Mediaweek has a great article about a new study done by Yahoo and MediaVest. The results make sense, but you might not have considered them when you've thought about advertising.
Basically what they're saying is, people are more receptive to advertising when aren't focusing on one thing that they care about. If someone's paying bills, or they're immersed in discussion or research about a passion of theirs (like sailing or religion, for example), they're less receptive to advertising that is irrelevant to what they're doing. An ad for a sailing supply company, or bill-paying software, would be welcome - but an ad for house paint is going to be seen as a nuisance.
On the other hand, if someone's spending time online but doesn't have a specific goal - just checking emails, seeing if there's anything interesting in the news, chatting online with friends - they're going to be much more open to ads of all types, whether they're relevant to what they're doing or not.
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