Liam Walsh
I think it’s fair to say most people don’t especially like advertising, but it’s something they tolerate. We live in world where there are ads everywhere, on every surface and around every corner. As consumers, we can’t avoid advertising. If we can’t avoid it then our next option is to be blind to it. That’s not great for advertisers.
Why? Because mostly people are seeing advertising that isn’t relevant to them. It’s trying hard to be relevant, but it’s not quite getting there.
The good news is that we know this and we are getting better. As technology advances, our ability to deliver messages that are actually relevant also improves.
Even with simple retargeting, the messages we see are either actually useful and referring to recent behaviour or at the very least relevant to our interests. They are relevant because we know the user visited a website or an app, so chances are they like your line of work.
Moving on from this, imagine a world where advertising wasn’t just relevant but actually useful! Where advertising was advising us on products and services that we really want or value. Where advertising was informative and functional.
I love Nike. I love their tennis shoes, their running tops, hats, Roche2 and tennis shorts. I buy in-store and online. I follow them on Instagram and Facebook and I’m always on the lookout for what’s new from Nike.
When I buy online I never really know for sure when my gear is coming. I can find out when there is a delivery number available a few days after the product is dispatched if I follow a link, copy and paste the delivery tracking number. Only then will I get some vague idea of where it is based on the postal processing locations it’s passed through in my state. Then I take a guess at when it will arrive, give or take five days. That’s not a great user experience. Not terrible, but not great.
What would be great, and is very possible right now (with quite a lot of effort) is to inform me via advertising on non-Nike sites and apps when my gear will arrive at my office. I imagine scrolling through my Facebook feed and seeing an advertisement that says “Your shoes should be there in three hours”.
That would be useful.
What if Nike decided to share with me that there will be a Roche ‘3’ in June? That would be really useful.
What if Nike told me about some 40 minute runs around Sydney CBD that all have water views? That would be awesome.
This can all happen and will happen when the infrastructure to deliver truly relevant messaging is seamless and the business community have switched their thinking to personalised advertising and accept its value.
Personalised advertising is quite an investment in technology and there’s effort in understanding how it works to bring it to life, but it is going to happen simply because brands that do it will make more money. They will be delivering advertising that is useful and has utility.
It isn’t a claim without substantiation. Search advertising is neither high impact or able to deliver any real emotion, yet it has grown faster than any other advertising channel in history. What it does is deliver messaging based on what someone is specifically interested in.
So, what will happen to facilitate this change to advertising being useful?
1. Change management - Marketers and users will need to get used to marketing to specific people, rather than large audiences. It can be unusual at first but people will quickly see the value because it’s useful
2. Data Collection and Management - Advertisers and media businesses will need accelerate data capture and management. Specifically, they will need to arrange data in a way that can be catalogued, accessed and integrated
3. Technology - Advertisers will need to deploy technology in their organisations that connect their data (and other people’s data) to the advertising ecosystem. This requires time, people, money and commitment
And when this is the norm, when advertising is useful, we will be part of an industry that is no longer the tolerable distraction to our daily business, but a pivotal component of how we transact and consume.
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