Mass Individualized Marketing
Convergence has almost become a dirty word in the advertising and media world, kind of like “synergy”: you hear someone use the term, and you want to punch them in the face, but usually you can’t because they tend to be people with body guards.
Still, I find it interesting to think about where the confluence (not exactly a synonym) of technology and marketing and media platforms might eventually lead. I wonder about how combining the targetability of digital advertising might mesh with a mass-medium like TV; addressable advertising is coming, soon, though most of the practical examples I’ve seen involve little more than dynamically inserting the address of your nearest Pep Boys into a commercial during a baseball game – applications that basically make the advertiser’s job easier, but do very little for the viewer.
Technologically, something like the following ought to be possible: While watching the Phillies game, a commercial for Pep Boys comes on. It plays, and I don’t change the channel – Comcast takes note of that. The game comes back on, and Comcast triggers their ad server to display an ad via Google AdWords, overlaid on the bottom 1/4 of the screen.
Now, maybe I’ve surfed online in the last 14 days and searched on Google for “car repair.” Google, having a record of this, and knowing that a Pep Boys commercial just played on my set, serves an in-video ad for Pep Boys, customized with a note that a new location has opened up around the corner, and offering a 15% off coupon on an oil change if I click “Yes.”
Either they send the coupon to my mobile phone (perhaps the on-screen prompt asks me to enter it in), or they mail to to my house; Comcast of course knows my billing address.
Redemption can be a tricky issue, but there are options: a code can be typed into a point of sale system and validated; a barcode could be displayed on my phone and scanned. If the security of the validation isn’t a concern (and for a %-off coupon, it often isn’t – the important part was getting the customer in the door), then simply showing the cashier a code displayed in a text message will work fine.
Stringing together all these technologies isn’t terribly far-fetched. Some cable companies are already placing “pop-up” ads in television programming, with viewer-initiated coupon “clipping”. It is clearly Google’s intention to move, eventually, into serving targeted video and text advertising on television, and “addressable” cable boxes makes the specter of personalized advertising all the more real.
The largest barriers are likely to be legal ones: the kind of data sharing necessary to enable the scenario I’ve outlined above would require some pretty explicit opt-ins from viewers, and rightly so.
Other scenarios wouldn’t, though: for Pep Boys, enabling this kind of direct response has some obvious benefits, but it’s far from the only way to build a customer base. Building brand awareness and favorability are equally important, and for campaigns which focused on these goals, getting a hold of personally identifiable information for each viewer (cell phone numbers, mailing address, etc.) isn’t necessarily all that helpful. Instead, the technology might be used to serve more traditionally-styled television spots that were triggered by viewing behavior: you’ve watched The Closer on TNT 12 times in the last year, you might be interested in the new CSI:Poughkeepsie. Or maybe you’re a frequent viewer of The Travel Channel. American Express would like to pitch you on a Platinum card with extended travel protections. But only if you’ve never missed a payment on your cable bill, and subscribe to HBO and Showtime.
If you think this all sounds vaguely – or explicitly – creepy, you’re not alone. I’m always torn between my desire to help my clients explore what’s possible with technology, while doing everything possible to make sure I’m no where near the receiving end of it.
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