Targeting Tools Help Personalize TV Advertising 60
schwit1 writes: Surgical marketing messages are taken for granted on the Internet. Yet, they are just now finding their way onto television, where the audience is big though harder to target. As brands shift more of their spending to the Web where ads are more precise, the TV industry is pushing back. Using data from cable set-top boxes that track TV viewing, credit cards and other sources, media companies including Comcast's NBCUniversal, Time Warner's Turner, and Viacom are trying to compete with Web giants like Google and Facebook and help marketers target their messages to the right audience. Where can I get adblock for my FiOS?
AdBlock (Score:5, Interesting)
Where can I get adblock for my FiOS?
BitTorrent.
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For those that don't feel that they can turn off the TV, just record everything and watch it on time-delay, skipping ahead when the commercials come on.
We've been nursing-along a CRT TV for some time now, in part because I have a widescreen HD tube. Unfortunately even the HD tube lacks an ATSC tuner, so we've used one of the coupon-boxes from several years ago to tune to receive. The ATSC tuner has finally died its final death after having had its capacitors replaced twice- we really haven't mis
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" Still have a computer hooked up to the TV and can watch things that we choose to watch, but no more planning life around the TV schedule."
Exactly my way of doing it as well. I selected the shows I wan to watch in http://showrss.info/ [showrss.info] and utorrent downloads them automatically.
All without any ads.
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But that makes you a vile thief who should be tortured and executed. It is markets' God-given right to force us to consume maximum levels of advertising, and if you try to evade it, it makes a traitor to capitalism, and Baby Jesus wants to shove sharp metal objects up your ass.
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Also, I'll have you know that I go to sleep at night with a big smile on my face knowing that somewhere in the world, there are television advertisers gnashing their teeth in their sleep because they know that someone like me with a TiVo DVR with 30-second skip turned on is just going blip-blip-blip past all their skeezy little commercials, and right back to the program I want to watch. Also I have an antenna on the roof for OTA broadcast reception, so I pay nothing, nada, zip,
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Also, they're slitting their own throats, then, because even if I didn't have a DVR that could skip through commercials, if I had to watch shows live when they're broadcast, I'd still mute commercials and do something else during them anyway. Or I'd have a VCR still and I'd be fast-forwarding through them. Cancelling all the shows I like because I don't watch the commercials would just turn me off to TV co
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Okay.. but how can they even tell what I'm watching or not watching? I don't participate in any polls.
That's the miracle of statistics. Using that as a crystal ball they never can be completely sure what you watch, but with enough people sharing your age/sex/education/background answering polls, they can be confident enough.
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That's pretty old school. You're paying to have your ads watched. period. measuring if the program is watched was the only way to estimate if your ads are watched until rates would be measured down to seconds resolution. Bur of these two numbers are not unrelated.
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It is markets' God-given right to force us to consume maximum levels of advertising,
Nobody is being "forced". If you don't like it, turn off the TV. Also, this isn't about maximizing the amount of advertising, but about maximizing the effectiveness, by showing you ads for things they predict you will be interested in. If the predictions are accurate, then this is a GOOD THING, and I look forward to plenty of ads featuring scantily clad women demonstrating machine tools (Note to Comcast: I need a new lathe).
HBO (Score:2)
HBO
It becomes official... (Score:2)
"Thank you for calling "target services" how may I help you
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The term is "consumer." But what baffles me is how does one "consume" a stream of bits?
One byte at a time?
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Isn't the more common parlance "marks?" You're the mark! Err, Customer!
The polite term is subscriber. Doesn't indicate as much about the direction of the transaction.
here's the "money" quote: (Score:2)
If the really want to add value for advertisers... (Score:2)
You don't even need to target me. Just let me choose between multiple commercial streams.
For example, when I am watching a football game with my son, give me a way to not be subjected to Viagra, Video Games, and Violent, Scary, or sexually suggestive movie trailers.
I'm not gonna buy a video game or go to a movie anyhow. And I don't need Viagra (yet). Give me the choice of a G-Rated stream where I feel like I have to cover his eyes and mute the sound.
Re:If the really want to add value for advertisers (Score:5, Funny)
And I don't need Viagra (yet).
Apprehension: The first time you can't do it a second time.
Panic: The second time you can't do it the first time.
No thanks! (Score:3)
Yes they are, and that why we block all of them.
If you want to advertise to me - FUCK YOU, I don't want any of that.
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The funny thing about targeted advertising is that I search for things I know nothing about, rather than things I'm interested in. So I get advertisements based on this or that which is related to something someone mentioned and I had no clue about until I googled it. The things I do have an interest in, I find information about from specific sources. Although, when it THINKS it knows what you're interested in, provides those ads as a replacement to one of the "one weird trick" ads. Oh, and as soon as w
Pay to veiw programs (Score:2)
IIRC these boxes were sold to us on the grounds that if we are paying for the services then we don't have commercials on them. Essentially we are paying to watch advertisements. Personally, I rarely watch TV anymore, I just can't stand watching commercials.
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Oh and now it looks like they're throwing in extra privacy-invasion technology.
So I have to ask again: what exactly am I paying for?
This is what you are paying for.
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Cable TV service was sold on those grounds. Set top boxes, however, were foisted upon us even through they provide exactly zero benefit to anybody but the Cable Cartel. It used to be that almost every TV sold was "cable ready," which means you just plugged the coax into the back of it and it Just Worked. Or you plugged the coax into your VCR or DVR or computer TV tuner card or whatev
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That only counts on about 5 channels. CBS, ABC, NBC, Fox, PBS. The other 180 brazillion channels...fair game. Tits away.
This could never go wrong (Score:3)
An interesting question arises. (Score:2)
What happens if personal advertising gets so good that some people are known to be not worth advertising to?
Surgical? (Score:3)
Surgical marketing messages are taken for granted on the Internet
This is quite startling news - I have never seen the word "surgical" used to mean "clumsy, useless". Novel, I grant.