Commentary

Marketers: You Know Me -- But Not Well Enough

by Wayne Friedman , Staff Writer, May 3, 2010

Ads come in my direction with little sense: Double electric breast pumps one minute, and hot young women the next.

An ad for the Alliance double electric breast pump appeared -- apparently just for me -- on the Hollywood Reporter website, thr.com, the entertainment business destination. That hot young women ad? That comes via my Yahoo email area.

Can't marketers get it right? I need hot young women AND double electric breast pumps!

Later, another ad appeared on Yahoo -- one for a product that will apparently help me to breathe right while sleeping, working out, or just gazing into space. OK, I see a trend. I need to breathe well to look at hot young women while they use double electric breast pumps.

When I'm on the Internet, I expect a lot when it comes to messages coming my way. I'm conditioned already. That said, I expect so much less from television.

Old Spice tries to sell me some deodorant while I'm watching ESPN's "SportsCenter" on my traditional TV set. That makes sense. Later on in the day, a big banner ad on thr.com tells me about HSBC bank. Okay, that also makes sense as well. I want to smell good -- with interest.

I'm wondering how many average Internet users and TV viewers now recognize that commercials/messaging are coming to them because of who they are -- or maybe not? Are they pleased, amused, or angered -- either for the mis-marketing, or over privacy issues?

While media agencies, content owners and media researchers try to figure out the power and usage of set-top box data, perhaps more efforts should go into preparing viewers/Internet users about what's coming.

"Here's an ad you might want to know about"? Or "Don't be alarmed. We know you and think you might like this product"? Or, the most honest: "Excuse me, but our business model is forcing us to do this."

If a 77-year-old man gets a P&G Swiffer ad, or a 23-year-old college student gets a message from Vanguard telling her to shift her retirement savings, or if a 44-year-old single woman gets a message to buy Miley Cyrus' next CD, maybe we will just shrug our shoulders. Maybe this makes sense to those people.

Me? I'm waiting for more ads like this: a Hartford (CT) Auto Glass banner message, which seems to target me perfectly, seeing as how I live on the West Coast.

behavioral targeting, tv

2 comments about "Marketers: You Know Me -- But Not Well Enough".

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Mike Einstein from the Brothers Einstein, May 3, 2010 at 3:33 p.m.
Viewers already are prepared for what's coming... That's what remote controls and DVRs are for.
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Janis Mccabe from jmod35, May 3, 2010 at 5:43 p.m.

I get these ads for fat women losing weight in Rye, NY, all the time on almost any non-newspaper site I go to. According to my doc and most people who know me and those who see me, I'm a bit underweight for my height. The other ads I get are about yes do use Acai, and no Acai is not good. Ya know, Acai might be something interesting, but these ads, both positive and negative, have made me react negatively, so I don't give a rat's patoot about them and I shall never, ever explore them. I won't even look it up on WebMD or any other credible site. And, if you think I'm going after a fat lady's ad, you're just totally wasting my time and your money. What misdirected waste of time and space.