{"id":704,"date":"2016-01-21T10:10:47","date_gmt":"2016-01-21T10:10:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bjanda.com\/blog\/?p=704"},"modified":"2016-01-21T10:10:47","modified_gmt":"2016-01-21T10:10:47","slug":"just-because-we-can","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bjanda.com\/blog\/just-because-we-can\/","title":{"rendered":"Just Because We Can…"},"content":{"rendered":"

A few days ago the notion of \u2018advertising moments\u2019 had a moment. \u2018The New York Times\u2019 carried a <\/span>piece<\/span><\/a> on the topic which as good as anointing the thought with a powerful mix of mainstream recognition and due authority.<\/span><\/p>\n

Except that as \u2018The NYT\u2019 concluded this is about as thin as it gets. <\/span><\/p>\n

One of the most clich\u00e9d expressions in advertising (as much loved by me as by all other right-thinking clich\u00e9 merchants) is the one about right person, right place, right time, right context. We\u2019ve always known that reaching people in the moment is important; it\u2019s just that now we have the technology to allow advertisers to deliver messages to a mobile device at just the right moment, if \u2018right\u2019 can be defined very literally on time and place dimensions.<\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s easy to see how a service that allows a brand to serve a commercial message at the exact moment the consumer is in the market to buy can be useful. But not without thinking through how such an activity might fit with other band activities.<\/span><\/p>\n

Plus \u2013 sometimes technology isn\u2019t the answer.<\/span><\/p>\n

The other day I was early for a meeting in an unfamiliar part of town, and in need of coffee. Where to find a decent coffee shop? <\/span><\/p>\n

I had two options. Take my gloves off (it was a cold day), find my phone, curse the lack of a decent signal, move up the road to get a better signal, search for coffee shops, navigate my way past the mass of ads and sponsored content for Starbucks (some as close as about two or three miles away), find a search entry for an independent coffee shop, go to maps, go to coffee shop.<\/span><\/p>\n

Or I could ask a passer-by where I could get a decent cup of coffee. Which I did.<\/span><\/p>\n

Just because the technology exists doesn\u2019t mean large numbers will rush to use it.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2018The NYT\u2019 piece quotes a Google executive as saying: \u201cThe advertising game is no longer about reach and frequency. Now more than ever, intent is more important than identity and demographics, and immediacy is more important than brand loyalty.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s worth dismantling this nonsense.<\/span><\/p>\n

First, you have to reach people. Unless you do that you\u2019re nowhere. Then \u2018intent\u2019 is simply another descriptor. Brand loyalty may well be less important than immediacy sometimes, but brand awareness and brand perception are I would contend still very important.<\/span><\/p>\n

Then there\u2019s the creepy component. At a time when we are all a bit anxious about what large corporations (not to mention Governments) are doing with our data is it really smart to demonstrate that \u2018we know where you are, and what you\u2019re thinking\u2019 quite so obviously?<\/span><\/p>\n

At last year\u2019s asi event, Pedro Cosa of Channel 4 showed a great Coke example of using programmatic techniques to personalise creative work. Coke had linked with C4\u2019s registration data to serve an ad with an individual\u2019s name on the bottle. So \u2013 if I were watching at the right moment I would see an ad featuring a bottle with Brian on it. <\/span><\/p>\n

It was clever, but as was pointed out, the first time you think \u2018wow that\u2019s neat\u2019; the 2nd<\/span><\/sup> time: \u2018hey come and look at this\u2019; the 3rd<\/span><\/sup> time: \u2018OK that\u2019s weird how do they know it\u2019s me watching\u2019.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Google quote is full of the arrogance and short-term thinking far too common within the digiterati. The certainty, the lack of any appreciation of the role for any brand building activities beyond the immediate call to action, even the dismissive reference to \u2018the advertising game\u2019, all make me even more determined to use my own patented search engine \u2013 the \u2018ask a passer-by\u2019 option.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2018The NYT\u2019 puts it better: \u201cTo build brands, an effort that accounts for the majority of ad spending, companies need more than a moment\u2026.the latest scheme to reach peripatetic consumers could prove, well, momentary\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n

Just because we can doesn\u2019t mean we should.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A few days ago the notion of \u2018advertising moments\u2019 had a moment. \u2018The New York Times\u2019 carried a piece on the topic which as good as anointing the thought with a powerful mix of mainstream recognition and due authority.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bjanda.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/704"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bjanda.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bjanda.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bjanda.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bjanda.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=704"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.bjanda.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/704\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":707,"href":"https:\/\/www.bjanda.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/704\/revisions\/707"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bjanda.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=704"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bjanda.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=704"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bjanda.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=704"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}