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Net Radio Returns, With Targeted Ads
Mike Hicks writes: "Looks like some of your favorite (*cough*) stations owned by Clear-Channel communications will get their streaming audio back on the web shortly. The new streams will use Internet-only ads targeted at you -- they will ask for your age, gender, and ZIP code." I would love to have the ads for laxatives and pregnancy tests replaced by ones for fireworks and local restaurants -- think they can get that from my age, sex and ZIP?
1) You say you're a 70 year old woman.
Result: You get adverts for bladder control products and funeral homes.
2) You clam you're a 3 year old boy.
Result: You get adverts for Barney and Time Life Warner's "Favorite Childrens' Songs" CD (If you haven't encountered this ad on FoodTV while watching the Iron Chef, it's enough to make you seriously consider slitting your wrists.)
I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?
If you value your privacy over getting ads that don't interest you, by all means lie. That's what I do. After all, one of the great things about the Internet is that it's pretty close to anonymous as far as marketers are concerned -- for all they know, you really are a 100-year-old woman who lives in Zip code 90210.
They think the right way to segment the population is by age, sex and zip code. It might eliminate some of the most irrelevant ads, but it doesn't change the junk-flooding nature of radio advertising.
Media corporations like Clear Channel view music as a 'product' to be dispensed to 'consumers' and it shows. The lack of interest leaks through the cracks in the shiny facade constantly. They'll put an ad for the Rolling Stones or some such dinosaurs on an alternative rock station. Or an ad for a disco that plays top 40. More importantly, the tone of most ads shows that they are aimed at 'the mass of drooling morons' rather than fans of a particular music. They'll use a music bed which could be expected to evoke nausea from the listeners of that station.
I know someone will claim that these things are inevitable, for economic or other reasons. But in the mid-80's, alternative stations really did reflect their own style more consistently. And AM radio (on the rare occasions I listen to it) does seem to cater more to the mindset of its listeners, with a focus on money, insurance, stocks, etc.
I really look forward to the end of commercial monopoly broadcasting. And I hope that Clear Channel's attempts to extend their tentacles into the internet are utter failures.
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Well, thanks to x-treme radio station merging, the ads are pretty much the only content not uniformily broadcast to everyone in the country.
- A.P.
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"Remember when the U.S. had a drug problem, and then we declared a War On Drugs, and now you can't buy drugs anymore?"
Actually age sex and zip are the determining factors for a well known traditional marketing concept called a "PRIZM Cluster".
PRIZM is a geodemographic system that helps marketers find groups of people who exhibit similar demographic and behavioral characteristics-- making it possible to identify and locate marketing targets.
This is based on the concept that "birds of a feather flock together", or in other words, that people with similar cultural backgrounds, needs, and perspectives naturally gravitate toward each other. People choose to live in neighborhoods that offer affordable advantages and compatible lifestyles.
PRIZM Clusters are usually useless in online marketing since you can rarely know where your customers are coming from unless you've already sold them the product. However, if you are giving the ad company a heads up by letting them know what cluster you belond to, they can serve you ads that their marketing research indicates you will be most interested in.
Obviously, PRIZM isn't perfect-- your daily junk mail should be a good indication of that. One of the big flaws in PRIZM is that its data is only updated every time there is a US Census, making it very slow to change. For instance, I receieve a lot of junk mail advertising things in Chinese, because the area I live in was until recently full of Chinese immigrants.
Being able to serve ads to you based on your PRIZM cluster will probably help you more than it will hurt you. If you live in an affluent area (for instance, a "Blue Blood" cluster), you will probably get ads for high-end electronics, sports cars, and high-limit credit cards. If you are identified as coming from a college-town zip code, you may be served ads for beer and textbooks. I really don't think this is something for any of us to worry about...
Doesn't matter; you know that whatever your profile, 95% of the ads targeted at you will be for pr0n.
Help save the critically endangered Blue Iguana
I suppose to be fair, online radio is useful if you follow a certain station for some reason or live somewhere totally isolated, but for the masses, it seems like extra baggage.
On what Age, Sex and Zip I report to them. Anyone know what type of ads you'll hear if you put yourself down as a transgenre 70 year old from Northern Alaska?
Seriously here, the data is only as good as you tell them.
III.IIVIVIXIIVIVIIIVVIIIIXVIIIXIIIIIIIIVIIIIVVIII
Clearchannel doesn't even use local DJ's half the time...and their 200 stations are all using pretty much the same payola inspired playlists, so now we can have lots of crap on the internet that sounds exactly the same as the crap everywhere else.
You want innovation? go to www.radiok.org - Real college radio. Screw corporate radio and their crap once and for all.
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ah honey, we're all resplendent - Bill Mallonee
Why not go one better and let you select the categories of ads you want to see (like you can do for some online advertising agencies)? Ad agencies are making a big deal about how to determine the ads I want to see.
Why not just ask me?
If it means I wouldn't have to listen to ads for breast enhancement drugs, proescription drugs over the phone, sports games that I really couldn't care less about, etc., I'd be quite willing to tell them what I'd rather see, and what I would be more likely to buy.
think they can get that from my age, sex and ZIP?
Here's the ads they can provide:
if male:
under 13: can't show any ads
13-17: local resellers of Sports Illustrated, Swimsuit Edition
18-30: local bars
31-40: local strip joints
41-60: the mall (to take your wife)
60-80: local golf courses
80+: local cemetaries
for females:
all ages: local malls