My Highly Targeted Saga

For more info on my "Highly Targeted" adventures, check out the 3 posts below.

Cutting Consumers in on the Action -- outlines my thesis

Sharing The Wealth: The Key To Highly Targeted Marketing -- describes my experiment

Highly Targeted = Highy Compensated? -- recaps the results and key insights

Additional posts relevant to this topic can be found under the Behavioral Targeting label.

Update 2/20/09: Don't Police Privacy, Just Pay People! -- breaks down the financials of this proposition

Highly Targeted = Highy Compensated?

Yesterday, I outed myself as the man, er.... android masquerading as Highly Targeted on eBay last summer.

I was trying to prove out my thesis that putting cash directly in consumers' pockets was the best way to get them comfortable sharing their data and, in turn, deliver "highly targeted" marketing messages to them.

My initial auction drove quite a bit of buzz in the industry.

It was picked up on the Oldtimer's List and AdRants ran the story, "Man Sells Non-Personally Identifiable Information to Marketers on eBay," suggesting that "Consumer Auctions" might be the wave of the future.

iMediaConnection.com also featured a byline by Alan Chapell, "Making Data Integration the Rule," which covered my auction and its implications on the issues of data portability and privacy.

Highly Sought-After

After 1,071 views and 17 bids, my auction finally closed at $355 (which was all donated to Susan G. Komen) with Steve Wax of Campfire Media emerging victorious over Mr. Chapell.

However, rather than target ads to me on behalf of marketers, Steve and the gang at Campfire created a game show using my data to come up with marketing-related questions that I had to answer (anonymously, of course.)

While I had a lot of fun playing around with the Campfire crew, I still did not have a proof of concept. I needed to know if marketers would buy my data for the purposes of serving ads to me and if the non-PII data I was sharing was good enough to make for a mutually beneficial transaction.

It At First You Don't Succeed...

So I listed another auction and this time Chapell was the only bidder, winning my data for the $100 minimum. He then looked to bring more attention to the issues of data privacy with a satirical piece in iMedia. Asking marketers, "Would You Pay $1 For This Man's Data?", Chapell offered to resell my data, clearly violating the terms I had stated in my auction.

Fortunately, no one took Chapell up on his offer but it goes to show how unscrupulous marketers could potentially disrupt even the best laid plans of mice and men, er... androids.

In the end, Chapell never ended up doing anything with my data but, hey, at least the transaction was tax deductible for him!

Third Time's the Charm?

Looking to capitalize on the momentum Chapell built up, I wrote an article of my own for iMedia titled, "Don't Buy My Data Unless It's From Me."

While I was pleased to have raised $455 for Susan G. Komen and excited about the industry buzz, I still did not have my proof of concept. Would a "real" marketer be willing to pay for access to my data? And would they be able to use my non-PII to create effective ads for me?

Tipping the Scale

In the end, my 3rd auction closed with no bids and my 5 minutes of fame, er... anonymity ended.

While I still believe the concept of paying cash to consumers in exchange for their data has legs, the bottom line is that, without scale, there's very little value for marketers.

Why would a marketer shell out $100 or more before seeing my data? That's a big bet to place without knowing if I'm even in their target audience.

I guess I was secretly hoping that an ad network or agency representing a variety of clients might cough over the cashish knowing that, whatever my profile turned out to be, they'd have a marketer that would be a fit.

I think what it came down to was that noone wanted to bother trying to figure out how to interpret consumer data and customize ads accordingly on a one-off basis. Had there been thousands or millions of data profiles like mine available for purchase, it might be a different story.

The lesson here is that, just like with any other emerging digital media play, without the scale to deliver critical mass against a wide swath of consumers, marketers will take a wait-and-see approach. Especially in today's economically-challenged (is that what we're calling it now?) environment.

And Which is the Way That's Clear?

So where do we go from here? Well, now that I've come out of the Highly Targeted closet, I plan to be more vocal about the need to find alternatives to 3rd-party cookie-based targeting platforms.

And I have a few ideas about what those might look like. If you'd like to know more, please contact me.

Sharing The Wealth: The Key To Highly Targeted Marketing

Consumers today have a general mistrust of sharing their data online (whether it be through registration or cookie tracking) because they don't know how that information is being used and they know someone's getting rich off it but it ain't them.

Over the past few days, I've laid the foundation for my hypothesis that cutting out the middlemen from the advertising equation is the best way for marketers to obtain the data needed to successfully target their messages and acquire new customers.

By middlemen, I refer to all the various media and technology companies that collect information about people (whether it be personally-identifiable or not) and broker that data and/or sell ad space to marketers.

Instead, I propose marketers pay consumers directly for their data and the ability to craft highly targeted messages for them.

To see if something like this could fly, 2 questions need to be answered:

1. Will people share their data if directly compensated?
2. Will marketers pay for the ability to get people’s data and show them targeted ads?

Last summer, I decided to see if any marketers would put their money where my mouth is. Under the ghost name “Highly Targeted,” I started an eBay auction offering my data in exchange for cash (which would be donated to Susan G. Komen) and the right to deliver ads to me for 30 days.

Here was the listing...
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Item: MY DATA: Non-Personally Identifiable Info for Marketing




Attention Marketers:

Target Ads to Me Based on My Non-Personally Identifiable Information!

It doesn't get any better (or easier) than this... Stop wasting your time trying to guess if I’m in your target audience and what TV shows you can reach me on -- even though I'm in the demo, I don't watch 24. And if I did, I’d tivo through the commercials.

Don’t throw your money away by advertising on billboards, radio stations and bathrooms -- if I’m going to divert my attention from walking, driving, or peeing, it will be to check my Blackberry. Oh, that reminds me…

Forget about advertising on cell-phones -- you thought the backlash from pop-up ads and spam email was bad?

Don’t rely on behavioral or IP data to better target online ads -- all that past web history you have for my home computer? Half of that's my wife’s. And my work PC? I don't live in NYC but that's what my network IP address will tell you. And good luck trying to marry my offline purchases with my other profile data -- remember what happened when DoubleClick bought Abacus back in the day? Besides, that stuff’s just creepy.

Media fragmentation got you down?

Still reeling from the impact of DVR’s, iPods, Do-Not-Call, pop-up and spam blockers?

Well, have I got the answer for you…

I am offering one lucky marketer a treasure trove of my non-personally identifiable information to help you better target ads to me.

Here’s what you’ll get if you win this auction:

-My internet search queries from a recent 30 day period
-My web surfing history from a recent 30 day period
-My online and offline purchase activity from a recent 30 day period
-My Age, Gender, Ethnicity, Marital status and Geo location
-The right to target one ad per day to me for 30 days (now that’s what I call opt-in!)
-Ads can be created in any desired format (video, text, graphic, audio, etc.) but must be delivered via email

Behold the true promise of one-to-one marketing.

But wait, there’s more…

Not only do I certify that I will watch/read/listen to your ads but I will also provide daily feedback as to whether or not the ad appealed to me and if I’d like additional information about the product or service.

Face it, the times they are a changin’ and consumers are in control. It won’t be long before paying consumers to view your ads will be the norm (or at least paying them for the right to access their data). Use me as a beta test to determine how best to target ads based on a variety of non-personally identifiable data.

There’s only one catch -- you must promise to use my data solely for the purpose of targeting advertising over a 30 day period and you must agree not to disclose my data to any 3rd party. That’s not to much to ask, is it?

So how much is all my data actually worth? Let’s start the bidding at $100* and find out. (Did I mention how much disposable income I have? Buy my data and find out just how I’ve spent it in a recent 30 day period. For now, though, let’s just say that I am very brand loyal and have a high lifetime value. )

Buy my data today!

*Note: all proceeds will be donated to the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation.
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Tomorrow, I’ll reveal the results of the auction and the industry buzz it generated.

Cutting Consumers In On The Action

On Friday, I wrote about the difference between tracking and targeting as it relates to the average consumer's tolerance for data collection and usage in marketing. Basically, my point was that people are generally ok with companies using their data to track performance (it's no different than cashiers asking customers, "How did you hear about us?") but get uncomfortable when that data is used to target them specifically (imagine cashiers asking, "Seeing has how you're a 55-year old woman who bought wrinkle cream last week, may I recommend this collagen treatment?")

Now, many people (primarily those in the marketing industry) would say the latter scenario is not that unfavorable -- people would/should be happy to get more relevant offers in exchange for sharing their data, especially if it's non-personally identifiable.

I disagree.

As far as I'm concerned, there are 2 main reasons people are comfortable sharing their data with you whether it be online or in "the real world."

1. They know you
2. They trust you

It's very rare for a company to be able to check either of those boxes until a person has become an active customer.

Ya Gotta Give To Receive

People are generally willing to share their data (sometimes even personally-identifiable info) for warranties, coupons, discounts, etc. But these tactics typically work better in retention marketing, not acquisition marketing because the consumer knows you and trusts you more once they’ve become a customer.

So how do companies that don't yet have you as a customer and, thus, haven't yet been able to build up any trust get you to give them your data so they can better target their acquisition marketing messages to you?

Well, today, they turn to online media properties and networks who have collected this info and engage in tactics like behavioral targeting.

However, with all the scrutiny being put on these practices by government bodies and the increasingly vocal public outcry, we need to start looking for other methods.

The problem with behavioral targeting as it exists today is that, by and large, people aren't aware it's happening. And when they find out, they get pissed off.

Do You Want the Money or Do You Want the Mob?

So why do we continue to try and find new and innovative ways to leverage 3rd parties (eg, Quividi and NebuAd, which I discussed in my last post) to get people's data and better target ads?

Why don't marketers take their case right to the consumer? And why don't they give them the ultimate incentive to pony up their data?

Cashish. Payola. Dinero.

Let's stop trying to be cute and call it what it is. Me: Marketer. You: Consumer. I need to know who you are to determine if you might like my product. Rather than pay other people to find out who you are and show you my message, I'll pay you directly.

Deal or No Deal?

Is this a viable proposition? Will people part with their data for cold hard cash? Will marketers pay for the right to get people's data in order to better target their ads?

Last summer I did a little experiment to test this out. Tomorrow I'll share the results.