Aaaaahhhhh, my eyes!

I'm not in the business degrading people and business models, as a matter of fact I believe that one of the beauties of democracy and capitalism is that they give people the freedom to explore their own visions. That being said, democracy and free speech also give us the right to disagree with, and verbally challenge anything that is not in keeping with our vision.

And since this publication is dedicated to companies and technologies that seek to put individuals in charge of their marketing and advertising, it has to also be dedicated to companies and technologies that are not. So I present to you a company called Aap! (http://www.aapglobal.com/aaprails.php)

A very apropos name in my opinion - it must have been derived from the noise that initialy comes from the mouth of the individual faced with this company's advertising solution. Or maybe it is more of an "aaaaaaaaaaaaahhhh!"

Can this really be the direction we are travelling? Compare this to the solutions and technologies in my previous post from trendwatching.com...

I have to make a plea to those advocating these types of advertising solutions, please, let's not clutter our world any more than it has to be cluttered. It is already cluttered enough. Let's invest our time and energy in solutions that simplify, streamline and beautify.

I like to think that, in the end, the individual will dictate what works and what doesn't work for them. But there are instances when the owners of certain real estate assets or any other asset visible to the public for that matter will take advantage of their space and cash in for a quick buck.

Instead of looking toward these solutions, let's create a long term plan and integrate solutions that work for everyone involved. In the long run it will be cheaper than installing and then un-installing those escalator handrails because you have so many customer complaints...

Is tracking lacking?

So I read today about Claria reinventing and repackaging their services into a product and service called PersonalWeb. The article, from Online Spin's Mark Naples goes onto detail:

"Users that begin with a straightforward page that delivers news headlines would add new areas of content fed to them dynamically and updated on the fly based on their browsing habits. These smart algorithms would, in turn, inform an ad-serving management system that would leverage the same kind of predefined taxonomy to discern which ads or promotions made the most sense to send these users and at which time. Think contextual and behavioral ad serving rolled into one--with no personally identifiable information ever collected, no pop-ups, and no system-slowing software downloaded--very similar to, but significantly different from, Claria's former model."

So even though this model seems to be an improvement on the adware model, does it fundamentally make sense to create a model based on following people around and tracking their behavior? Am I missing something here or does the individual really want ads and content served to him/her based on web surfing behavior?

I have to believe that individuals know what they want and unless they are in an inquisitive state (i.e. doing a search), they dont want anything "related" to what they really desire.

Look at the latest publication by the people at Trendwatching.com:

http://www.trendwatching.com/briefing/

The entire second section of the issue is dedicated to mobile technologies that are enabling people to connect directly with the exact things that they want...via their mobile phones.

Let's focus our efforts (and our investment dollars) on technologies and businesses that connect, that are "individual-centric", and cater to the wants and needs of the individual. I am no longer a demographic or a target audience or even a psychographic. I am an individual and I know what I want, and companies and technologies that cater to those needs will both deliver our future and thrive at the same time.