Hi Doc
Another day and another vote by a mega-Co for more use of contextual marketing. This time it is American Express that has decided to move 100% of its digital marketing to a programatic, real-time bidding model; where algorithms in effect use data about customers to bid for the right to serve a single ad, to a single customer, looking at a single website, at a single moment in time.
http://wallblog.co.uk/2014/06/06/the-implications-of-american-express-going-100-programmatic/#ixzz347NkMSmh
As mega-Cos evolve from traditional advertising through direct marketing and digital display towards contextual marketing, their insights about customer behaviour and their ability to serve marketing micro-interactions to them increases hugely. The more contextual information a mega-Co has about its customers the more they can accurately imply what the customer is trying to do at that moment in time. If they can more accurately predict the customer's behaviour over the next few seconds or minutes they can target just those customers with micro-interactions that make sense for the customers as well as for marketers. Contrary to popular opinion, no marketer wants to market to customers who are not interested in their wares.
As contextual marketing's accuracy improves and its cost decreases, the incentive for mega-Cos to think about MeCommerce with all its built-in inefficiencies quickly falls to zero. Why would a marketer plump for a MeCommerce model where they mighht give-up the right to interact with any customer they thought might be a good fit for their wares, where the number of potential customers would likely be much smaller and where there is no guarantee the customers would even be profitable. It would be commercial suicide!
I have yet to see a general, viable, economic model for MeCommerce that a marketer couldn't pick apart in a few minutes. Isn't it time that one was laid out in this forum?
Best regards fron Edinburgh, Graham
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Dr. Graham Hill
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Partner
Optima Partners
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Senior Associate
Nyras Capital
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