• by Skip Brand , September 20, 2012

Forgive me for knocking off an old Rod Stewart song. One of his better ones, actually. The future of media is personalization. Every ad must tell a story that is relevant to the user. We will reach the point in the not-too-distant future where personalization will be the best way to address all audience segments, in particular the affluent segment.

What we can do right now is only a hint. For me, the IAB Rising Stars formats amp up the creativity available to marketers by a creating a dynamic customizable experience. They are rich media on steroids and built to be mobile. We’re also just starting to scratch the surface on other technologies that let us tell a story without looking like we’re tapping your phone. Let’s take a high-end airline, for example. If a customer has the scratch to roll out 5K for a first class ticket overseas, we know a lot more to tell her about. We know where she lives and where she is flying to and from. Here’s your limo ride to the airport. Here’s your leather laptop bag. Here’s what the weather looks like on the day you’re traveling and umbrella for the rain.

And, here’s what happens to your loyalty program points and rewards after you get home to engage you for the next flight, which may be upgraded or discounted around the next holiday you travel. Offers will be personalized, experiences will be personalized, rewards will be personalized. Most importantly value exchanges will be personalized. Every campaign tells a story.

Here’s what we need to make progress on. We need to develop device-aware
personalization. If I’m a high-end retailer and it’s Christmastime, it would make my campaign much more effective if I could serve a campaign that makes sense across different platforms and understand the context the user is in. The diamond earring ad looks good and tells a good story on The New Yorker website. But I might need to extend a different message to the same customer on a tablet while on their hobby website. And I want to be even more detailed on a smartphone based on location.

Right now we should do that.

But these are good problems to have. If the economy starts to turn around, (and I believe it will) history has shown that affluent audiences spend twice the amount of money on goods and services as in a tough economy. That’s a good story to tell.

Skip Brand, CEO, Martini Media