Magicians, advertisers or both?

In this video Dr. Johanna Blakley argues that the typical demographics used by media companies to track our likes and dislikes are slowly ceasing to matter. Advertising and media companies like to categorize, or compartmentalize you. This helps them assume what your likes and dislikes are going to be. For example if you are a 10-year-old girl, in a middle class family, in the US it is likely that you are going to be a fan of Justin Bieber (this could also hold true for their mothers).  But, the Internet and social media sites have made it easier for people to branch out and take an interest in new hobbies or ideas. Our tastes are can no longer be presumed by advertising companies, so they have started to monitor which sites we visit to try to figure out our interests. While this can be more difficult because they can’t know your age or gender for sure, they can get to know what interests you.

So, advertisers have turned to “taste communities” to find out more information on where the people’s interests lie. Through these communities they are able to acquire information on what interests have linked these seemingly random people together and also what other interests they have. As Hank Wasiak explains in his blog about a second “disruption” in advertising (the first being television) it becomes less about “we the people” and has transformed into “me the people”. Meaning that advertising needs to be individualized. Bob MacDonald, CEO of Procter and Gamble, explains the reach of this new era of advertizing.

“What I would like to have is a one-on-one relationship with seven billion people in the world and be able to customize offerings for those seven million people. Digital [advertising] allows that relationship.”

This change in advertising will force them to master the art of listening, or as Hank puts it, “grow bigger ears”.  Advertisers will also have to immerse themselves in these social circles in order to get a clear picture of whom they are working with and to completely understand their culture.

Instead of looking at this change in advertising as a loss of demographics and the way it used to be done, it is more important to embrace the change accept the challenge and meet it head on. Hank ends his blog with this quote:

“An idea can turn to dust or magic depending upon the talent that rubs against it. Now is the time to be magicians.”