Open AdExchange and Behavioural Marketing on the Web

Behavioral targeting (BT) is an advertising methodology in which an advertiser’s pitch is shown to users based on the sites they visit and/or what the user does on those sites.

A network or publisher creates behavioral segments based on where the user has gone and/or what they have done on various web pages. These are typically broad based descriptions like “Travel Shoppers” or “Auto Enthusiasts”, but they can also be very specific to an advertiser like “Users who put items in their shopping cart, but did not check out”. Another example is a segment based on users who have searched for an advertiser’s company name or product name. Behavioural advertising, I would contend will eventually merge with neural advertising to eliminate the notion of intrusive, irrelevant content. Next step will be the total syncronization of behaviour, context and role in the field of commercial online marketing. Open AdExchange,  http://openadex.com/beta/,  is the first attempt to woo quality publishers to share content in an open behavioural network and is currently under beta test in Denmark. It will be exciting to watch the performance of this vehicle of relevancy in the coming months.

Social Media will overtake other digital marketing initiatives.

Social Media will overtake other choices of digital marketing such as the company website. Ian Jindal of Internet Retailing made this patently clear yesterday at FDIH event Business in Facebook

The idea of social networks used for commerce is gaining headwind, and in the next two years may become more powerful than corporate Web sites and customer relationship management software, according to Forrester. Social media in the U.S. will contribute to an increase from $716 million this year to more than $3.1 billion in 2014, a 34% compound annual growth rate. Social media spending will grow faster than spending on other interactive marketing channels, which will grow at a 17% CAGR. For consumer-facing companies, that means tapping into consumers’ increasing expectation that they will participate with your brand. For b-to-b firms, it means leveraging the power of innovative customers who are increasingly engaging with their peers to solve their problems.