DECEMBER 7, 2009
Is behavioral targeting the answer?
Consumers worldwide surveyed for Synovate’s “IN:FACT global study on media and advertising” were not very ad-friendly. Two-thirds thought there were too many ads on TV, and 39% said the same of the Internet.
North American respondents were trying harder to get away from advertising, rather than looking at ads as interesting items to share or discuss with friends. More than four in 10 US consumers said they were skipping ads on TV and the radio as well as avoiding Websites with intrusive ads more in 2009 than they were the year before.
When asked about positive ad-related activities, such as searching for advertisements online, sharing and discussing ads with friends, or following brands on Facebook and Twitter, responses were in the single digits. Most consumers reported never doing any such activities.
Behavioral targeting, because of its ability to improve ad relevance, is billed as a way to combat such ad fatigue. As eMarketer senior analyst David Hallerman notes, the technology will only come under further scrutiny due to privacy concerns, which make consumers resistant and will require transparency from marketers.
When Synovate surveyed consumers worldwide about targeted television and Internet advertisements, explaining that behavioral targeting would increase ad relevance, 42% of those polled responded positively.
“This form of behavioural targeting is something that many media owners and advertisers would like to be able to implement and our survey indicates that a substantial proportion of people would be willing to accept it,” said Philip Shaw, Synovate director, in a statement.
But the majority of those who were up for receiving behaviorially targeted ads insisted that the information collected not be personally identifying. Respondents in the US and Canada were among those most concerned about privacy issues, and most likely to reject behavioral targeting on that basis.
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Check out today’s other article, “eMarketer Weighs In on 2010: Online Advertising & Usage.”
