Many people think targeting is the silver bullet to online advertising. I believe it will be a great step forward for all us industry folks and am excited to get better ads. But my question is, have we made any leeway? My answer is no.
Take for example, my Facebook profile. I can remember last year seeing many ads for young single men. I am not exactly looking for a young single man nor would I be using Facebook to find them if I were a gay man. This ad was so far off the mark I figured Facebook was in its infancy with targeting and reading profiles and forgave them.
But alas! I was wrong. Today, I sign onto Facebook and what do I get. Gutter cleaning in San Francisco or somewhere far from NYC. I guess this could be forgiven since I work for Microsoft (which is somewhat of a western company) but the fact that I am not part of a network out west makes it much harder for me to forgive. I would think geo-targeting on Facebook is the easiest to do. I mean I have enough information on the profile that a mule could figure out where I live.
I am completely lost by this and most targeting. Targeting means giving me things I am interested in more than average. Not something I do not or will not need.Simply taking a singular statement on my profile is not enough. You have to apply algorithms and such to make really give me good ads.
Deep insights about my profile are available and I want targeting to move the ball forward this year. Instead I get gutter cleaners and single available men. I anxiously await a new day in targeting.
Yesterday eMarketer reported that online advertising spend is approaching 10% of all media spending and will be there by 2009. Considering the accountability, that digital commands and traffic quality it should come as no surprise that money is shifting to online at a quicker pace than other media. But what are some of the social media trends that this move will precipitate? Here are three that I think will be important part of my work here at Nielsen Online.
1 - Social Media become increasingly salient as connection hotspots - As trust continues to erode in traditional media, consumers will look increasingly to social media as a trusted opinion for all sorts of decisions, from which restaurant to eat at or what jeans to buy. Malcolm Gladwell describes, in his book The Tipping Point, “weak links” as influential to humans for making connections that make ideas tip. These individuals will become even more important as online migration triggers even more diverse and larger groups of connections who will exert overwhelming force over trends and ideas. (As I write this, I have over 100 twitter friends most I do not know but they shape many of my opinions on any number of things)
2- Brands continue to fortify their digital positions - With dollars shifting to the internet so quickly, brands will rush to keep up with the digital consumer migration. Brands will increasingly face the tough questions about social media and what they should do in this new platform based web. Corporate blogs are not for everyone but opening up the lines of communication can benefit brands. The question is, what is the best way to leverage social media, to empower your consumers and gain valuable insights.
3- Web trust factor becomes site currency - Inevitably, web sites will come that try to game the system and erode consumer trust in social media. From this, will arise a digital trust factor that will eventually become a web currency. It could come in an organized fashion or maybe it will just be semantic based - meaning you don’t travel far from home on the web. You have a few sites you visit and trust based on history, promotion and recommendations and only visit them frequently. This trend will hasten the move to platforms that portalize you to the web at large - Facebook applications are a good example of this in action.
As we see all media continue its move to digital, these three trends are one to watch. Any I missed?
Today on Armano’s blog he mentions something called “ambient interruption.” Its about the pervasive ever-present aurora of brands in the digital space. Its true that we are facing more subtle engagements from brands everyday. Email, display advertisements and search are all forms we experience on a daily routine. Our minds are able to block out many of them but they still seep into the brain.
All this “ambient interruption” has some interesting side-effects including subsurface recall. What is this? Today’s consumer is bombarded so frequently by messages that they are able to ignore most of these ads. But some are ignored at the conscious level and soaked into the subconscious for later recall.
These messages however sit inside the mind and can infect you at any time. Do you remember seeing and ad and wondering why it was astonishingly familiar? Perhaps because you have seen it before but blocked it out only to have it find it lodged in your subconscious.
Delta Airlines is now out of bankruptcy and looking smart with a new brand makeover. Despite the new look it seems to be business as usual at Delta as they disappointed me at a number of touch points this week. The first was a cynical interaction I had while taking the train to work.
The signs that line the top of the cars always strike my interest and I often wonder if they are effective. I can see some definite brand equity but not much ROI but that is for another post. This particular car was lined with Delta ads and I love to read headlines so I naturally read them. One said something about a flight you would want to spend extend. I get the irony of the ad but the core irony is that I was stuck on a Delta flight for 3 extra hours recently. I assure you I did no want another minute on this flight or any Delta one!
This ad was funny but to me it just underscored one of the worse aspects of Delta that you sit around and wait. What marketing genius came up with this one? The same guy that decided to market an automobile in a Spanish speaking country that was called Nova(or No Go)? Ha.
That was the first erosion of my faith in a brand that was badly damaged but slowly moving up. Second was when I tried to redeem a voucher given to me for volunteering to get off a flight. I decided to use the website to book a flight to Savannah but only to find that Delta made no mention of redeeming vouchers.
My inital reaction was to call and wait to speak to someone but I figured keep at the website. I continued to navigate through this site and eventually reached my limit. No mention of voucher redemption anywhere!
I called customer service and after 25 minutes of being on hold and being shuttled to different departments I was talking to a live person. She informed that delta.com was not Safari compatible! Can you believe that? No mention on the homepage of site requirements it took almost 30 minutes to find this out.
In today’s age of consumer empowerment, why are airlines consistently aloud to treat us as steerage class passengers with no consequence? I have to say some airlines do listen and they are getting it. (read JetBlue) Most though treat us as they want and we take it. I wonder how long this will last before they feel the backlash.
Delta, how long before you start listening?
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