Targeted advertising - discussion please

[zuben el genub]

I'm getting annoyed at some of the advertisers and companies - Google included.

I don't mind ad supported services, but dammit, I want relevant ads.

How many here have filled out profiles? The most weighted catagories are at the top of the list, and a lot of advertisers stop there.

Set top boxes and smart TVs will be getting this trialled this year:
Gracenote’s Ad Replacement System That Personalizes TV Commercials Will Start Trials In 2013 | TechCrunch

Notice how they weighted the gender. That is what annoys me the most.
I am more interested in at least watching the car ad. Men get cameras, women get weight loss. If they did that with phones, I'll bet all women would be targeted with iphone ads. I should think the females here who understand technology, root their phones would be highly offended.

I like astronomy - those companies don't really advertise since they are sort of niche, but I'd probably never see an ad from one of the companies that does carry equipment - B&H and Adorama do. If I got any ads from either of those, it would probably be for something simple and "pretty"
(I get their newsletters anyway)

Over a certain age - both sexes will get targeted by stuff for the grandchildren. Not all are married, not all have grandchildren and not all are even interested in children.

I sew and quilt - however, since things have become computerized, a lot more men have started digitizing embroidery (you plot coordinates) and quilting. The setup and challenge of long arm would appeal to a do it yourselfer or handyman. There are now groups for men who are interested in both.

I hold the cell account. The Vulcan does DSL.

I simply won't fill out a profile unless they weight it by my interests first. If I list photography and cell phones first, then gender or age shouldn't freaking matter. It doesn't matter in forums - we run the gamut here.

 

[breadnatty08]

One thing I never realized and learned in a Op-ed in the paper the other day. Companies you purchase from "learn" your times you're mostly likely to purchase items from them. So, I get offers from Amazon, Best Buy etc., first thing in the morning when I usually pop on and buy whatever. If I did all my purchasing in the evening, I'd probably get those emails then. A little creepy, but I guess they know what they're doing.

 

[Bob Maxey]

One has always had the ability to use targeted advertising. In my day we relied upon mailing list brokers. We would order lists in several forms including self-adhesive labels.

Today, we use the net.

We complain about what we receive in our email every day just like we once bitched about the junk mail in our mailboxes. Since the beginning of time, the ads we see were targeted ads.

I once knew a girl who worked for the largest mailing list broker in Utah. I asked her if she could slip my name into all lists. Jokingly, I'll ad because I knew what would happen. The postman would develop a massive hernia. Had she done this, I would have probably received tens of thousands of pieces of mail a day. Everything from bra manufacturer ads to catalogs to product samples and everything in-between.

We could order extremely specific mailing lists. For example, if I was marketing to new parents, I could obtain a list of all new parents in Utah, parents just in Salt Lake City with a new infant girl, or single parents in a specific neighborhood in SLC with twins or triplets.

You can still order these kinds of lists. Targeted to very specific interests like every new lathe owner with an interest in pen making or every person in my neighborhood with an iPad 3.

The net offers the same things and the same annoyances.

 

[Bob Maxey]

A little creepy, but I guess they know what they're doing.

I sometimes think they know what we are doing and what we want before we do anything. Targeted ads are a science to be sure.

Have you ever noticed when a topic is being discussed in this forum, sometimes you will see related ads appear on this site?

 

[lunatic59]

Because humans are creatures of habit, this works. And it will continue to be done as long as it continues to work. Granted they get a lot of useless targets, but they get a lot of qualified targets as well and that's where the payoff comes in. In an interconnected capitalist society, you will have to expect continued optimization of marketing methods.

I wouldn't be surprised if they were eventually able to find out if you were genetically predisposed to liking the color red so that a majority of the products marketed to individuals varied by color.

Personally I don't like large firms who employ bloggers and social media experts to go around posing as impartial reviewers attempting to bump up the image of the company (called "shills" but not entirely accurate.)

Where I think we fall down is not so much in allowing companies to market this way, but in educating the general public on the techniques so they can recognize when they are being marketed to.

 

[zuben el genub]

The public is too damn busy either feeling sorry for itself, or hellbent on pleasure to read anything constructive.

There have been books out, some bestsellers, but if it isn't titillating like 50 Shades of Grey, they won't read it.
(No, I haven't read that book and don't intend to.)

 

[Speed Daemon]

Funny thing, I was about to rant in another thread about how we'd all be better off if more people read a book or two instead of watching movies. Among my Christmas presents: a cookbook, a version of Holy Bible that I've never read, and a very thick biography of Charles Lindbergh.

I don't mind the targeted advertising nearly as much as I despise the off-site linking to nosy ad servers that run CPU-cycle sucking scripts that I didn't order. I thought that taking other people's computer resources without permission was a criminal offense!

Legal issues aside, the surest way to lose me as a customer is to make my NoScript pop-up warnings come faster than I can acknowledge them. I hold no illusions that they'll miss me. No doubt this world holds a nearly limitless supply of suckers and fools on which to feed. I simply choose not to join their ranks, that's all.

 

[breadnatty08]

Have you ever noticed when a topic is being discussed in this forum, sometimes you will see related ads appear on this site?

I use AdBlock so nope!

 

[zuben el genub]

So do I. FX has tab permissions. I can turn images on and off at will. Per tab or window.
Opera always had that, and it was the only way to deal with that damned blinking text!

 

[zuben el genub]

I'm not the only one with the opinion about the fallacy of targeted ads:
Craptastic analysis turns 2.8 zettabytes of Big Data into 2.8 ZB of FAIL ? The Register

Go get the salt shaker.

 

[wyndslash]

yeah, I use ad blocker too. can't stand ugly ads.

 

[mikedt]

A certainly get targeted adverts based on where I am, mostly in Chinese. Including one on this site this morning for British Airways cheap flights to London from Beijing. Which is something I just might need. I also frequently see adverts for Engish language schools in Beijing, well I am an English teacher.

 

[zuben el genub]

I use adblocker. Most of the stuff I want doesn't get advertised. If I want a telescope part, I go to Cloudy Nights web site and check their advertisers. Camera? I start with Digital Photography Review. Cell phone/Tablet? I come here. Fabric? That's mostly local.

There's also Yahoo groups for each. Some groups are highly moderated which I like.

Not interested in travel, new car, furniture, clothes, etc. Don't care what's popular, I'll research anything first.

I get NL from Adorama, B&H, OPT, and Orion.

 

[dan330]

i would love to get targeted ads... to things that I only want to see.

and in order to get my wish list.. they must agree to only send to me 20 ads a day total!
they can decided what 20 to send me each day..
in 1 location on my phone. it can be in by notification bar.
it can be based my driving and location to the shop/product.
that also means.. NONE in my email accounts!

 

[sntaylor]

Slightly off topic, but kind of relevant.....

I've noticed a lot(way more recently that even a year out so ago) is the product placement in films and tv programmes, the worst ones would have to be ncis la(Windows) just watched real Steele (hp computers,Sprint, usual coca cola etc) naturally everything will have some form of product in it, but I can't help but think some things(hate to say it, but especially American shows and films) go a bit ott with prolonged panned views of specific things!

Only plus side is that there have been less Apple products, still loads though.lol

 

[zuben el genub]

I think it was RGIII that got fined for not wearing Nike gear at an interview. Nike does the NFL gear.

Look at both baseball and football - Gatorade towels all over the place. Nike logo on shirts has to be shown. Changeable ad boards.

Screw them I wear Tevas, Chaco and Keen. I think I have one jersey that was pre Nike. Dan Marino.

 

[zuben el genub]

Google has to change:

Google must change search business practices after FTC decision | ZDNet

 

[zuben el genub]

They Know What You're Shopping For - WSJ.com