facebook ridiculousness, part deux

and so it continues. I got this gem today:

all i can say is. W.T.F.. that does not look like english to me, and I am decidedly not japanese.  The only part of that that i understood gets cut off with ellipses!)  The suspense is killing me! the pokemon what? Why is pikachu leaping? This is a cruel joke, when they tease you like that, i just HAD to click on the ad..

and i landed here: http://www.pokemon.co.jp/corporate/

I can only surmise that this is the pokemon company, based in japan. everything is half english and half japanese, everything i click on leads me to even more undecipherable web pages and some pictures of cute imaginary creatures.

My eggs are worth $8K and I like pikachu. Is this Facebook, or is this South Park?

Facebook thinks I'm an Asian Egg Donor

I just got this ad targeted to me on facebook:

.....

Where to begin?? Let's start with the copy:

"Asian Egg Donors Earn $8K"

I get that they're trying to customize this ad somewhat to my ethnicity by putting "Asian" on there. But, 1. does this mean if I were of another race, that I would earn more or less? Does my ethnicity equate my monetary potential in this market of egg donors?

Let's move on to the image:

Decidedly "Asian"?? I think not. Asians don't all look like that - there are over a billion people in India who don't look like that picture. If I were Indian and I saw that ad, that would be of no relevance for me whatsoever. Now you can argue that the company is using a less inclusive term of "Asian", which I guess includes women who share similar features as that model in the picture. Which now presents a problem with the egg donation clinic's ethnic categorization - did the company inadvertently admit that they don't think Indians are Asians?

Now let's talk about the targeting. I'm assuming this company went about facebook targeting the same way a lot of us do - select from Facebook's menu of options and then add some keywords. They probably entered some common Chinese/Japanese/whatever they think is "Asian" names - and I guess my last name (which is a pretty popular Asian name) fit into the category they are targeting. However, I wonder if they considered the fact that I may be adopted, or that I may be half Asian, or I married an Asian guy. But I guess this sort of crass targeting fits into their overall way of thinking, as demonstrated by their equally crass definition of "Asian".

Well done, egg donation clinic. I hope you are paying on a cost per click basis.

(Re)Defining media

So I've been thinking about this for some time now, and it's become a topic of constant frustration. The way online advertising is being done right now isn't efficient, and we all know it. We buy these banner ads and these facebook ads, thinking that they will drive awareness or whatever it is that the campaign goal is. But the truth is, they don't. CTR (if you're still judging by CTR) are at .03-.05%. Which is atrocious. Brand studies only tell so much of the story. The problem isn't with measurement tools, although they certainly can be improved upon, I think the problem rests with us, the media planners, the advertisers, the brands themselves. We are trying to use the same old advertising model for a medium that requires a completely different kind of model. It's like fitting an old key into a new lock, it just won't crack open that way.

Traditionally, there have been 5 main outlets of media -- Print, Out of Home, Direct Response (mail), Radio, TV. These channels all share something in common -- they are all one way streets. The consumer can't take actions against the ads, or they can't take actions immediately after the fact. This inspired a very simple media formula: put the ad in front of the consumer; just make sure the consumer sees it. There was no more needed because the traditional channels could not provide anything more than an outlet for advertising. However, with the emergence of the digital space, this formula needs to change. The internet has revolutionized a fundamental structure of society: communication. Instead of the one way street, we now have two way streets, intersections, communication highways. Not only can people respond to each other in a matter of seconds, multiple people can respond to multiple other people in a matter of seconds. This upgrade to the way we communicate to each other has been ingrained into the newer generation, and as they grow up with this kind of technology, our old formula of just putting stuff in front of them will not work anymore. There is already a lot of banner blindness and a lot of disregard and insensitivity around the types of creative in online media. Who notices the bottom 728x90 anymore? Who cares about the skyscraper on the left side of the page? We need to be more direct with our consumers. The internet allows for immediate and intimate connections to be made, why not use that to evolve advertising? Why can't we upgrade the media formula to unlock the full potential of the internet? The new age of engagement is here -- we need to get the user to participate in the conversation around the brand, not through blunt force (like pre-rolls or homepage takeovers with no close out button), but through active Q&A. We need to find out what interests our target audience, what drives them to participate in the activities they do online -- what will make them take an action on behalf of a brand? Why is someone brand loyal to one product but not the other? We need to do a better job of understanding what factors go into our consumers' decision making when they are buying something. We can't just segment them into adults 25-54, interested in xyz, lives in so and so house. We need to define them differently, instead of demographics, we need to look at a mixture of psychographics and behavioral data.

This is getting too philosophical, but humans are creatures of habit. We don't like change, really, unless it has to happen. We're happy with the status quo because we are comfortable with the status quo. The saying past behavior is the best predictor of future behavior didn't just come out of nowhere. This is why theoretically, behavioral targeting should work -- we look at these data points, put you in a bucket, and then show you ads that are supposedly of interest to you. However, the algorithms don't always work -- the frequency and the recency of the data don't always play important roles as they should. Plus, we are still showing the consumers display ads, and helllooo? Weren't we just talking about banner blindness and the awful CTR? Furthermore, you're only looking at online behavior, that is only one aspect of the person's life. Sure, they may browse online for Vuitton bags and Tory Burch flats; but in real life, they're probably shopping at Target or Walmart for look a likes. (Speaking of look a likes, my rant on look a like modeling to follow in a couple of days). Anyways, my point is, online behavior data only tells the advertiser so much -- there are so many other aspects of a person's life you need to look at in order to serve up advertising that is relevant and will get the consumer's attention and interest. To fill that gap, we should be looking at psychographic data - we need to merge the field of psychology and advertising together to come up with a model that actually will help advertising become more relevant. In order to do this practically, we survey a pool of our consumers, the same way psych researchers conduct their tests, and we form a psychological profile of our consumers. After we have that profile, we then match it to the online behaviors of our test audience, and then wa-la, we have a new way of defining the audience. We should do this constantly to keep up with changing consumer behavior -- as the economy gets worse/better, consumer attitudes will change, online behavior will change, this is the nature of the internet, it's constantly changing and evolving, and we need to keep up with that to the best of our ability. This way, we can make our ads more relevant and decrease the level of skepticism and negativity surrounding advertising. Because I do believe in the value of advertising, I believe that it serves as a powerful communication channel between brands and consumer, and that the online medium can make it even more powerful and positive - if we do it right.

The thing with Social Media...

I think the reason for why advertisers can’t reliably use social media as a channel is the fact that social media is too individualized and too customized for advertisers to create one broad strategy for.  Take Facebook, for example, more than 200 million active users.  That’s a large audience pool, and with the Facebook Advertising program, you can theoretically reach your target.  However, what I use Facebook for is different from what my friend uses Facebook for.  I am acutely aware that anything on there is public property, therefore, I am careful about what I am linked to.  I personally know and am friends with a majority of the 359 people I am Facebook friends with.  I delete inappropriate wall posts, and I keep my profile very grandma friendly.  However, a large percentage of my friends’ profiles are a lot more open.  While I am uncomfortable sharing anything personal on Facebook, they put anything and everything on there.  I think of Facebook as a tool to connect with people, they think of Facebook as an open diary.  People who use Facebook have vastly different views on exactly what it is, half the time, they don’t really know what it is.  For traditional outlets such as TV and Magazines, we know why people use them, and we can use this knowledge to reach them.  For example, by saying that someone reads US Weekly religiously, you can probably guess the demographic and psychographic characteristics of that person.  However, by saying that someone uses Facebook religiously, you can’t reliably say anything about that person.  There are so many levels you have to go through to figure out who that person is and how to target that person.  You have to look at what groups they are in, what applications they installed, what their interests are, etc.  And even then, you can’t be certain that they are interested at all in what you’re selling.  Today an LSAT ad popped up on my profile, I’m guessing that’s because I’m a college-age student and am a Political Science major and an a Fan of Obama and am in a group vaguely related to Justice and Law.  However, I’m going into Advertising, I have absolutely no interest in law whatsoever.  The ability to truly customize your own Facebook is precisely why marketers haven’t really penetrated the medium. 

Another thing that makes social media hard to crack is the fact that it’s always being updated.  Let’s stick with the Facebook example -- just a month ago, Facebook underwent a major structural change, the second in a year.  Its new design is a lot more Twitter-like, and hasn’t exactly been popular with its users.  Facebook, and social media in general, is constantly updating itself because at the core of it, it is technology, and is not meant to be fixed.  Social media’s instability in format doesn’t allow marketers to truly use it as a trusted channel with expectations of ROI.  Televisions may change its pixel depth and the thickness of the screen, but that doesn’t affect the way you use it – however, with each interface redesign, Facebook redefines the way it is used – the focus on feeds in its latest redesign is meant to encourage users to update their statuses more often. Therefore, it is hard for marketers to develop a solid campaign centered around an ever-changing platform.

While it is hard to effectively use social media as an advertising outlet, it isn’t impossible.  I think social media further pushes marketers towards engaging the consumer rather than just throwing stuff at the consumer.  The popular “whopper sacrifice” campaign successfully broke 233,906 friendships on Facebook before it was banned.  That’s more than a third of McCain fans on Facebook.  Even more amazing, the BK campaign only lasted a week.  This is just one example out of many that highlights the importance of the content and level of creativity of advertising rather than the superficial reach of it.  Also, perhaps shorter, more explosive campaigns are the way to go with social media. That way, you don’t have to deal with the constant facelifts, and you can invest less dollars for possible high returns.