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RSSBehavioral Insider: What do you think is the most misunderstood thing about behavioral data by media owners and advertisers?
Roy Shkedi: The challenge of BT is to truly scale data. Think of all the hundreds or thousands of sites that are out there on the larger ad networks which they're trying to monetize but of which they really have no idea who their visitors are. Social networks, which represent a large portion of the kind of remnant inventory ad networks sell, are a good example of what I mean. In theory they have terabytes of data. But if you drill down, most of that data is irrelevant for advertisers. What does it matter, for instance, who consumer X is friends with?
BI: Explain what you mean when you refer to post-search data.
Shkedi: What's relevant is data that illuminates purchase intent. We believe a general search engine is just the starting point, if at all, in the research process a consumer goes through when considering to buy a product or a service. As Web users get savvier they don't need the general search engines to find what they want. If they are looking for a flying ticket or a hotel for example they will go directly to a travel or airline site without going through the general search engine first. If they are looking for a digital camera, some might still start the search with a general search engine but very fast they will find themselves on a price comparison shopping site or on a product review site.
While the general search engine only knows that the consumer is looking for a 'digital camera,' the vertical site knows which kinds of cameras, what main features and what price range the consumer is looking at. An ad targeted to the consumer wherever he is on the Web based on the vertical site information would therefore be so much more effective than an ad targeted to the consumer based on the general search site information. In other words, as Web users get more savvy they become far more focused on finding exactly what they want and are spending far more time on vertical sites. Post search data is where our unique focus is. We have accumulated relevant purchase intent data on tens of millions of US/UK users that are in purchasing mode for products and services.
BI: Once you've selected and aggregated the right data, what are the main challenges you see in deploying it correctly?
Shkedi: Our platform analyzes received profiles in real-time, categorize them and make the data available to the ad networks and publishers that indicated their interest in such a category. The preeminent way to do that is to organize data into deep verticals. Our data has been categorized on an advertiser-friendly and privacy-sensitive basis, and is being made available today to ad networks and large publishers that are seeking to maximize their targeting capabilities. Right now we have 40 different vertical categories of purchase intent data. For example, ad networks who are very interested in insurance-related products would use us to receive data related to insurance consumers so they could cookie them as demonstrating strong behavioral purchase intent for insurance-related products.
BI: I know AlmondNet is quite involved in privacy initiatives. How important is insuring privacy to the future of behavioral data aggregation?
Shkedi: We are very sensitive to privacy. We don't collect personal-identifiable information and we analyze search queries to make sure we don't store any information that can personally identify a person (as happened unfortunately to AOL). From early on we've been adamant about not working with any partners who don't have clear privacy policies in place. For example, policies must explain to users that data is collected and that they have an opt-out. We strongly believe that it is in the best interest of both consumers, and the industry itself, to self-regulate its data usage. In order to achieve this goal I think that all of us need to do our share.
BI: Where do you see the learning and adoption curves for behavioral data going in the near term?
Shkedi: The challenge going forward is that advertisers, once they see how much of a difference post-search purchase intent data makes within larger vertical categories, are looking to achieve deeper granularity within those verticals. So before, an advertiser would be very happy to locate a large number of buyers who have indicated with strong behavioral signals that they are in-market for autos. Now the goal is to be able to find a large number of consumers who can be identified by strong purchase intent data to be in-market for a particular model or a particular brand of auto.
What I think is, the leaders in behavioral targeting in the coming year will be those who can combine deep granularity in very highly defined niches with large scale. So far it's been either/or -- either scale with weak granularity or strong granularity without scale. Media owners, and advertisers, are ready, and frankly need to go beyond that, but to do so means leveraging a far wider universe of data in a much more focused way than they've been able to do till now.
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Like it or not, new media has emerged as a major player in advertising and marketing, the Internet and wireless technologies. New, different and consumer driven, new media is not going away any time soon. The media revolution is here and it does not play by the same rules as traditional media.
This new media can also demand answers, and quickly. Just watch the political campaign. I just learned today that the Roman Catholic denomination is even posting on Youtube.com.
Today, there is no question regarding the importance of the new "pull" media fueled by new technology and consumers. Internet users are spending nearly half their online time visiting content - a 37% increase in share of time from four years ago and nearly as much time as spent on communications and commerce combined -- according to a four-year analysis of the Internet Activity Index (IAI) issued by the Online Publishers Association (OPA).
The IAI is a monthly gauge of the time that users spend with e-commerce, communications, content and search; it is conducted by Nielsen/NetRatings.
I agree with Jan's statements about social media stated, "I think this matters a lot. And in the future it will even matter more! Advertising agencies have been pushing traditional advertising because they believe brands will continue to need their so called creativity to prosper." He also mentions "happy users that talk and talk and talk – for free-about the brand they love."
Just to use myself as one example, within the past month, I've reconnected with a brilliant IT colleague who had moved to Germany, reconnected with a former intern who is now a university professor and I've also made 40 new business contacts online with the goal of developing business ventures. One relationship has already turned into a collaborative venture.
Ignore it and it will go away is not really a sound option...unless early retirement is a goal.
http://www.crestonadvertising.com
I think this matters a lot. And in the future it will even matter more! Advertising agencies have been pushing traditional advertising because they believe brands will continue to need their so called creativity to prosper. They err. Since 1994 their ad-empire declines. The holding companies who own these agencies know it. They’re moving their money to the emerging technologies of the new media. Very often in emerging markets too. Aegis/isobar announces today they're launching a mobile agency network. Great idea.
I hope the interactive agencies will not make the same mistake when they move into behavioral targeting.
I think (and i'm not the only one) that the main influencer is not the good old TV-commercial (not even the banner or the necessary tools to target better) but happy users that talk and talk and talk – for free- about the brand they love. The good old advertising is mainly absorbed by them. And marketing communication should be intended to make them even more fanatic. We tell this story already for almost 10 years and more and more followers stand up and go away from the classical model.
From a behavioral targeting point of view it's important whether you're an influencer or not. If you are one ... it's crucial to know how many people you do influence. On what topics. How frequently. If you're not an influencer whom are you influenced by? On what topics?
The links people have with other people are of utmost importance.
Not everything is measurable of course. Sam Flemming ( here in China) is of course right when he says that “the real opportunity is for brands to be a part of the millions of conversations happening …�.
And Sam adds the word “ …online�. And that’s where he’s wrong. Lots of these persuasive conversations happen in real life, face 2 face. Or on the phone. And partly they happen online. Partly.
These millions of conversations during which influencers with words and gestures testify about their own experience are the real branding power. In branding it’s not only about awareness. Awareness is only the beginning. In a second phase it’s about credibility and trust. About people. And relations between people. Behavioral targeting should track and trace these lines between people.
You can create awareness by doing crazy or funny things and post them on Youtube or wherever, but people don’t buy from clowns. It’s still true. You can attract attention but should continue to say meaningful, relevant and believable things.
In this new persuasion-environment search is important because these influencers search. And they search a lot. They want to know. They want to be sure. They want the latest details. They want a good review of their peer group. That’s why Influencers are influenced by all information sources (advertising is one of them) and why this “search� since 10 years opens a huge amount of sources for these info-addicts. Behavioral targeting can help to bring quicker more relevant information to these facts&figures addicts. But it should also try to map their peer group. Like in social networks.
The non-influencers on the contrary are influenced by these influencers. And in a lesser degree by other information sources. Less and less by advertising.
That’s how it works nowadays. Many people didn't like to hear that. They closed eyes and ears. And since marketing directors still listen a lot to the fairy tales agencies tell them, the new way of thinking spreads very slowly.
That’s why only a few brands communicate directly with their clients. They mainly rely on external media instead of using the strongest media, the human media: their happy clients. And the friends of these happy clients. The marketing is one bing guanxi.