As my regular readers know, I was just recently in New York City. I got back 2 days ago. Obviously, I went into Times Square many times. Here’s what I observed…

When you walk into Times Square, you are immediately dazzled by the lights. Lots of them. There are signs going up the sides of every building which has a wall facing Times Square. In fact, companies pay big money to rent space on the side of the buildings in Times Square so that they can mount their advertising. In fact, while I was there, I heard that the old New York Times building was actually mostly vacant and that the owner made so much money just renting out the space OUTSIDE the building that he didn’t even want to bother dealing with insurance and other expenses associated with having office space inside.

When you enter Times Square, though, you are inundated with advertising. So much so that it is a spectacle in and of itself.

All of these signs are vying for our attention, but few actually get it. In fact, there is so MUCH advertising in Times Square that you probably only notice certain ads.

But, there is an interesting dichotomy in place here. All of this is both interruption marketing AND permission marketing.

Interruption marketing is where the prospect is just going about their business and the advertiser has to interrupt their flow in order to get their attention. The prospect isn’t necessarily looking for an advertisement at all. Now, if you pour on a bunch of different advertisers all vying for attention, interruption marketing becomes increasingly difficult. The overall volume of it all increases substantially as one advertiser is trying to “out do” the others to get your attention. The resulting din grows to be annoying and this is why consumers are trained to tune it out.

Permission marketing is different because the consumer actually WANTS your ads. They have granted permission. When we, as marketers, send something to our mailing list subscribers, that is permission marketing because they signed themselves up to the list in the first place. Besides, if you’re doing your job as a blogger correctly, your readers find value in what you say and therefore they WANT to hear from you.

Times Square is a tourist attraction that people actually seek out. That makes the ads in the square permission marketing. At the same time, it is interruption marketing because all those flashy ads are competing for your attention. Combine that with the people on the ground trying to give you pamphlets and bring you into restaurants and essentially you are nothing more than a sales prospect with a wallet when you walk into Times Square.

OK, How Does Any Of This Relate To Bloggers?

Times Square contains many lessons about marketing. It also contains lessons for blog design.

Chances are, a blog is not going to reach the status of Times Square as a destination in and of itself. In other words, people don’t go to a blog to see ads. So, with a blog, it is purely interruption marketing when it comes to banner ads. If you then make the mistake of trying to make your blog look like Times Square by loading it up with so many competing ads, it isn’t going to work. Too much input. Your content (which is what you want your visitors to see) won’t stand a chance among all the ads. Your site will be a mess of total confusion and NOTHING will work. You’re not going to make much (if any) money.

If you find yourself in the awesome position of creating a site which reaches that kind of popularity (ala Techcrunch) then you might have yourself a little Times Square on your hands. Again, though, you can’t overload it with ads. Even with a site like Techcrunch, people don’t go there for the ads. They go there for the stories. But, advertisers would be interested in a site like that for the branding opportunity.

The reason ad real estate in Times Square is so valuable is because it is permission marketing as well. As an internet marketer, you should be working to build this up with your audience. If your audience seeks out information from you and you can work in a commercial message in that in a tasteful way, you’re golden. Whatever you can do to make your readers give you permission to market to them, do it.

This is why review sites can work so well as money magnets. People who read reviews are looking to buy something. They’re open to advertising. Super Bowl ads are very expensive because it, too, is an exception to the usual rule of interruption marketing on TV. People look for the ads. It is very similar to Times Square in that way.

Your thoughts? What other lessons do you think Times Square might hold for marketers?