Whether you knew it or not, everyday you are subject to some form of targeted/nudge marketing from brands in a range of different environments. Brands are constantly working to find new ways to capture the attention of their target audience – more often than not, unasked. They have become so subtle that you won’t even realise that you’ve been influenced by an outside factor when making a decision. This seems to have evoked a mixed response from consumers, with both positive and negative reactions.
The word ‘nudge’ is meant to determine a subtle approach, encouraging the viewer to consider their product and in turn transform this initial engagement into transactions and relationships. Although a more refined approach than that of a ‘shove’, it has still triggered an unwanted response from many.
A recent advertising scheme proposed by Twitter has stirred an unprecedented, pessimistic response from users as they intend to allow companies to pay to interrupt user’s feeds without permission. There has already been an abundance of negativity from members regarding followbots that follow thousands of people in the hope they get a follow back so they can inundate them with spam messages. Although attempts have been made by Twitter to advise users of followbots and how to identify them, they still hold a dominant presence on the site.
Apparently Twitter have been relatively forthcoming with plans to introduce the new promotional tweets, stating they will remove anything that doesn’t improve the user experience or serve its product. However they will have to act very cautiously when incorporating these new changes as if users rebel, the effects could be detrimental.
User’s say that they already get irritated by the amount of tweets in their stream that aren’t relevant, so the thought of having even more is extremely frustrating. I can’t imagine that paying companies will benefit significantly from interrupting user’s feeds unless they develop a detailed, strategic plan that looks at the followed trends and topics of each individual user to ensure the material is target driven and relevant.
A common environment for unwanted target marketing is through sites that users can use for free. Some familiar ones are Facebook, Spotify, YouTube, Hotmail, and soon Twitter. Advertisements will pop up, unprompted, flashing products at you, begging for you to click through. Speaking from my own experiences of unwanted target advertisements flashing on my screen and getting in my way – they nudge me in the complete wrong direction.
However, there are consumers who have more patience than me and say that they are in favour of targeted marketing as long as they have the option to opt-out. Research carried out by Specific Media shows that consumers are in favour of viewing adverts targeted at them, and don’t mind the use of cookies in getting it, as long as they can see information on it and have the choice to opt-out.
(source: thedrum)
Brands need to take the time to understand how consumers feel about online advertising to make informed decisions. Specific Media also found that if consumers are given information to form a better understanding of the technology behind targeted adverts they may be more in favour of their purpose.
Is unwanted targeted marketing a gentle nudge or a massive shove?
I think the biggest challenge for brands in the future is to engage with their customers, not inundate them with constant streams of unwanted advertisements. Everyday people make decisions on their own without influential marketing; the challenge for brands is to find new ways to encourage people to act on their own, creating relationships and buying products. To succeed in the future brands need to become more informative and gain a deeper insight into what consumers want, especially in regards to their online privacy. This is an integral component needed in retaining consumer trust and developing a sustainable growth of smart online advertising.
