Television 2.0
Currently, TV is a very imprecise medium. Take American Idol for example. 48% of viewers are aged between 18 and 49 (according to Jaffe Juice). 52% are not. The audience for this show - which is highly coveted by advertisers - is more or less as diverse as the population itself. This is great for mass marketers, they get to speak to lots of people. But it’s difficult to think of anyone who wants to speak to everyone. Only a very small handful do.
This is bad for both advertisers and consumers. Advertisers, because they have to pay to show their ad to customers who aren’t in their target audience in order to get to those who are. Consumers, because they have to watch ads they have absolutely no interest in.
So what if advertisers were able to show their ads to only their target audience? In the past, this hasn’t been possible, but technology is catching up. What if, instead of tuning into a broadcast TV channel, you could go into a menu, and select whatever show you wanted to watch, when you wanted to watch it? Then, based on your geodemographics, psychographics, purchase habits, interests, and so on, a small number of highly targeted ads were shown to you prior to and during the show.
The number of ads you had to view would be a lot smaller, since you wouldn’t be watching the ads that weren’t relevant. Therefore, the ones that you were shown would have more impact, because there would be less clutter.
The technology is here, it just needs to be implemented.
