Don't be a lazy advertiser

My wife is an "experience" person. When we go out to eat, it's not just the food, it's the environment that we are dining in.

And I have learned over the last 7 years, when in doubt, let my wife say yes or no to a particular table.

The environment is also important to those surfing the web.

Lazy advertisers don't customize the message to the target consumer.

Advertising that is matched to the web page visitor gets positive attention according to this report.

(And for more on Matching, click here.)

Study: Untargeted Ads Turn Off Social Net Users

May 11, 2008

By Eric Newman

Social networking is all about linking people with common interests. For most, brands are a part of those interests. So much so that 56% of respondents to a new survey by online marketing consultancy Prospectiv, Woburn, Mass., said their social networking experience would be better if marketers pushed more targeted ads.

Sixty-two percent of the nearly 800 online social network users polled in March said they'd be interested in offers from their preferred brands.

The problem is marketers are failing to provide social net users with information and offers about products they want to use. The vast majority of respondents (87%) said very few or no ads matched their interests or preferences. About 54% of participants said they never respond to an ad they see on social networking sites.

"These users want, and welcome, information about new products, savings and other offers, and they're clearly stating that if the ads were more targeted and relevant, it would be worthwhile to them," said Jere Doyle, CEO of Prospectiv.

Why is there a disconnect? Brands too often consider social network campaigns as an extension of their mass media campaigns, so the creative isn't properly tailored for the medium, said John Paulson, president of interactive agency G2, New York, a member of WPP and a partner agency of Grey Worldwide. Brands "are treating the space like they would another, traditional content site. That doesn't work."

Another issue: There is a surplus of ad-space inventory not managed by the sites themselves that accounts for untargeted messages, per media buyers. Plus sites are not mining enough data from consumers to provide deeper targeting.

Jeff Berman, president of sales and marketing for MySpace, said the site has made great strides in this area. TJ Maxx and Target, for example, have reached consumers based on an expressed interest in fashion or a musical genre. Those efforts have netted "performance increases of up to 300% when compared to standard demographic targeting, and we're still just in the early stages of optimization."

On Facebook, a wedding photography agency, Bella Pictures, greatly boosted its business by placing ads for a photo-package sweepstakes on the profiles of women who had listed themselves as being engaged.

Mike Murphy, Facebook's vp-media sales, said increased targeting of ads benefits not only the brands and the users, but also the networking sites themselves. "The perception is that advertising is a cost that users pay to experience a free site. But the more that we can do to reduce that perceived cost, by providing targeted and relevant advertising, the better."

G2 is currently working on a variety of widgets for its clients that fit seamlessly into the social networking environments. Paulson said, "We have to work within their universe to add value to them."

enewman@brandweek.com

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