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As web marketers and the mediums they operate in become more sophisticated, the amount of information used to categorise an individual's interests is becoming more comprehensive. With advertisers capable of discerning anything from marital status to musical tastes and recent searches; do you see the increasing intimacy of advertising as an intrusion or welcome the improved relevance?
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SASHA SAYS "The Minority Report style personalisation of ads is irreversibly imminent and in a lot of ways to be welcomed, it will at least eliminate the hundreds of mindless retirement, tampon and Daz ads being thrown my way. Let the relevance harbinger go forth. Some may say it's a data-mining and intrusion hornets nest, but as long as a) there is clarity about what data will be used up front and b) people are wise about what they share, we should all get along." |
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My hat is off to your astute cmoamnd over this topic-bravo!
If I have signed up to receive ads or newsletters then the more relevant they are to me the better, e.g. iTunes sending me Newsletters promoting bands I might like, or Travel agents sending me deals similar to ones I have already booked. But when I receive random mail from a company I have had no previous interaction with, that have access to all of my details, then it becomes a bit intrusive and kind of puts me off.
The privacy paranoia that accompanies my father's every internet interaction is a long lost remnant of middle-aged webphobia. I think it has something to do with World War II. I'm not afraid of having an Eames chair marketed to me. It's just relevant. When the internet starts suggesting the perfect present for my girlfriend's birthday a couple of weeks beforehand, I won't be scared or appalled, I'll be happy - it means I won't have to run around a shopping centre venting my passive aggression on vapid retail assistants
There is a cartoon by Hugh Macleod which states 'Never try to sell a meteor to a dinosaur. It wastes your time and annoys the dinosaur'. If the rise in sophistication and complexity of marketing paradigms is aided by increased levels of information taken from my online activity it means that no one tries to sell me a meteor (or in my case a replica football shirt) - all to the good.
However, though mass marketing may be unsophisticated in comparison, unforeseen uptake is a possibility. The rapier of user-specific targeting has a higher percentage chance of success but it's like putting all of your eggs in one basket. As a consumer I like new experiences, trying something I've never done before, going somewhere I've never been, or finding a new passion; marketing to me, or anyone, based on what I've already done, where I've been and what I have previously liked could be a retrograde step.
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