The Machines vs. the Humans: The next marketing tech breakthrough? Putting the customer in control
Online advertising and all of the ad tech supporting it is certainly under the microscope these days. And it is not just the rise in ad blocking driving the scrutiny. There is a fundamental shift of online behavior going on with the almost visceral rejection and distrust of anything that is too “commercial.” And if it is interruptive, then just the state of being interruptive is in itself an offense. Programmatic doesn’t solve this dilemma. Putting the customer in control does.
Everything a marketer does should be put through this filter. Everything. Advertising as we know it today can no longer be the core strategy. Paid media needs to be just one part of the mix in the core effort, which is about providing content experiences that drive enough value that earned channels, and the content itself, can provide the return on investment. Paid media? Well, that should just be the icing on the cake. Not the cake itself.
