Two steps ahead

Following up on the last post, if it is indeed possible to include advertising in any format that conveys information, then the baseline delivery model becomes contextual-centric. Regardless of what you’re looking at, information from relevant vendors can be served up as part of your information experience. The key to acceptance by the end-user is (as mentioned previously) relevance, and for the most part relevance is defined by whatever information is under consideration at the time the “ad” is created and delivered. The real trick, however, would be to not only deliver a relevant experience, but actually anticipate the end-users likely requirements before they know it themselves. Is this even possible? I think so.

How can you know what an end-user is likely to be interested in, separate from the information they are already examining? Predictive analytics applied to consumer behavior has always been an interesting area to play in; combining psychometric profiling data with the vast array of behavioral tracking software that most users slog through every time they step on-line puts vendors in an ideal position to know what the end-user is likely to want, even before they know it themselves. Sounds far fetched? Several years ago I ran marketing for a start-up that had developed a predictive algorithm specifically geared towards consumer behavior, and it was stunningly accurate. Our focus at the time was geared towards on-line direct marketing, but these models are still in play, and can just as easily be adapted to on-the-fly rich media deliverables. Instead of just reacting quickly and accurately (the current state of the art), you can actually be two steps ahead of your customer. All the pieces are floating around in disparate applications; they just need to be pulled together and focused on the right opportunity.