Welcome to the Age of Mass Individualization - Oliver Gertz

The high valuations of companies such as Facebook Groupon and Invite Media could point to a new tech bubble Or they could be seen as the tools that will finally deliver massmarket messages personalised for each individualIt39s easy to question whether Invite Media a company that helps advertisers and agencies buy media in realtime marketplaces was worth the 70m paid by Google or whether Admeld another Google acquisition that helps publishers sell into such marketplaces will justify the reported 400m price tag Is there reason to this rhyme Yes Welcome to the age of mass individualizationDotcom 20 skeptics still wonder whether Facebook is worth its latest 100bn valuation And whether those that operate in the Facebook ecosystem such as Buddy Media recently valued at 150m will also prove their valueHowever those who believe these price tags could be justified insist upon the common idea behind all these highly valued companies What all these businesses promise is onetoone marketing at scaleTrue it was promised amp8211 but not delivered amp8211 in the 1990s This time it seems that marketers39 dreams of technology that allow them to greet each consumer with a customized offer and message aligned with their needs and interests could be realityCustomer Relationship Management and the Internet have given us the tools to segment users and send targeted messages amp8211 but those segments are still very large Very often customization hasn39t gone much further than being addressed by the correct nameThe technology was simply not able to generate enough understanding about each consumer to build microsegments and approach each consumer with a customized offerIn 2011 however we seem to have reached critical mass As consumers spend more and more time online they allow marketers to learn more about their interests via anonymous profiles facilitated by advances in technology and algorithmic modelling Facebook has sparked a sense of consumer freedom with people telling the world more about their interests than most marketers would ever dream they39d use Similarly research companies are finding more and more data in the digital spaceThis allows media planning to be replaced by audience planning where the message seen is determined by the profile of the person watching not the channel or content they are viewingTechnology determines the most relevant campaign for that user and dynamic creative which assembles messages from dozens of components delivers a personalized ad that has millions of potential iterationsAcross Europe Dell is already using such dynamic creative to change 10s of different elements in its online ads to ensure that the offer relates to a consumer39s previous browsing history at the Dell site driving massively improved performancePart of the basis of the valuations being put on platforms such as Groupon or Facebook Places is due to their ability to customize locationbased offersThe idea of individualization is not new A good salesman could always pitch the right product for each customer by selecting the most relevant sales offer Technologies such as callcenters or configurators on websites allow brands to build massoffers for large groupsWhat the new platforms and technologies are finally delivering is massindividualization This allows us to reach millions of people at low cost of mass media while also giving them the customized message of the good salesman The effect is to drive up ROI by more than 100 in many cases and potentially decrease the costs of marketingThe million or billion dollar price tags being cited are a demonstration of the belief that investors have in these technologies and the companies that build themThe good news for marketers is that they can access such technology through agencies like MediaCom at low cost In fact the only investment they need to make is to put in the time and effort to understand the opportunity to test and learn and to utilize technologies of massindividualizationNot only will they benefit but so too will their consumers The massive increase in uptake from messaging that exploits all the potential of mass individualization shows how highly consumers also value these kind of relevant and targeted offersOliver Gertz is Managing Director of MediaCom Interaction EMEA He can be reached at olivergertzmediacomcom Read all Oliver39s MediaBizBloggers commentaries at The MediaCom InsiderCheck us out on Facebook at MediaBizBloggerscomFollow our Twitter updates MediaBizBloggerThe opinions and points of view expressed in this commentary are exclusively the views of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaBizBloggerscom management or associated bloggers MediaBizBloggers is an open thought leadership platform and readers may share their comments and opinions in response to all commentaries

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Welcome to the Age of Mass Individualization - Oliver Gertz

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