It is difficult to pen an article when someone is lying next to you in bed shouting 'nerd alert!' and then rabbits on about what she thinks you are writing. Well she is mostly right and I do bang on about this stuff.......roll over please you are being annoying now........Anyhoo I do moan at the ability that advertisers think they have to 'target' me and to 'reach' me.
Facebook knows a lot about me (Facebook will not be around forever BTW, but that's another nerdy blog I guess), Facebook knows my age and sex and I assume what interests me and things I like because I 'like' some stuff. It might be a case of the more they find out the less they know however. I don't want 'insane muscle growth' and I don't want to meet these over 40 singles(and she's not even reading over my shoulder anymore so I mean it......although some of the pictures are 'reaching' me in some way). I'm also not desperate to buy more insurance now as I am over 40, maybe I should be. I really don't want to buy a second pair of trainers that I have just bought online elsewhere or rent the cottage that I have finished looking at on another website. It is clever that I can be given further opportunities to purchase but I haven't done that yet, maybe I will. Perhaps we need an online button that says "oh no i'm just looking thanks" which might get rid of the over enthusiastic virtual shop assistant following me into every shop.
I'm not really statistically significant on my own but I do know that online advertising does work. I have bought car insurance from an AA banner ad in the past. I'm guessing that their cost of acquisition divided by the cost of an individual banner means that I can ignore a lot of ads but that one purchase makes it worth while for them.
The thing that has really surprised me today and made me bore you with my ramblings is that reading Wired magazine ('Nerd alert!') I am quite surprised at the advertising within and how interested I am in the products offered - Electric cars from BMW and Renault, watches from Victorinox and Omega, a King of Shaves razor and an Epson projector, cuddly toy......not really the cuddly toy but most of the things advertised I am interested in and they are attractive ads.
So the targeting is not done from a multitude of clicks and a profile but from one action, to purchase a specific magazine. From this act they can tell a lot about me it seems. The new model isn't as sophisticated as it might seem, yet.
"Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don't know which half" was apparently stated by John Wanamaker a very long time ago (he died in 1922). I guess with an online campaign you can see a large portion of what was wasted, but only after you have spent it.
Oh and while I am banging on about advertising who at Omega thinks that it is a good idea to put 007 on the face of one of it's watches?! I truly hope that this naff brand derailment hasn't worked for them. So James Bond (even though he is made up) is a man of superior taste and wears an Omega watch (without his number on it) - excellent I would fall for that, buy one, drink Martini and drive an Aston. James is apparently choosing an Omega and he doesn't have to, awesome I want one.......right up until the relationship, while commercially the same, is turned on it's head and Omega is overtly asking/begging James to wear the watch, Omega is defacing the watch with something that James himself couldn't wear......Blofelt would spot him (I suppose James always introduced himself anyway).
I wouldn't buy a watch with 007 on it but maybe someone with insane muscles, considerable insurance and a rude looking 40 something girlfriend would. It takes all sorts. I can't afford an Omega but I used to do my bit to keep the brand aspirational.
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