April 2006 – Hello Curns

Behavioural Targeting

I believe we have a lot of research to do to find the true value of inferring things from online behaviours. Inferences are either too simple or require a vast amount of data and analysis (which is expensive).

It’s Easter Monday (for my US friends, that’s a public holiday here in the UK). What did you do this Easter? I’ve been visiting family and eating Easter eggs in Shropshire and Wigan. I’ve been observing Roman ruins in Wroxeter (or ‘Viroconium’ as it was known when it was the fourth-largest city in Roman Britain). I watched the film, Walk The Line, at Shrewsbury’s new(ish) Old Market Hall cinema. A lovely weekend.

So, if you were in the advertising business, what adverts would you like to show to me now that I have shared this information with you? You know a little about my likes, if not a lot about my dislikes. Based on what I’ve just told you, would you promote a new film (Walk The Line was released in February, so I am not sure if I am big on new releases) or a new chocolate bar (I did extend my Cadbury’s love affair), or would you promote something historical? I am not sure that there’s a movie based on Roman chocolatiers, but if there is, then let me know!

Now, I know you’d actually profile me, determine that Walk The Line didn’t literally mean I loved country music, but the fact that I bought Easter eggs and spent time with family firmly plants me into a demographic, and the result of it all will be an ad for the new Volvo, or something similar. You get the idea. We can leap from A to C via M without much justification, can’t we?

This, however, is an issue I am struggling with at the moment at work. I know, I once promised not to write about work here, but I’m not dwelling on specifics, so go with me.

I’ve pretty much spent the last few weeks working with customers on how to implement behavioural targeting concepts for their websites and if those concepts are right for their advertisers based on the customer’s behaviour patterns on the site. Behavioural targeting isn’t actually as scary as I suspect some people think it is. It just suggests, anonymously, that if you have performed an online search looking for a new car, then you might be looking for a new car. Now, if you do this on a car website, then it’s pretty much given that you’re in the market. It’s not rocket science. Nobody knows who anybody is, and I’m only working with technologies that do not share data between marketers. This way, my behaviour on one site is not shared anywhere else. I’ve previously worked with technologies that tried to do this on a network level, but it didn’t work then, as the tech was too slow. DoubleClick moved away from network profiling in 2002, but of course, technology has moved on, and those working in that space should be able to be much more efficient.

The digital advertising industry is awash with people talking about behavioural targeting. I believe that reputable organisations will always exceed privacy legislation and protect their customers better than the law demands. After all, it’s in their interest. However, behavioural data requires so much analysis that I have to question if it is right for everybody. Certainly, publishers with a large user base who come back regularly might get some insight that would be useful to advertisers, but we, as consumers, are complex beasts. Our likes and dislikes change based on many factors; advertising can help inform and change my mind, and really, don’t you want to advertise to all people interested in buying a car? Why just those who currently think it should be a new car? But what about my friends’ network or family? Aren’t they just as influential? We can’t look at their behaviours too, but they are important in how I make decisions. Isn’t behavioural targeting too limiting then?

I believe it works in the right places. I believe that the technology I am working with is the best of breed for publishers. It’s anonymous and doesn’t enable any kind of network sharing, so it’s good for consumers too. But finding the right use cases is the hard part. How do I prove that this technology is working? I think we’ve some investigation to do yet.

I know that I am oversimplifying arguments to make my point, but I believe we have a lot of research to do in this space to find the true value of inferring things from my online behaviours. Inferences are either too simple or require a vast amount of data and analysis (which is expensive). I’ve got to spend the next few weeks reading a lot more data on this. If you’ve got anything that would be helpful, then you know where I am.

Disclaimer: These are my views and not those of my employer. You have done the whole full disclosure thing, haven’t you?

New Doctor New Earth

Doctor’s back 😉

The Doctor was back tonight and the new Doctor is just as good as the last. The first episode of this new series, New Earth, was great. Rose, invaded by Casandra, and shouting I’m a Chav was a very unexpected amusing moment: almost as amusing as the Doctor saving the earth with a satsuma in the Christmas episode. Saturday nights are settled until the summer then.

UPDATE: You really should go and look at the BBC’s Doctor Who website for the new series – it’s really well done and there are tons of extra features & material online.

Some People Are Helpful

The staff of the Orange shop in Wimbledon were very helpful. Thank you.

My mobile phone developed a fault. It started a few weeks ago, but has made the device unusable now. There’s an electrical noise that became so bad that other people couldn’t hear me. I could hear them, but they had no idea what I was saying. So, I went to talk to the people at Orange and discovered they don’t have the right phone on the insurance that I have been paying for. They said it’s my fault, I said it was their fault. Anyway, after much discussion, it appeared that I could upgrade for free anyway, so there’s really not that much difference.

I spent a day or two thinking about what to do. I have had a Palm Treo 600 for several years. I think I must have mentioned before that it is not a perfect telephone, but it does allow me to take a whole pile of numbers and information with me when I am on the road, and that is very useful indeed. So I decided to upgrade to the Treo 650. And that is where the problems started. The Orange shop I was in said that they have been unable to source a Treo for months, and the other central London outlets that I contacted said the same. Other networks now offer the Treo, so I contemplated switching, which is a big deal for me because I have an irrational loyalty to Orange despite recent poor service and packages I am not convinced are great value.

Fortunately, there were some very helpful people in the Orange store in Wimbledon. In fact, I can’t recommend that shop too highly, and that is the point of this post. While other shops were unhelpful, Wimbledon were fantastic. It might have helped that they actually had the phone I wanted in stock, but I think it deserves notice that they were more than helpful. So, on Wednesday, I walked out with a shiny new Treo 650. Let’s see what it’s like.

There Was A Time

Ah, the power of the web. A friend of mine – who occasionally passes by here – spoke on his site about advertising. Then, it appears he removed it. Sad, really, because it included the paragraph:

I grew up in the UK. In the 80s. It was a weird time, people were buying their council houses and forcing themselves to drink Asti Spumante in a bid to live a more sophisticated life.

Of course, he really knew that Asti was sophisticated in the 80s. Is it a passing-age thing, or were the 80s a much more aspirational time? Even today’s On This Day points to the 80s being different (although you debate the sophistication element of Steve Strange between yourselves). Hell, I even thought Footloose was sophisticated (and for Google: this is the official site of the London musical production of the movie Footloose, and this might be what made it interesting to me at the time). Anyway, the 80s are in vogue, and who am I to deny the world some joy? Footloose is on stage, and Dirty Dancing is coming. Reading the paper tonight, I noticed that Dirty Dancing is advertising ‘open dance auditions’ for dancers with a variety of bodies and partnering skills. Perhaps a career change beckons. Male auditions are on Thursday, 6th April, from 2pm!

Ambassador, what do you have for me today?

But What Was The Year?

No matter how many times my media player tells me JoBoxers (and their classic, Boxerbeat) is from the 2005 compilation (Teenage Kicks) I know it’s a true pop treasure from 1983 (top ten in February no less).

Oh! how I despair at all those compilation CDs that are gracing my CD collection. Over the years I have collected a fair few. I think it’s something to do with being a pop fan. True pop is a three and a half minute tune mimed to some falling glitter snow surrounded by Pans People and introduced by The Hairy Cornflake. To that end, the long player was never really on my turntables as a child. Thus, my musical memories are really quite happily contained across a collection of compilations. This is all well and good until you come to rip them all so that you can add your youth to your mp3 player. For, lo, compilation cds neither sit well on mp3 machines nor do they rip well. The artist may be in the title box while the artist is just listed as ‘various’. I can live with that (I lie, I can correct that) but I can’t stand that the dates are incorrect. No matter how many times my media player tells me JoBoxers (and their classic, Boxerbeat) is from the 2005 compilation (Teenage Kicks) I know it’s a true pop treasure from 1983 (top ten in February no less). Thus, I must spend my evenings correcting each cd as it gets ripped. My life will be over before this project is complete. My sanity will be gone sooner. But my mp3 player will know hits of 1978 are very different from those of 2002.

Get JoBokers, Essential Boxerbeat, featuring the single Boxerbeat, on mp3 at Amazon. You can live those teenage years again, scratch-free. It’s one of the hits of 1983!