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Advertising of the Future, Already Here
prostoalex writes "Did Stephen Spielberg predict the future of advertising, when in Minority Report the relevant ads were delivered by retina scanner, which could then personalize any message? August issue of Inc. magazine takes a look at future of advertising and who's offering advanced technologies today. Internet search engines and helpful utilities from companies like Claria already know a lot about your shopping and browsing habits. Combine that with advanced tech from TV viewership tracker Nielsen and large nationwide databases like Experian, and the advertising messages of the future could get extremely personal."
At Taco posting an article about intrusive ads. The future is here, it's the Slashvertisement (TM). Oh, the humanity.
Well, as a non-female entity, if I don't have to see any more Stayfree ads, I'll take that as a positive.
Leela: Didn't you have ads in the 21st century?" Fry: Well sure, but not in our dreams. Only on TV and radio, and in magazines, and movies, and at ball games... and on buses and milk cartons and t-shirts, and bananas and written on the sky. But not in dreams, no siree.
Yes, but what if by getting that implant you can have a screen/pc with you at all times, even connected to the net? It's the same as the internet or any other medium, you're using it because it's very useful but the ads are still annoying.
Send email from the afterlife! Write your e-will at Dead Man's Switch.
Helpful is in the eye of the beholder, I suppose. Helping your PC crash is one thing Gator's stuff is known for.
The determined Real Programmer can write Fortran programs in any language.
Just to give credit where it's due, it's probably more accurate to say that Philip K. Dick foresaw this advertising, as it or something similar appears not only in his short story Minority Report, but throughout his fiction.
I happen to be a young ad exec (not to mention a privacy nut, avid slashdot reader, gamer, geek, etc) and I'm really getting tired of people not understanding our industry.
Are there sleezy advertising people? HELL YES! Is it the vast majority of them? HELL NO! You see, there is this interesting phenomenon where people tend to only remember negative experiences over positive ones, and then make generalizations that most are bad.
And guess what, this is true of ANY industry. Software development? Yup, you got your sleezeballs there too, but you wouldn't say the vast majority are that way. (Or would you?)
What really pisses me off is that everybody assumes that our goal is to just annoy you and grab your attention in any way possible. Attention Slashdotters: We Are Not Idiots! (All of us at least. We know damn well that if we are advtertising a product to privacy advocate geeks, we will not win them over with a popup that says "based on your previous purchases of viagra from www.biggerpenis.com....". But the truth is that often times the advertising us geeks find offense with is not targeted at us at all, and in fact the target audience has no problem whatsoever with it.
New technologies will continue to be developed to target more accurately because that generates better results. I repeat: IT GENERATES BETTER RESULTS! This means that due to it being targeted better, people are buying more! We are not holding a gun to their heads saying they have to buy, we inform them of the product (and yes, some do it less truthfully than others, I will not lie about that)and they make the decision to buy.
I also want to comment about a new form of advertising many of you most likely participate in. Viral advertising. All those cool video clips that companies put out, all those funny websites like CoqRock.com, or Subservient Chicken, all of these get passed on by people like you because you find them interesting, clever, and entertaining. THAT is the goal of most advertising agencies. Believe it or not, we LIKE making good ads that people like. New technology lets us do this in different ways.
So in summary, I'm not saying there isn't a dark side to our industry (like every single other friggin industry in existence), I'm just saying that everybody seems to focus on the bad and ignore the good. If people want some proof that good advertising exists, check out the Cannes Lion Awards. They have videos of all the winners, and I'm sure most Slashdotters would approve.
Buy Steampunk Clothing Online!
I'm already getting those personalized ads via e-mail! I mean, how did they know I'm up to my eyes in debt with a small, flacid penis and looking for hot horny teen girls?
I might know what I'm talkin' about, but then again, this is Slashdot...
Hello, I am your digital shopping assistant! I saw that you were looking at some of our trousers - may I help you with that? I think you would like these, kind of like in that porn that you watched yesterday. Or these, maybe? The extra air might help you get rid of that fungus thing that I found in your medical record.
Just block ads outright. I keep an updated hosts file of ad servers here. The whole situation with flash ads, firefox proof pop-ups, etc is getting ridiculous. Funny, I've been blocking ads for years yet I still buy stuff.
It's not Spielberg who invented it, but Philip K. Dick. You can read something about it in its novel
"Sales Pitch", written in 1953.
All Speilberg did was buy the rights to a story written 30 years ago - by arguably the most visionary writer in this century - Philip K Dick.
;}
Even other amazing writers like William Gibson and Neal Stephenson are simply extrapolating the futuristic vision as envisioned by PKD way before their time.
Beginning with Blade Runner, Total Recall, etc PKD's books have become the foundation of 'futuristic' sci-fi/cyberpunk movies as Hollywood continues to realize it has no creative vision whatsoever...
However, the more people that become aware of PKD's amazing writing and vision, the better
Also check out the upcoming 'Scanner Darkly' by Linklater - it's another PKD story gone movie coming out soon...
Gekido's Lair
As much as I agree with the general sentiment of this thread about marketing (which I frequently get sick of), there are times where I actually appreciate it. I don't like marketing and advertising that's in my face, and I don't like marketing that lies to me. But some marketing material is just out there to be informative for people who want it and ask for it, without being in anyone's face.
Better results for me means being fully informed about all the relevant options I have, at a time and level of detail of my choosing. This is also a type of marketing, and it's one that I respect. I do know some marketing people who focus on this goal, and I appreciate it.
I actually like the way that the shoe salesman walks up to sell me a shoe when I walk in. I really have no idea what I want and it's not a decision I want to make. What I care about is trusting the guy to sell me something that works, and that's what will get me to come back again and again. That's also marketing. The guy's job relies on him selling lots of shoes, but he knows that his best approach is just to be honest with people. (and to chat, and joke, and so on.)
I also quite like the way that Amazon suggests books for me to read. It's only there when I ask for it, it often offers good suggestions, and every so often they might get a sale out of it. That's the type of marketing that I like.