I hate advertising. Hate it. And it’s not because I’m not interested in what services or products are available. Got an interesting gizmo, doo-dad or jeejaw, and I’ll be the first in line to pick one up. The problem with advertising is that advertisers take a shotgun approach to targeting. This is especially true in television, where targeting seems to be focused on age or gender and not much else. The web is a bit better in that sites often have a much narrower demographic than, say, the latest NBC sitcom.
Still, this is a scattershot approach. Just because I’m on your site doesn’t mean I fit your demographic. For example, I just pulled up the site for the FOX show “House”. The advertisement was for Windows 7. I use a Mac. The main FOX site shows ads for AT&T. I already have AT&T. Those bits and my attention where just wasted because FOX (or its advertising network) attempted to guess what I wanted. Or, maybe they didn’t guess at all. Either way, it was opportunity lost for the host and the advertiser.
A better approach would be to actually
These interests might be general (gadgets, for example) or specific and time limited (vacations to Mexico in May). They might even vary during the time of day, or my current location. For example, if I’m working from my work computer, an advertiser might try to focus ads related to my work interests. While at home, I could receive ads for interests related to hobbies, etc.
Doing this on a site-by-site basis won’t scale of course. If I have to enter advertising preferences on every web site I frequent, I won’t do it. But if I could provide that information to a central location and let sites know about that location when I visit their pages, then it wouldn’t be such a chore. Additionally,
So, here’s how I believe something like this could work:
- Create a online service where I can store my preferences. My preferences consist of words chosen from a controlled vocabulary or loose folksonomy of topics. Each of these preference items are represented by a URL, which when resolved returns a list of synonyms or similar terms to the preference value I’ve set.
- Serve my preference values from a single URL. Perhaps my preferences can be found at http://www.csa.org/thebrianmanley. Fetching that URL returns my list of preferences and some number of similar terms. Alternately, if I have a web site of my own, I can simply host a file containing my preferences there.
- Tell my browser where my preferences URL can be found. Using a plugin of some sort, configure my browser to include a HTTP header that indicates where my preferences URL is. For example, a header such as “CSA-Profile: http://www.csa.org/thebrianmanley”. The browser should then, for every request I make, include that header.
- Implement, on the server, a method to fetch my preferences URL, extract the preferences I’ve set and then find advertising that matches those preferences.
- Profit!
It’s easy to see how you could also extend this in several ways. For example, including a list of my friends; their preferences can be fetched and used to enhance my own since we’ll probably have similar interests and tastes. Also, let me “announce” in my preferences what I’ve bought so that advertising for accessories, refills, whatever could be shown to me.
Yes, there are issues. How do you get people to opt-in to something like this? Is the promise of better advertising enough? You also need to get content providers to buy in and either partner with an ad network or create your own. Not a weekend project, for sure.
Now, somebody get cracking on this so I don’t have to see another stupid home mortgage ad ever again!
With IPv6 and the internet of things, another idea that I had a while back would be to take targeted ads a little further even. Say you use brand x lightbulbs and brand y toothpaste or something. If the devices that you use and the online shopping store that you use to purchase the products could start building a profile of you that could then be used for more targeted ads. If your toothpaste brand brought out a new product, it would let you know about it. The main thing here is that you could then *dismiss* that ad if it didn’t interest you or act on it by buying the product immediately. If you then add in a social aspect, you could then have things like: “All your friends are using this brand of toothpaste, you sure you don’t want to try it?” or “Friend 1 really likes this brand of motor oil, how about you try it out?”
I think that the privacy issues surrounding all of this stuff will have to be deeply explored, but it could totally work. I would certainly sign up for specific targeted ads on condition that the rest left me alone!
That’s a good idea regarding “dismissing” an ad. I think Facebook let’s you do something similar.
The privacy thing is a huge concern, you’re right. I’m not sure that I want my retailer or my browser using my purchases to create a global profile of me without some serious control. Some purchases you’ll obvious want to keep on the down-low.
But other things I’d surely want to announce. For example, if I bought a plane ticket to, and a hotel in, Orlando Florida, then chances are pretty good that I’d be receptive to advertising for cheap Disney tickets, car rentals, restaurants in the area, etc. But then I’d want them to stop at some point…once my hotel reservation expires or I take my return flight.
Clearly there are lots of ways you go run with this. I hope someone does!
– Brian