the uncanny valley of relationship marketing

I've sort of written about this in Campaign (over here) but I don't think I quite got what I meant. So here's another version.

One of the perpetual interactive marketing memes is the idea that somehow, one day, we'll make marketing that's so relevant and so well targeted that it'll stop being advertising and become pure and delightful information. This idea has been re-ignited by the advertising plans of the various social networks; using what they know about their users to enable more effective targeting.

I've always just assumed this was true. This was going to happen. Bound to, it makes so much sense. But then, this evening, I had another thought. Because there are some prototypes for this kind of activity already knocking around. And they're working really, really badly.

Here's what I was thinking:

For this super-target advertising idea to work you need to know a lot about the individual you're talking to. You need to know their interests. What they do. What they buy. What they like and don't like.

The kind of information you might get from a blog. That might be the kind of rich but unstructured information you'd be hoping to mine.

And, if it's going to work, it's presumably going to work best for high-cost, high-specificity items. Things that it's worth spending some effort on marketing to exactly the right person, in exactly the right way. So not baked beans. But maybe high-end technology or services like conferences.

I think you might have worked out where I'm going.

Because it strikes me, that, if this perfect marketing-disappearing-itself stuff is going to happen it should be emerging in the interactions between people who've shared a lot of information about themselves and people who have a lot of interest in reaching them effectively. It should be happening in 'blogger outreach'. And is that going well? No, it's not.

There's a lot of information about me on this blog. I get lots of emails about conferences I'm going to want to attend, new advertising I'm going to love, and new websites I definitely need to check out. And is this stuff transmuting from spam into information as I share more and more information about myself? No. It's not. Because most (not all, I do have to emphasise not all) of the people emailing me cannot be arsed to think, for one second, about who they're emailing. It's mostly just spam.

And, what's both worse and more interesting is that the people who can be arsed to do a little bit of research send even more annoying and frustrating emails. They plunge into a kind of direct marketing uncanny valley where the more desperately they try to personalise their message the more I'm reminded that they're not really my friend. The more 'personal' information they utilise the more it freaks me out. (But again, not always, and maybe it's in the 'not always' where salvation lies, but I doubt it.)

And this is a person doing this, not an algorithm. This is someone who's going to email maybe 1000 people about their conference or website or whatever. They've got common sense. They can read my blog and understand it. (To the extent that anyone can.) And they're mostly delivering pointless spam. And yet it seems we think that we're clever enough to write genius marketing software that will analyze social network profiles, deduce what folk are interested in and create such targeted and relevant communications that people will be delighted to click on them because they're overwhelmed with their percipience and utility. I'm not sure that'll happen. I suspect we're going to get flashing, dancing, animated equivalents of the mis-spelt welcome message you get on your hotel TV when you check in.

Comments

[John Dodds]

As I blogged on friday after going to a discussion about just this subject - social media is too much like hard work for the people sending the messages especially when they're driven by goals that emphasise coverage rather than impact.

[charlie cochrane]

We can easily tell the difference between a 'personalised' mass communication and a truly personal communication like a letter. If some stranger sends me an interesting one-to-one personal letter where they have grokked what I am about and are offering me something relevant, I can recognise that and that's great. But I suspect pseudo personalised messages based on filling in the blanks don't get past our highly developed inbuilt personal spam filters

[Ani]

A hilarious and well-written example of this:

http://www.unreliablewitness.com/2007/11/12/sex-sells-but-it-doesnt-spell/

I think the reason there is demand for this type of marketing software is so people like Chris don't have to waste time thinking.

[Seni Thomas]

The Holy Land where ads cease to be ads can only be reached if the ads are providing more utility than they are interrupting or distracting.

This is a central point in the debate between better demographic targeting and increased intent based relevance. Ads provide the greatest utility when placed in a location where I am seeking out relevant information such as in search; however, if you tap in the Facebook SocialAds network with all my demo info and target beer ads to me when I am searching for an apartment to rent, it really doesn't matter how much I may like beer. We need to seek out systems that marry these two components in a mutually beneficial manner.

Cheers,

Seni

[Asi]

this is just so damn right....the analogy to the "personalisd" emails you get is absolutely spot on.

But hey - marketing in general, and advertising in particular, have always been, well...spam! whether it's outdoor, to indoor, to radio to TV when the content is irrelevant to me- i will perceive it as spam.

The bluff of the new facebook ad system will be revealed soon as brands rush to shout their messages on facebook like flies to... (fill in your own) and people will get highly annoyed by the intrusion.

Search, was, and still is the holy-grail and I just cannot see this simplicity of matching interested individual with a marketing message taking place on social platform were people mostly want to hang-out...

[tom martin]

You make a great point -- that this personalized marketing will only happen with big ticket items, those worth the work. But even then, I think it will quite a while before it really happens. The truth is that marketers for the most part (and I am one so I think it ok to say this) really just don't want to work that hard. Everyone wants the simple, silver bullet -- punch in some inputs and get some outputs type of marketing strategy/execution.

It is hard to do the time consuming and disciplined analysis and documentation to create a truly personalized approach. Easier to just buy some ads and then moan on about half of them are wasted..yadda yadda.

But for those that invest the time or build the tools, the pot of gold will be at the end of that rainbow. No doubt about it.

[Steve C]

Despite most bloggers having a very high opinion of their reach, most have traffic numbers so low that to effect any kind of buzz, you HAVE to write those outreach emails to a 1000 or more. Even if you get stories blogged about on a high profile blog like Techcrunch or Mashable, you still have to write another few hundred blogs to get enough linkage to even slightly move the needle on a campaign.

The blogosphere as a whole is incredibly influential, but individual blogs, not so much, except within their own echo chamber, and no offense to you or your readers, of which I am one.

[Gary]

I fear that the problem here is that what you're looking for is not "marketing", it's actually "sales" (and probably one-to-one sales at that). Sales as a commercial function (especially when big ticket items are involved) has necessarily different objectives, costs, chances of closing, etc vs marketing. This probably means the medium needs to be used differently with possibly a different context to the dialogue?

[jen_chan, writer MemberSpeed.com]

Ever since I started blogging more actively, I've been getting more spam mail than before. It's not to say I get a lot but I never used to receive any in the first place. Anyway, I think you nailed that part about personalization perfectly. The more they try to personalize their message, the less genuine it all seems.

[Rebecca Caroe]

Yup, right again. There are two types of web / digital media site out there:
1. those for marketing and 2. the REAL WEB.

Your conversations belong in the latter.

http://caroe.typepad.com/rebecca_caroe/2007/11/digital---new-o.html