Tuesday, November 27, 2007

When Advertising Isn't

More fuel to the idea that when advertising truly targets you, it won't seem like advertising; it will just seem like information.

The bad and the good, from Internet Evolution:

Most smart Internet marketers know that demographics are dead. It used to be the measure by which every advertiser (online or offline) would purchase space just about anywhere. Age, gender, and location were the "holy trinity," and as long as those were on track, you could buy space confidently. The only problem with mapping demographics is that it doesn't guarantee relevance. Just because I am a thirty-year-old male living in New York doesn't mean I'm in the market for an iPhone. Demographics are a very small part of the picture.

Google brought this fact out very visibly through AdWords, when it gave interactive marketers the opportunity to target by topic and keyword rather than demographic. On Google, it didn't matter if a 15-year-old kid was looking for rollerblades, or his 72-year-old grandmother was looking to buy them for him. They would both get the same ad for the same search. Keyword targeting is much better, but still incomplete. Why? It's because you are still limited to showing the same ad creative for a particular keyword, regardless of the identity of the searcher. It is not social....

The future of online advertising will be about enabling an extreme targeting that incorporates identity, topics, and stated interests from consumers to serve ads. Brands will no longer buy millions of impressions; they will buy 100 messages targeted to exactly the right people. Customers, in turn, will stop seeing these ads as a nuisance and appreciate the value they offer because they are tailored correctly and are relevant. Of course, this vision of online advertising and social networks happily co-existing will take time. The good news is, there are signs all around us that we are well on our way.


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