Enough scaremongering – we need to start telling consumers why behavioural targeting is good for them

oh dear

Fuck Behavioural Targeting, it’s one of the most evil things advertising has dreamt up. As a consumer I dread being bombarded with things I do want – and least things I don’t want can be easily ignored. I have a limited amount of money to spend on things and being reminded me every day of what I don’t have would depress and frustrate me and would be far more likely to drive me to installing AdBlocking software. I know Behaviour Targeting is probably inevitable, but in a world where credit card debt is increasing massively, it makes me seriously worried.

This “we are doing you a favour” sentiment for BT shows how out of touch most digital ppl are.

Nice post Mike.

It’s great to see people doing mindless gag pieces like this in November, I mean why should April 1st get all the fun.

I’d much prefer to be targeted with stuff I want than seeing inane ads for products that I have no interest in.

Mike- I know you’re smarter than me, richer than me and probably a lot cooler than me so I have no authority to contradict your wisdom, but I don’t think you’ve spent much time researching why people feel the way they do about advertising and the fear of their own information being used to target them.

When we sit down to do our job we think about home much more effective we could be if we knew more, it’s about US not consumers. You can package it up as ‘we want to make your life better’, but we are providing a service to clients not consumers. For many the issue of having their data collected is massive, how much more of my personal ground should I give up and what if it becomes too hard for me to say NO.

On top of that now that identity theft is causing havoc with growing numbers of average Aussies, the fear of theft and sale of personal info is no longer just for paranoid conspiracy theorists.

I want to know more as well, but as an industry we don’t deserve it, we’re just not that responsible with what we learn.

“If they buy, you stop spending money advertising to them” – since when has this been a fact of advertising? If they buy once they will buy again, so you bombard them with waayy more than they were ever exposed to in the hope they will keep buying much more, duh.

A few responses –
Mark – the point i’m making is that as consumers, we regularly give up information about ourselves in return for information or services – we provide email details so we can get newsletters, we provide preferences so we get sent the right content, etc. The media is spinning the story that BT means that somehow, we now have access to all sorts of personally identifiable data that will make people vulnerable to identity theft. The reality is, BT doesn’t require any more information than people have been providing for years, using cookies. There’s no personally identifiable info at all. All that’s changed is that we’re getting better at using it. But as an industry, we’re letting the media tell the story that suddenly this is a whole new world that is highly invasive, when it’s not.

Emma – In the online world, stopping targeting people who aren’t responding is simply good media practice – a good media campaign will have frequency capping already, the planners will know how many exposures are required to reach optimal click through rates, when the rate of diminishing returns kicks in etc. If you’re smart, and you’ve just sold someone a high ticket item (like a car, or a computer), you cookie them and exclude them from the sale you’re running next week, to avoid post purchase unhappiness. I’m not saying that it’s standard practice, but it should be! And it can easily be done.

Methinks the Sydney Morning Herald are peeved off that the people are buying less papers. Well boo-hoo and get with the digital age! Consumers really aren’t that weak. Indeed many are learning to treat the overload of digital marketing like a PS3 game. Dodge, dodge, dodge, hit! It’s akin to being confronted with spam, and nobody died from that…

Sheesh – Nice post Mike and I think all of you critics are taking it way out of perspective. The thing about this BT marketing idea is that there IS an opt out. In fact there is an opt out for everything.The OFF button. If an ad is pissing you off on TV it’s not too hard to change the channel is it ? I’d way prefer to have an ad targeting me with the latest surfboard, bar, cool music or website that interests me. I’m more likely to respond to it and I’m more likely to buy. Anything else that comes up I’m likely to ignore or if it irritates me I change the channel. No need to be pissed off about a perfectly legitimate method of marketing !

Nathan@gruden – problem is the ads are never “cool” … it’s always rubbish DR advertisers like Amex/hotels/classifieds and never anything you are really interested in.

when we have BT that advertises cool surfboards, hoverbikes, music, festivals, bars, booze then I’m on board. Right now I prefered when spammy blanket DR advertisers knew nothing about it me and i could laugh at being served an ad for pensioners insurance.

I have no issue with BT in theory… but the problem is that with a lot of BT targeting, I get put into a whole lot of ‘buckets’ or ‘silos’. I look at an auto article, I’m in the auto bucket. I read an entertainment article, bang I’m in that bucket. All of a sudden I’m in 20 different BT ‘buckets’ and then I pretty much will be getting any ad targeted to males. An advertiser is promised that I’m interested in auto but really, I’m interested in anything according to the cookie. If you’ve ever had the pleasure of seeing what a BT cookie thinks you are interested in, you’ll have a nice chuckle.

It’s a great theory but one that needs a bit of work. Having said that, I do completely agree that there has been WAY too much scaremongering in the media about this kind of stuff. Every time I’ve explained the theory to BT to a friend, they are way more positive than negative.

How about being up front with users about how they are being behaviourally targeted and even allowing them to tweak it? The industry still acts very much like it’s an us and them, adversarial scenario – it needn’t be.

I’d like to see a general shift in mindset from how can I sell you my shit? to how can I genuinely be helpful?

A good read, Mike, and I am with you that BT is something that should be embraced and refined, not seen as an “evil”.

For people who are concerned about credit card debt, maybe you should get yourself into some form of addiction program where you can learn to curb your spending (shopaholics anonymous anyone?) or maybe learn to budget. At the end of the day, saving $ from however much or little you earn is about exercising self control and that’s something that people should be taught when little or pick up along the long journey of life.

my two cents anyway.

“Behavioural targeting, done well, has the potential to be the best thing that ever happened to the internet for consumers.”

A somewhat large call.

Scott – yes, a big call, but think about the ubiquity of banner ads and advertising – it pervades every aspect of your online life – social media, news sites, email, games – everything we do is subjected to the clutter and noise of random marketing. It’s also the base plate of nearly every online business plan – “we’ll make money by flogging ads”. Based on that, if we can get it less intrusive, more efficient and a much better customer experience (potentially even customer controlled as Ian mentioned), it will make a big difference to the average online experience.

Dave – i agree, BT can actually be downright annoying at the moment – but as we evolve the technology, i’m hoping we’ll all be smart enough to take advantage of the promise

True, so long as people care about advertising as much as the advertising industry does…I’m just not sure they do.

Also I think the basic ability to buy products online will be tough to pip for the best thing that ever happened to consumers on the internet.

“Behavioural targeting, done well, has the potential to be the best thing that ever happened to the internet for consumers.”

This is crazy and a sign that the ad industry and the digital world takes what it does a little too seriously.

The best thing about the internet for consumers does not involve advertising nor the ability to target it. It’s the abundance of content and the ability to access it so easily. Ask Joe Schmoe 100 things they love about the Internet and I can guarantee advertising won’t make the list.

Even as someone who works in advertising I can acknowledge that.

I suggest the author does a bit more research to find out exactly what us consumers think of BT and the current blitzkrieg of unwanted advertising we are already getting. I agree with Logic’s assessment that the average punter is not at all interested in more advertising on our web pages, whether it’s perceived as ‘targeted’ or not. It only acts as a deterrent from visiting that website again or even from wanting to deal with that brand name again. I think it is time you lot got over yourselves as you are not the messiahs’ that you think you are. I have installed ad-blocking software recently as a means of avoidance, and you will find that more and more people are doing the same thing (take a read of some comments regarding Fairfax’s automatic ads – as popular as a pork chop at a Muslim BBQ). People like this author are more public pest than aide to the consumer, just take the time to find out for yourself.

If it so amazing and beneficial to us as consumers why don’t you make it “opt in’, surely you will be inundated by savvy consumers crying out for tailored advertising. I think we all know that no one (in great enough numbers) will opt in and the system will fail.

No one has a problem with opt in behavioural targeting. In fact I do this often when I agree to accept email newsletters and updates from companies I am interested in.

The problem is people (like me to be honest) will model peoples behaviour to predict future behaviour and purchasing habits. So you will not only be bombarded with products you are genuinely interested in and have exhibited behaviour that demonstrates this, but you will also be targetd for products that sophisticated (sort of) algorithms suggest you are predicated towards based on your purchase of other products.

It is a slippery slope.

Mike, sorry but what we mostly want is to be left the heck alone and for you to respect our privacy. I’m nearly forty, I have disposable income and I spend decent amounts of money on tech but I also know what I want and an ad on the Internet is more likely to make me run a million miles in the other direction, because I see anything fed to me in that format as dodgy.

The only thing that WILL make me shell out cash is a lucid word of mouth recommendation, preferably from someone I know, or a product I like from a company I trust (Panasonic and Apple spring to mind). Anything else is just annoying noise I have the urge to block as spam.

I’m amazed people are so polarised regarding being on the receiving end of some level of sophisticated advertising. I’m wondering if half the people who posted saying how ‘bad’ BT is don’t scream and rant every time they walk into a supermarket and are forced to walk to the back of the store for milk?

Stop buying products and you’ll stop being advertised to 😉

Here is my two cents

behaviorally targeted advertising will bring all those positive aspects that Mike brings up, however on the flip side if it is too intense then it will turn people off. The solution to this is simply to provide better quality ads, or push it to the next level and provide branded entertainment.

Mike is correct in saying that as a bloke I do not want an ad for low fat yoghurt, but I also don’t want a shitty obnoxious ad for a shaving razor either. I want to get to my funny viral and I don’t want anything stupid stopping me.

However.

If on the way to said viral, I am presented with an authentically entertaining, thought-provoking, and relevant r ad/content/entertainment piece, I will not mind at all.

Behavioral targetting is not a solution in itself, but rather is part of a multi-faceted, well considered and most importantly creative approach that needs to be implemented more regularly in order to increase brand love

Maybe you should learn about technology. Noscript and Adblock plus makes web ads irrelevant.

Michael

I never understood the “here is my two cents” until I read your comment.

I think two cents is a fair valuation.