In a new customer experience survey by InMoment, 75% of consumers reported finding most forms of personalization at least somewhat “creepy”. As you’re allocating your digital spend, ask yourself, “do I want to come off as at least somewhat creepy?”. This should help guide your allocation.
What Is strange is that the SVP of InMoment, Brennan Wilkie, then turned around and said “Today’s consumers are savvy, they want to be included in decisions, they want transparency, and they want real value in exchange for sharing personal information or spending their money.” So he is chalking up that uncomfortable suspicion that we are being watched to “not enough value” in the contract; as if sharing personal information will feel less creepy if we get more out of it. First of all that sounds crazy to me. But even if it’s true, what possible value can an advertiser bring into my life? What, the perfect ad? You have to be insane to believe that people care this much about advertising. Imagine the day you open up your laptop and BAM! Right there in your face is the perfect ad. It’s tailored specially for you; the exact colors you like, your favorite song, contextually relevant and touches a nerve like no other ad you’ve ever seen. AND, the product Rocks your world. You had no idea your life could improve so exponentially due to its existence. You drop everything and run to the closest location provided to you and make the purchase. At the store you thank the salesperson by giving them the keys to your house, every password to every device, social security and bank account number… I mean, naturally right?
I wrote in Dancing Around the Issue that the digital agenda in this area is to avoid calling personalization a privacy issue at all cost. Because they know everything about you, we had a laugh at Facebooks’ expense in Enable Stalking. If the digital ad industry continues to ignore Millennials (now the largest spending block and the most sensitive of all age groups regarding their personal information), they can forget mapping the Consumer Journey because it will end as soon as it begins. But for now, you can’t turn every tracker off no matter how hard you try… Somebody’s Watching and You are the Product.
