- 'Tsunami' event for online marketers, similar to GDPR rollout
- Traditional publishers could benefit from privacy backlash
Every few weeks, Private Eye publishes a list of real-life marketing blunders. They are often macabre: a news article about a local drowning accompanied by an ad for swimming workouts, for example, or a plane disaster story next to a budget airline deal. In most cases an over-enthusiastic algorithm has read an article’s key words before digging out a hideously inappropriate advert.
These gaffes are becoming less common. While ‘contextual’ advertising still exists, online marketing that targets the reader specifically has gained serious ground. If you Google a pair of trainers, for example, a host of similar shoes will be marching around your screen in minutes. Sometimes, just thinking about a product seems to conjure its digital animus.