Relevance

relevant adverts

customized AND personalised to my needs

I have just come back from our annual CFO conference in Morocco ( I recommend taking a long weekend to this mystical place , which is only 3 hours from the UK )

In between discussing the numbers and compliance , I spoke to the assembled bean counters on the subject of marketing technology and the importance of ' relevance '.

Technology delivery channels are beginning to blend more – material is being used and re purposed for use in the offline and online world – TV is now regarded as online through the advances in interaction.

Customers – people we are talking to expect a more personalised / customised and most of all , relevant conversation with brands.

The increase in lean forward activities , i.e. web browsing has meant that now with the knowledge people are imparting through their implied actions or information they provide to us, it is no longer acceptable to deliver a one size fits all solution to their questions and purchase options.

Simply being on the web is no longer enough

Personalisation - This not just about inserting a name

First we have to listen and then respond to my requests and needs.

It is no longer good enough for people to invest their time to only receive standard material – it shows we are not listening

Are you really listening ?

The example of this is my recent enquiry in an Audi dealership. After spending over an hour in the show room working out my options , specification I was then handed a standard brochure – with a finance plan which had no transparency or information for me to make an informed decision on – this is not good enough.

I should have walked out with a tailored brochure to my time spent with the rep, options which were relevant to my personal circumstances but maybe not sold or talked about in depth during our time together – such as children’s fold down tables, heated rear seats other child friendly options - the technology is available , why do marketing not use it ?

Googles acquisition of double click demonstrates their desire to listen - and then more importantly enter into meaningful dialogue.

Most countries now and all in the future, viewing audiences are changing. Sporting events such as the World cup are one of the few time audience figures are massive, even here though relevance should still focus on segmenting the audience – again it is no longer good enough to rely on mass to get your message across – this mass can be made to work better through relevance.

War

In the UK a war is happening. Sky and Virgin are basically fighting over the control of the Internet connection in the living room. They know TV delivery is changing – control and understanding that technology is allowing will allow economies of scale give back the return on advertising clients are demanding – by using the knowledge they collect to convert into relevance . Combine these lean back activities and habits with my online behaviour and you can take a step forward in delivering a relevant offer.

The 30 second Ad – they say this is finished however there may be life left in this , as long as it is delivered in the correct context.

We touched on the impact and implications of ‘ Virtual Me ‘ and how moving traditional concepts into the online world and how this engaging lean forward content and activity is the perfect place for a 30 second or similar advert.

Just make sure it is relevant.

Video search

There is no question video online is booming , Level 3 says 50 per cent to 60 per cent of the traffic across its IP backbone is video source ( http://www.digitmag.co.uk )

Using tools such as Google and YouTube to search for content brings up a problem – the manner in which the video is actually stored and indexed.

The problem

Nearly all search engines rely upon a combination of meta data ( the descriptions given to the clip by the content producer ) and also user generated tags – both of which can be lacking in information or as demonstrated on Youtube, be completely irrelevant when performed by user tagging ( you can tag anything with Paris Hilton ).

Voice recognition

Technology however comes to the rescue here in the form of Blinkx, a new San Francisco based operation using voice recognition techniques to index and most importantly give context to words within the videos based on when and how they appear.

Blinkx works but trawling the net for video content ( they have over 7 million hours of footage ) and using its voice recognition technology is able to provide far better searching capabilities than existing technologies.

Key benefits of the system

• Pulls from many sources giving users a wider scope of search
• Controls the user “portal”
• Amazon hook-in for purchasing options
• IMDB for reviews and information
• Personal channel creation
• Does not host content ( presently ) so does not suffer from IP issues

Advantage

Controlling the search across many sources of information will give Blinkx an advantage over companies such as Joost and the BBC who are concentrating on providing ‘ channels ‘ through their content portals.

There is no doubt the future of the net is video , this is the first real offering which will see Google needing to play catch-up in the search

Media fragmentation

Myth

We have in theory only added on more medium to all of this in the past 10 years – the net. TV, Radio, WOM, Outdoor, Cinema have all existed. Just like the Internet bubble is again now growing ( with a harder , tougher shell ) convergence is coming back...... this time though it is the meida which is converging

Demographics

If we take the continuation of the single person household le person ( by 2010 this will represent the largest household type ) and the choice now being channel based rather than time based only from the broadcast days - I believe contributes more realistically as to why we no longer get 20 million people viewing Coronation Street - rather than the fact 50 more channels exist ( also take into consideration Ethnic population grows 54% compared with 4% for the UK – again is Yorkshire life in a public house really what people from differing backgrounds interested in. )

Certain events such as the World Cup produce that the correct content gives you the numbers – the event requires it be worthwhile.

Immediacy adds relevance

Elections are on the wane in terms of turnout however people through the use of Blogs are showing they still wish to be engaged in the democratic process, express their views and contribute through demonstrations , so why the poor turn out ? - the format of the ballot is alien to a large proportion of the population. The thought of having to ‘ schedule ‘ your support and be attending the voting booth, of using a medium such as mail which requires the most simple boundary of a stamp – why not move voting online – see the results rocket the other way.

People today are watching more television albeit over a more diversely spread set of channels, without the use of technology you are of course going to spend more money trying to reach this ‘ dislocated ‘ group of people

In the past 3 basic channels ( with shorter viewing windows – I recall broadcast finishing at 11 pm – I’m not exactly old either ! ) and 15 TV companies in the UK alone. This condensation of viewable time funnelled people in – the funnel is now wider , however technology will act as the lasso brining it all together.
marketing technology
Convergence

If we took their individual programming schedules of those 15 regions , combined with ‘ viewable time ‘ , then we mapped the programming we would indeed see the view that would be regarded as ‘ fragmented ‘ in the true sense of the word.

The adage from David Ogilvy about which part advertising does not work is born from this.

Scrap heap challenge

Today they ( the broadcasters – a term which is due for the scrap heap really soon ) have in effect flipped the TV schedule onto one side , and built depth into each of the previous vertical sectors – spawning specialist channel – the depth we see today.

Convergence a word pulled from the scrap heap however describes technologies job into consolidating all of these outlets of content back into one channel.

Technology Marriage - Back from Divorce

Media and new technology have been co-existing in a ' uncomfortable ' relationship for the past 5 years. A sort of arranged marriage if you like which offered promise and excitement through the prospect, but never really delivered on these wedding vows.

The main issue all along has been consumer acceptance , the technology has , so far not actually delivered what consumers actually wanted. This year see's the marriage start to blossom with promise , Sky+ continues its growth , mobile finally has a working delivery for TV through handsets and BT/ NTL and Sky's push into broadband gives us hope that on-demand may start making inroads and become the ' de-facto ' delivery for programming.

Programme schedules will be flipped on their side as consumers finally let their viewing habits be merged with profiles to lasso all the diverged delivery methods into one personalised channel. Think about it , the devilvery channels are fragmenting while the media is converging - TV is not dead, just it's role is changing much in the same way Radio and press assumed different roles over the years.

Audience sessions for MSN and Google in the 70 million for the UK in one week ( compared to the Sun newspaper equating to 50 ) with the prospect of the traditional radio and broadcast traffic being squirted to users through these various pipes , I say convergence is starting to ring the church bells.