This morning I listened to Terry O'Reilly on the Age of Persuasion which is a CBC radio show. Terry O'Reilly is an advertising man who's been making advertising for large companies. These ads go on TV and in newspapers and are kind of a shotgun approach. They try to make the ad catchy whether or not you want a product or not. So the people who buy nothing but a Honda are showered by ads for Fords, Chevs...
This morning's program explained that the big TV and newspaper advertising has suffered with competition from internet advertising. He explained how internet advertising operates.
A couple of months ago I was looking for a new Internet provider. I checked out Telus. Ever since then I've had an ad on my Face Book page for Telus. So it works like this. If I want a car and I check out car loans. I put in the exact car in order to get a loan quote. Let's say I want a Honda Accord. The next day I'm going to have an ad on my home page for a Honda Accord and it will be at a good price and they"ll even throw in the wheels! You are one of the few people who gets this ad along with other probable Honda Accord purchasers. Terry O'Reilly explained how this happens.
There are cookies that identify us. These are small bits of code. It operates much like a finger print. If the police have my finger print and find my finger print at a crime scene , they come to my house right away and say, "You're coming with us." They've matched the finger prints. Where ever we go on the Internet we leave traces. The places we go are picked up and matched to what we are interested in. So another computer program sends us the exact ad for something we are interested in.
When we shop on line we leave information about ourselves. When we travel we leave information with airlines, hotels etc. These people are often very willing to share or sell our information. So along the way a tremendous amount of information is collected on us. If we use our credit card at 2:00 AM in a casino , our rating for credit card payment could be suspect? If we stay at a five star hotel or if we chose economy hotel information is built up as to what our tastes are. So after a while the Internet knows more about me than my wife does.
So it's very easy electronically to focus ads to very specific customers. This is cheap as compared to TV or newspapers. There doesn't have to be a lot of money spent to design a catchy ad. Internet ads have a big bang for the buck as people are targeted and very little energy is wasted..
I listened to this today too, as did my friend. I love that show. My friends and I have fooled around on Facebook, putting random words in our posts and seeing how long it takes for the ads to catch up. Not long!!!
ReplyDeleteYou're pretty tricky! If I can't leave my age or birthday out I invent one. I learned that from my 14 year old nephews who on Face Book are Twenty four. I wonder when and if this stuff will come back to haunt us?
ReplyDeleteI see it happening everywhere.. the cell phone.. Amazon.ca tells me that there are sales on the items I looked at last Christmas.. even Gmail has ads about the topic of discussion between correspondent and me. Big Brother is here.
ReplyDeleteThis technology has brought Big Brother many steps closer.
Deleteit is definitely scary how much data we put out there every day.
ReplyDeleteyes we put out a lot of data and we don't realize it. They have a way of accumulating this data and being able to use it.
DeleteVery interesting post today, Red! It does feel a bit like big brother, doesn't it?
ReplyDeleteYou are not alone in the big brother label. You're in good company.
DeleteI've heard this show, too. I am of mixed thoughts. Sure, we want ads that appeal, and demographics are important. I'm going to miss newspapers, though! Loathe the pop-up ads!
ReplyDeleteI hope the internet news becomes much more complete than it is . However, I think once the newspaper disappears online news will become costly.
DeleteYou can delete your cookies if you want. I know some people who always do, like cleaning out the dust from under the bed. :-)
ReplyDeleteBut isn't much of the damage done even thought you delete cookies? I will have to do more homework on cookies.
DeleteBig brother is everywhere and rather frightening also.
ReplyDeleteLinda
http://coloradofarmlife.wordpress.com
http://deltacountyhistoricalsociety.wordpress.com
Lots of big brother comments.
DeleteGreat Post and I have done the same as Knatolee and played with words, to see how long before new ads come up. I know, once you go anywhere, they got Ya. Yep, we can always delete cookies, but they can be deleted forever. I DUST every shutdown.
ReplyDeleteMore people should be aware of what goes on. I wonder if we're going to roll over and accept this system of mining information on us?
ReplyDeleteHmmm! The wonders of the "so-called" technology age. You play around with them, and you pay. Seems some of your readers, "Bluey" have taken them on!
ReplyDeleteYou fiddle with them and you will regret the day you tried it. Just like the "telemarketers" who drive you mad.
However, here in Australia, you can have them stopped from pestering you. You can get your provider to put a stop on your telephone, no extra cost. Strange, but some people get a kick out of these unwanted phone calls, yet they still whinge. Weird!!!!
I actually didn't need a wall clock, these calls came at on the two hourly basis, and mostly from dear old Bangladore in India, from 8.00am till 6.00pm!
Until I found out that I could actually stop them, and depending on my mood of the day, I would play with them: Like what is your weather like, how is the cricket going etc.
That "nice" approach really threw them off - ha ha.
If in a bad mood, I would use the most profane of language, only to be advised that I should calm myself as they were only trying to assist me with eg: computer problems, financial advice!!!!!!!!!!!
Ah the technology age???? Sent to drive us to our graves, I believe I agree with my "old mate", Linda of Colorado on this one.
Cheers
Colin