Personalized advertisements have been one of the most popular speculations for the future of marketing and advertising. They have been shown in web-series and have been the talk of the digi-town for quite a while now. But in the past two weeks, what was deemed to be the “future” has been drawn closer to reality.
Mondelez India’s Diwali campaign, “Not Just a Cadbury Ad”, took the internet by storm just a week before the festival for two reasons — first, that it advertised for local businesses as well and second for the pathbreaking technology it used. With the names of the local stores being advertised changing based on the viewers’ location, this has been a major breakthrough in the world of advertising and is the first example of a hyper-personalised ad. This has been made possible due to mobile devices that have access to our location and the internet that enabled the changing of the text (in the video) on the fly. The only offline parallel of this could have come from community radios but the human efforts that would have been required would have been manifold and highly time-specific.
This new technology, coupled with the data that we provide in the form of cookies or otherwise, could be a game-changer in the world of digital marketing for the marketers. We will, most likely see a shift from the traditional interest-based and demographic-based targeting to a very personalised for of targeting (probably even more personalised than Facebook and Google ads that are already very advanced owing to cookies). Here is how I think the scenario is likely to change:
- Defining the user types
It will no longer be enough to just define a broad group of consumers based on their demographics. Organizations will now have to paint a clear picture of exactly what their consumer looks like and how they behave. What do they do, which sites do they purchase from, what are their interests, what are their political alignments. Every digital move of the consumer pinned down – right from the first thing they click on after unlocking their devices, to the sites and pages they visit, the devices they do it from and the time at which they do so. - More than one target
While the brands will have to define their consumers in detail, it doesn’t necessarily mean a reduction in the size of their target audience. They will have to detail not just one type of consumer but several types of “ideal” customers. - Multiple USPs
Having different types of customers would mean that they would be attracted to different aspects of the same product. For example, the auto-mobile buff might be attracted to a car for it’s powerful engine whereas the conscientious one might be attracted to it because of it’s low environmental impact. Emphasizing on them separately would have a higher impact on the individuals. So, multiple consumers means having multiple USPs (Unique Selling Propositions) i.e., selling the same product to them for different reasons. - Flexible Content
As seen in the Cadbury Ad, the base video left enough room for the changes that were being made by the algorithm. The family could have been located anywhere in the country and the ad would still look equally convincing. If content has to be made around the space being kept vacant for AI-driven changes, the room for impactful visuals driving non-verbal communication might become a major hurdle.
These are only speculations on my part and I am no expert. Whether this really is the future of advertising is still to be decided and if it is, will the obstacles be the ones I mentioned? Only time will tell.
Here’s how the mechanism behind the campaign worked:
Footnote: I tried viewing this ad on YouTube (from Cadbury Celebrations’ channel) and it didn’t have the personalised version for me. So, you probably won’t be able to see it in the first embeded video either. This algorithm is only supported when it is seen as an advertisement and not as a video i.e. you can only see the magic if it is presented to you as a non/skippable Ad before/in-between/after another YouTube video.
Skepseis 
Great!!!!
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