The future of targeting
2009 is going to be a year of introspection for the interactive marketing industry. The latest budget forecasts -- or lack thereof, I should say -- will keep marketers at their respective drawing boards longer than usual to make sure every aspect of a campaign is creative, effective, and will ultimately contribute to a client's bottom line. To compensate for budgetary restrictions, advertisers will have to extend their creativity and think beyond the obvious solutions to provide clients with results. It is in this atmosphere that I think some of the best projects will materialize because advertisers will be forced to create nonconventional, less standardized marketing executions than we might otherwise see in times with bountiful budgets.
When it comes to online ad targeting, marketers already have a firm grasp of effective tactics that can serve as a springboard from which out-of-the-box campaigns evolve. Making the most of available technologies, advertisers can build on what they already know to be effective and add in a little ingenuity to deliver relevant, novel advertisements to only the most viable users. In the coming years, I believe that robust and sophisticated targeting techniques will be an integral part of holistic digital campaigns.
The possibilities outlined in this article are a few directions that I foresee ad targeting moving. Some are more easily implemented than others, but all in all, ad targeting has the potential to become more sophisticated and reach users in unexpected ways.
