What Is Interruption Marketing?

The idea that interruption of experience by advertisements is just a price the user has to pay for usage is becoming increasingly outdated.

Interruption marketing serves the purpose of marketing by disturbing people through an activity. YouTube lends its users an ad before they could watch a video; sometimes even in the mid and after the end of the video. These regular disruptions degrade the user experience.

So, an increasingly determined segment of the target audience is pushed to block the marketer’s ability to earn revenue. But this is not all. Once the user uses ad blockers for services like Yahoo Mail, it no longer remains fully functional. It asks the user to either upgrade to premium versions or whitelist the website.

Let’s go further to know what exactly is interruption marketing.

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What Is Interruption Marketing?

Interruption marketing is a type of promotional strategy wherein the target audience’s experience is interrupted to present an unsolicited promotional message.

Coined by Seth Godin, interruption marketing broadly runs on two fundamentals:

Intrusion: the act of causing disruption without any permission of the other person
Keeping Attention: winning and keeping the user’s attention hooked to the message is very essential for product promotion

Also known as outbound or traditional marketing, it gives observant results and a new band of audience in a short span. Fast results keep companies hooked to this mode of marketing.

Types Of Interruption Marketing

While interruption marketing is evident through many platforms let’s have a look at some of its most common types-

Traditional Marketing

Tv ads: On-air advertising is the primary revenue source for commercial television. Advertisers pay content developers and TV channels based on factors like length of the ad, which channel the ad is aired on, which show runs at that time.
Radio ads: Jingles are the most common means of radio ads. Specific airtimes are sold to advertisements.
Print media: Printed publications like newspapers and magazines display brand ads.
Direct marketing: Some brands send salesmen straight to people’s doorstep to engage with people in real-time.
Cold calls: The seller makes unsolicited phone calls to publicize his goods and services. These calls follow pre-prepared scripts so the seller does not miss any chance to attract the buyer.

Marketers and companies are no more limited to traditional methods. Reaching masses always needs more.

Internet Marketing

Pre-roll ads: Ad videos that precede the content on youtube come in ‘True view’ format which allows user to skip the ad after 5 seconds.
Pop up ads: A browser window suddenly shows up on the active web page. Some pop-ups offer a subscription to the active website, some ask for feedback.
Social media: Companies buy space on Instagram and Facebook to promote a product by regulating reach, visibility and exposure time.
Cold emails: Emails from unsubscribed channels or newsletters are sent to potential consumers which they have no prior connection with.

The core values of interruption marketing make one thing clear that it is not as convenient for the consumers as it is for the marketers. Why then interruption marketing is still a widely used mode of promotion?

Advantages Of Interruption Marketing

Even though interruption marketing is not appreciated by users, it is a fact in today’s world mainly because of its various advantages.

Quick results: Interruption marketing comes in super handy when the company possess enormous funds and prompt results are strongly desired.
High profits: Businesses rely on interruption marketing to earn high returns as it creates new audience in a shorter time.
Wide reach: The kind of platforms it uses for promotion have accessibility to large number of viewers. Moreover, the audience is non targeted so it provides with a wide audience base.
Flexible exposure time: The time slots are adjustable as and when the company wants to, like ad slots are booked for on-air broadcast.

Let’s have a look at where interruption marketing suffers.

Disadvantages Of Interruption Marketing

Interruption marketing brings in results. But this doesn’t mean it is an appreciated form of marketing. It has the following disadvantages.

Rejections from potential customers: Intrusion is the basis of this marketing. No potential consumer is fond of disruption which makes them unknowingly despise the brand.
Non- personalized: Outbound promotions go wrong at targeting the required demographic as advertisement is done irrespective of the fact if the interacting audience falls into the category of targeted audience or not.
Time-bound promotion: Since marketing is done by buying ad spaces for a particular time period, product is promoted till the time the company has paid for. If the contract is not renewed, soon the effect of previous promotions vaporizes and customers shift towards other approachable options.
Low returns: When the marketing fails to attract as much number as targeted, all inputs go in vain. Followed by prompt rejections from potential customers this drawback is usually foreseen.
One-way communication: There is no direct dialogue between the buyer and the seller. One side participation leads to low receptivity of the message.

Now, although edges and slags of interruption marketing are known, it’s never a bad idea to draw a comparison of the present option with the other available choices.

Interruption Marketing vs Permission Marketing

Unlike interruption marketing which interrupts the user experience to present a promotional message, permission marketing takes user permission before showing a promotional message.

Permission marketing is a modern form of marketing which takes user consent before advertising products or services to him/her. Moreover, unlike interruption marketing, permission marketing messages are often targeted and powered by data to provide a better user experience.

	Interruption marketing	Permission marketing
Results	The results are quick because it reaches a wide audience in a short time.	It gives slow results because it reaches limited audience in a specific time.
Potential audience	Non targeted	targeted
Chances of interaction with the audience	As the basis of this type of marketing is intrusion and the audience are non-targeted audience, there are low chances that people would care to find the what abouts of the product.	This type of marketing seeks consent of its targeted audience. Moreover, it only shows personalized advertisements. So, the chances of interaction by public are far higher here.
Investment cost	Huge chunks of money are invested owing to its fast results and wider reach.	Cost of investment cuts down as the reach is personalized and content reaches the target audience in measurable time.
Degree of relevance of content	The content of promotion isn’t personalized. So, it may or may not be relevant.	The content is highly relevant as its personalized.
Returns	Because of non-targeted potential audience; low chances of interaction and low degree of content relevance it gives low returns.	The returns are high as targeted audience increases the chance of interaction and degree of content relevance.

Bottom Line

Ad blockers are popular than ever among young users. In an era of a plethora of choices, the consumer refuses to absorb what it doesn’t hanker for. A constant bombardment of unsought proposals leaves people with no option but controlled engagement. 20 percent of internet users aged between 16 and 34 used ad blockers in 2016. Selective consumption is the need of the hour. It gifts them the power of what to read, watch, buy, subscribe to, interact with.

Go On, Tell Us What You Think!

Did we miss something? Come on! Tell us what you think about our article on interruption marketing in the comments section.

Aashish Pahwa

A startup consultant, digital marketer, traveller, and philomath. Aashish has worked with over 20 startups and successfully helped them ideate, raise money, and succeed. When not working, he can be found hiking, camping, and stargazing.