DigiTales & Other Stories

The Guardian reports this morning that MySpace have been developing an AdSense type of advertising offering called Hypertargeting and trialling it with 50 advertisers, some of whom have seen 300% rise in response rates for some campaigns.

Travis Katz – MySpace’s international MD says:

“For advertisers, it’s [delivering on] the promise that internet advertising has always been, and users, who have been involved in the testing, like targeted advertising better than generic ads. They don’t like untargeted ads because they feel more intrusive, whereas if ads are relevant and of interest to them they enjoy them.”

The issue of privacy comes up again here because the system is contextual and uses profile data in order to target the ads.

But as I wrote last week I’m not sure users mind so much if the ads they receive are relevant and there’s something in it for them.

Nice to see a publisher ploughing in dough and trying to come up with a system themselves. They’re talking about advertisers being able to drill down into over 100 different segments.

Another player is always good for the planning schedule, but there’s always a tiny danger when someone tries to go it alone, remember BidSmart?

Not sure BTLS had 110m users worldwide though

I was in the US last week on holiday in Cape Cod (stay in Chatham - it’s gorgeous!) and while watching the plethora of ads on TV for all the medicines Americans seem to think they need, I had a thought…

They should all tell the TV companies which allergies, conditions, diseases and idiosyncrasies they have in order to filter out ads for medicines they shouldn’t be seen dead taking.

The final few seconds of the ads drive me mad! –“If you have angina, tuberculosis, warts (of any kind), breathing difficulties, issues with tissues, a walking stick, a wheel chair or a stair lift, this medicine may not be appropriate for you”.

The extra airtime must cost these companies millions, so why not give them an opportunity to target the ads to viewers who might not blow up if they take them. This is all part of the wider story with digital advertising regarding publishers needing to help advertisers to target ads better, and users wanting to personalise their ad-viewing experience to make it more relevant.

I hate soccer with a passion and I loathe tapioca and carrots – I never want to see another ad for any of them – so where can I go to stop getting bombarded by ads to do with stuff I’m not interested in?

If the ad doesn’t get served to me, the advertiser’s ROI goes up, no? Digital will address this…….one day…..