Whenever I was browsing YouTube or Instagram, I always found it odd that it seemed like many of the ads shown appealed directly to my personal interests. While there have always been ads that completely do not apply to my interests at all, a majority of them have at least one aspect of them that seems to connect directly to the types of things I personally enjoy (especially those I searched about online). I did not think too closely about these ads until I watched the film "The Persuaders" and realized that I was most likely a victim of datamining.
The advertisements I receive online all have extremely obvious correlations to the things I search for. I frequently see ads for video games and movies online because those are the types of things I tend to watch videos and read articles about the most. Moreover, the ads I get typically tend to be from companies that I read about more frequently, like Disney and Nintendo. As a result, it is clear that companies are aware of my interests at all times, and target me as a result of them.
An interesting facet to my experiences with datamining is that despite my apparent interest in the products, I almost never pay any attention to the ads, and skip them as soon as I can. I believe a major element of this is that when the products being advertised are ones that I am already interested in, I do not need additional advertising to "sell" me on the product. Often, the ads I pay the most attention to are actually those that I know nothing about. This shows that the strategy of datamining can be somewhat flawed, since targeting consumers that you know will respond well to your advertising is less effective at bringing in new customers than targeting completely new demographics. Nevertheless, the repetition of advertising relating to things I am already interested in likely still has an effect on my purchasing decisions, even if I am not consciously aware of it.
Overall, while the strategy of datamining is extremely apparent in my everyday life, I find the results of it less effective than many corporations would believe. From the perspective of an adult, who has less free time to research things relating to their interests, datamining would be a highly potent strategy to force-feed consumers with advertising they will certainly respond well to. However, as a teenager, datamining is simply not as effective because I have the free time to "break through the clutter" of constant advertising on my own, so I do not need companies to attempt to do it for me.
The advertisements I receive online all have extremely obvious correlations to the things I search for. I frequently see ads for video games and movies online because those are the types of things I tend to watch videos and read articles about the most. Moreover, the ads I get typically tend to be from companies that I read about more frequently, like Disney and Nintendo. As a result, it is clear that companies are aware of my interests at all times, and target me as a result of them.
An interesting facet to my experiences with datamining is that despite my apparent interest in the products, I almost never pay any attention to the ads, and skip them as soon as I can. I believe a major element of this is that when the products being advertised are ones that I am already interested in, I do not need additional advertising to "sell" me on the product. Often, the ads I pay the most attention to are actually those that I know nothing about. This shows that the strategy of datamining can be somewhat flawed, since targeting consumers that you know will respond well to your advertising is less effective at bringing in new customers than targeting completely new demographics. Nevertheless, the repetition of advertising relating to things I am already interested in likely still has an effect on my purchasing decisions, even if I am not consciously aware of it.
Overall, while the strategy of datamining is extremely apparent in my everyday life, I find the results of it less effective than many corporations would believe. From the perspective of an adult, who has less free time to research things relating to their interests, datamining would be a highly potent strategy to force-feed consumers with advertising they will certainly respond well to. However, as a teenager, datamining is simply not as effective because I have the free time to "break through the clutter" of constant advertising on my own, so I do not need companies to attempt to do it for me.
Hi Jackson! I haven't thought about datamining in that way, but now that you bring it up, it makes a lot of sense. I definitely agree with what your'e saying. However, do you think that one of the reasons we skip over the ads is that we've already seen them and are familiar to them? Maybe if companies published advertisements that relate to our interests but are entirely new, they would have more success.
ReplyDeleteThat definitely makes a lot of sense, and I think it would be a really useful tactic for companies to use more often. I think it would be an effective way to get consumers to develop a deeper sense of brand loyalty, because it would make people aware of a wider variety of products from the same brand that still apply to their interests.
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