Advertising, ad campaigns, ad agencies, and the people that make it happen

A report, just out... “Behavioral Targeting: Advertising Gets Personal” forecasts that U.S. spending on behaviorally targeted online advertising will reach $1 billion in 2008, from the current level of $575 million. By 2011 that figure will almost quadruple to $3.8 billion. You don't have to be a brain surgeon to agree that this is going to happen. Behavioral targeting allows you to reach  a more engaged audience with fewer ad impressions. Then there’s the increased relevance of the ads to the Internet user which, in turn, promotes action and finally the ability to monetize “long tail” pages. All of this relies on the collection of user data through cookies, which can have certain drawbacks as not everyone is happy about having their supposedly "confidential" information mined so easily. Anyway, it's increasingly happening, which is just one more nail in the coffin lid of traditional advertising.

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R.I.P.