The online advertising industry is throwing rocks at our notions of consumer protection in the digital age. Don’t they realize a serious public debate about all this is required before they engage willy-nilly in advanced targeted?
Here’s an excerpt from WPP’s 24/7 April 28, 2008 release:”…announced that it is the first media network to deploy psychographic targeting through a partnership with Mindset Media, LLC. The new Mindset Buysâ„¢ will enable brand advertisers to target consumers with specific personality traits that drive buyer behavior and brand affinity across a broad range of consumer goods and services.Brand advertisers have long known that consumers’ states of mind can determine what they buy and what brands they choose, but advertisers have lacked an efficient way to target mass audiences of people with the right psychographics.
Now advertisers can make Mindset Buys on 20 different elements of personality, including creativity, assertiveness, self-esteem, and spontaneity. Each Mindset Buy on 24/7 Real Media can reach millions of U.S. consumers with the same personality trait, on a completely anonymous basis. The 24/7 network reaches 150 million unique viewers each month, across more than 1,500 sites globally…Psychographic targeting through Mindset Media represents the latest addition to 24/7’s advanced portfolio of targeting solutions, which also includes lifecycle management, search retargeting, geo-demographic, content, behavioral, retargeting and custom. Many of these can be combined to form an endless number of specific targeting options that can be delivered to any digital medium.”
From Mindset: “Our proprietary table of elements makes Mindset targeting possible. The table comprises 20 personality traits that drive buyer behavior and brand affinity across a broad range of consumer goods and services, from beauty care to banking, cars to credit cards, food to pharmaceuticals.”
Update: DM News quotes a 24/7 and a Mindset exec.: “[S]imply put, it’s the ability to target individuals based on what makes them themselves,†said Ari Bluman, SVP of North American sales and operations for 24/7 Real Media. “From a direct marketing perspective, obviously being in front of the right audience that buys a product or is moved by a message is essential,†he said…Mindset Media has identified 20 different elements of personality, which include assertiveness, openness, spontaneity and pragmatism…The goal is to create mass audiences of people who tend to have the same personality type, [Jim] Meyer [CEO and co-founder of Mindset Media] said.
