Advertising - where is it heading?

Grudun answered 8 months ago …

Advertising is definately in the process of evolving again. The next generation of advertising is personalized ad content. This is currently in its infantcy on the internet, based on your profile(which depending on what services you use contains your search history, keywords from your emails, your navigation history, your purchase history through online retailers, and your personal preference information filled out during different registrations) you will see ads that you are more likely to be interested in. The move is going to be from who is watching which program(website or print article) to what can be sold to this INDIVIDUAL regardless of what media they are currently using, this will result in 2 similar people watching the same program but seeing completely different advertising. Also there is a steady move from appointment based media(TV and Radio) to at your convienence media(DVR and internet based programming).

The next generation of this technology will more specifically target online ads. But the real future of this will target all advertising directed at you. Examples that are possible/in the works: TIVO is creating/improving a system that will automatically remove the existing commercials from programs you record and replacing them with personally targeted commercials that will be displayed either during fast forwarding or during the program with the skip function disabled, multiple cell phone providers are sending customre specific ads to users, and magazines and newspapers with different ads but the same content based on who is recieving them.

The technology is moving forward and there is going to be some significant changes in the markets as this takes effect. Those who are slow to change(eg newspapers) are going to become meer content providers(imagine a newspaper that has ads sold by another comany like Google) while those who have the user data and the medium to send the ads with become the powerhouses(data holders: cable/dish companies, Google, Yahoo!(if they can process it). Content controllers: Internet portals, cable/dish companies).

As to how to make money off of this developement, you need to look for companies who A: have the user/customer data, B: Have the sales force to convince the advertisers that the effort will pay off and that can sell enough ad volume, and C: Companies who have the power to deliver the ads.
I have not had enough of a chance to research which companies will be the leaders in this but I would start research with Google, cell phone companies and Cable/dish providers.