Will Digital Advertising become more Personalised in 2011?

Yes, absolutely. In the digital space, the work we are doing with Experian is testament to the on-going evolution of our data and marketing capabilities and is indicative of the investment Microsoft is driving into this area. Consumer data is the bedrock of any form of personalised communication and through access to Experian’s offline data sources we have enhanced the level of targeting we deliver, providing more tailored messages to ever more granular groups of consumers.
 

Across the industry as a whole there is a significant amount of investment in personalisation capabilities and one technology that has gained prominence in the last 12 months is dynamic creative optimisation (DCO). DCO providers enable creative content to be loaded dynamically with a selection of imagery and text based on a user’s behaviour and demographic profile. In much the same way that Amazon or eBay provide purchase referrals an advertiser can deliver via display advertising special offers based on what an individual consumer has looked at or bought based on their specific activity and also those of other consumers who brought the same or similar products.
 

DCO companies have enjoyed a significant growth as increasingly direct response advertisers turn to this technology as a channel for generating online conversions.
 

Consumers are also comfortable with the concept of personalisation. Consumers are aware that there is a trade-off between free content online and advertising and therefore the more relevant the advertising they see the better their overall online experience. A research study by the Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB) into consumer attitudes to online behavioural advertising asked people if they were aware that behaviourally targeted ads were shown online and how they felt about it. Out of more than 1,000 people interviewed 90 per cent said they had previously shared their personal data online at least once. When the regulations around the storage and use of personal data were outlined, particularly the fact that users can opt out if they wish, 74 per cent said they were comfortable with that data being used to inform the targeting of advertising.
 

However, there is still more work required to convince advertisers of the full potential of personalised advertising and today the majority of brand budgets still default to TV. In TV segmentation is all based on demographics alone. Digitally this segmentation can be so much richer as advertiser can apply behaviour as profile data. This enables much deeper and more granular message personalisation, eliminates media waste and ensures you are serving the right message to the right consumer and at the right time. Personalisation drives improved brand recall, relevance and adoption and an industry need to get better at putting these metrics in front of advertisers.
 

To make a personalised experience truly successful a key component is making sure your creative really speaks to your target audience. The value of the creative in delivering personalised messaging is today undervalued. Creative is often already planned before an advertiser/agency even begin to plan their media activity. Without the creative messaging being aligned to the target audience we will not see the true performance personalisation can deliver.

 

 

Thank you to Experian for the use of their Whitepaper

 

 See the full Experian whitepaper here