A mini thread on why I think Personalization is a stupid goal in Advertising ( not Marketing)

1) A lot of ads work on creating a sense of scale. The larger the ads "feel", the more confident a brand seems to be about their future. As Rory Sutherland says, fisherian runaways etc.

2) A lot of ads work on shared culture. I need to know that the brand of bag I'm being shown in Vogue, will be a brand that other's see as expensive. I need to know that I'm part of the Peroni "club" and that other's know this.

3) Personalization so far doesn't work very well financially. Often the premium for even "relevance" is 5-15% and the uplift is typically <10%.

4) But biggest of all. We aim way beyond our means.See the data instagram has on you, its laughably precise and woefully wrong.Because people lie, we often have gender wrong, age is typically way off. We aim to be the guy at the party guessing our name, birthday & favorite food.

4b)The idea that even if you did happen to guess name, star sign and address perfectly, it would help isn't proven either.

I'm not sure why we can't be a sophisticated looking person at the party with nice body language who looks interesting, that came to to the right party.

5) The real goal of any marketer should be:
1st - avoid utter irrelevance.
2nd- to make wonderful creative.
3rd -to (depending on strategy, aim to reduce slight irrelevance)
4th - For SOME to Use sequential ads to be able to make increasingly relevant if people engage/or buy.

5b)
But more than anything else the word "personalization" is misleading in ads.We needed to "relevantize" at most, but primarily just make better ads and focus less on perfection and more on avoiding irrelevance.

6) And remember Marketing is different. I expect when logged in to bank to have personalization, I expect CRM to be personalized, my American Airlines homepage to be personalized. My Google results to Netflix page, but this is a different thing.

7)I've no idea why the digital shift has made us focus entirely on hoping to use the most sophisticated methodology/tech to place ads with absolute perfection( when not possible),attribute & optimize everything (when not possible), &serve terrible ads ( which are easy to improve)

8) Exhibit a- Ad tech is smart enough to know I looked for a used car and to place an ad within seconds, but not smart enough to know that nobody is either looking to spend $7,000 or $3m on a car or make an ad that is vaguely appealing

9) I honestly despair at an industry that seems so lost, so without vision, so shaped by "group think" based on nobody actually thinking. So guided by snake oil & Emperors new clothes and fear.

We repeat the mindless mantra of nonsense ad infinitum because we want to fit in.

10) My last tweet, some images based on feeling too discuss.
Every brand has their own correct "shape",