my Facebook messages, I don’t care about the new Shampoo that is streaming ads into my friendfeed. If I was looking at an invite for a cocktail party and an ad came up for a sexy new dress on sale at Victoria’s Secret there is a good chance that I would click though.

Take Apple (the example used in the AdAge Article) – they don’t need to spend a ton of money in online advertising because they have such a powerful brand that consumers actually go looking for them, and Apple lovers constantly write about them. Apple doesn’t shout at you with pop-ups about their new iPhone when you are stalking that hot girl on Myspace – they create a community of people who love their products and they have a killer website with great content that users actually seek out.

For every product and brand there are times when your customers are receptive to your messages, and possibly even seeking you out. Where are you then? Do you spend your time and money shouting at them when they don’t care instead of having a conversation when they are actually interested?