Initial Hypothesis

Hyper-targeting without the Hype

Peter Horan, CEO, IAC Media and Advertising

For as much interest and success as we have had in BT - what we are seeing and doing now is the very very early stages.

“What is the business of Media and Advertiisng really all about?”

Media is the business of offering marketers access to audiences of influential and affluent buyers.

The Pendulum Swings - we are heading into an age of intent-driven media.

• First, media planning by approximation
  • Targeting based on the audience demos of a medium
  • Placement on context not the behavior of a specific consumer
  • Balancing comp, coverag, creativity and impact
• Then came behavioral targeting - and everyone went crazy with hyper-targeting

What’s so wrong with Hyper-Targeting?

• A trip to Detroit that made everyone unhappy
• Efficiency at the expense of effectiveness
  • Transforming an audience of millions into a tiny club that you could call on the phone
• The job of advertising to convert not to just preach to the converted

BT is not enough by itself

The goal is a targeting strategy that balances efficiency and scalability - driving enough leads to make a difference profitably

Long term effectiveness, though is still dependent on building brands

• Brands (like people) are still known by the company they keep
  • There is rub-off from the environment where your ads run

A strong brand makes everything work well. With the goal of ROI and selling product, never discount brand. Context still matters - the environment still matter.

What is IAC working on now?

• Environmental Targeting
  • Advertising on commerce sites
    • Closer to the transaction
      • And, yes, this is a behaviorally targeted ad
  • Vertical ad networks

• Audience Targeting
  • Zip+4
    • Inheriting fuller profiles
  • Persistent profiles

There will be news ways to engage with audiences - [x+1] is using PRIZM clusters at the edge of your network - who are these folks coming in, how do I market to them - it gives you a much richer profile. Back to the notion of scalability - everyone that comes to your site will have a profile attached. Content, monetization, targeting will all be based on Zip+4.

They can will also have certain non-PII based information that will be cookied and carry across the network. direct marketing conventional wisdom is that if I know what you buy, that is the best information - actual purchase behavior.

And ten years from now, we will migrate to 1 to 1 targeting - “an audience of one”. One man, one woman, one family. We are heading toward a world where relevance is important. Where you are speak to relevant consumers in context. It is a much better experience and much more powerful from a marketing perspective.