The Targeted Consumer

I've said before in this column that advertising is annoying only insofar as it's not being directed at me. This is particularly true on the Internet.

Some co-workers and I were talking about advertising the other day, and I pointed out how all of us will buy magazines that are basically life support systems for advertising, and we'll page through the ads, actually checking them out, because we are interested in the subject matter. We, in the parlance of the marketers, "raised our hand" by buying the magazine. So if it's a computer magazine and there are tons of ads about software and hardware, bring 'em on! And if a women's fashion magazine is full of ads for clothing, cosmetics and jewelry - well, isn't that what we signed up for?

The Internet has, thus far, been a bit of a dismal failure for advertisers. Eye tracking tests demonstrate that people are remarkably adept at not looking at all those annoying banner, popup, flashing, spinning, and even programmed-to-stay-page-center ads. While we've adapted to commercial breaks on television as a necessary nuisance, we either ignore them, or find them highly annoying when we're surfing the Internet.

One of the things marketers need to understand about the Internet is that people who use it do so because they have an objective. They are not passively sitting back hoping to be entertained (television), or actively seeking information on a topic (magazines), or even gathering the news of the day (newspapers). Usually, we are seeking a particular piece of information, or performing a particular chore.

Enter targeted advertising. It's both exciting, and more than a little creepy.

I was reading one of my favorite online journals the other day, and realized that the ads were talking about Syracuse. Here was one announcing the conversion of P&C to Tops, with a grand opening close to my home. Another one was about the average price of an iPad in Syracuse. Still another was touting images from a stock photo house I had checked out the day before. In other words, "they" knew who I was, and were serving up ads tailored to catch my interest.

The creepy part of this is obvious. The exciting part is: if I'm going to be advertised to, isn't it way, way, way better to have those ads be something I'm actually interested in? Believe it or not, there is a good side to advertising: we learn about products and services we might not otherwise be aware of. And if we want one of those products and services, well, then advertising is an actual benefit.

I will say, though, that the ads pushing products based on my search activity are a bit more problematic for me. But my best guess is that the trends I'm noting thus far are just the tip of the iceberg.

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