mitigating the digital creepiness factor

Copyright © 2015, Intellyx, LLC

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Mitigating the Digital “Creepiness Factor”

Jason Bloomberg

President

[email protected]

@TheEbizWizard

About Jason Bloomberg

• President of Intellyx

• Advise companies on their digital transformation initiatives & help vendors communicate their agility stories

• Write for Forbes and Wired on Digital Transformation

• Buy my latest book, The Agile Architecture Revolution

Copyright © 2015, Intellyx, LLC2

The Problem


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Oops!


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Creepiness Starting Point: Retargeting

• Catch consumers before they’re ready to make a purchase

– Serve ads relevant to expressed preference

– Hopefully close the deal

• All too often it doesn’t work!

– Consumers may have already made purchase

– Perhaps behavior didn’t mean they were shopping at all


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Spying & Stalking

• Impression that marketer

–Knows more about you than you want or expect them to know

–Knows how to follow you around


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Surprise!

• Marketing crosses the line into creepiness

– When the receipt of a targeted message is surprising

– Or when recipients are surprised that a company has some particular knowledge about them


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Target’s Trouble

• In 2012 Target concluded a teenage girl was pregnant based on her purchasing behavior

– Sent her coupons accordingly

– Revealing her status to her now-irate father


Surprise!

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The Banana Solution

• Everybody eats bananas!

– Bananas are safe

• Mix in coupons for bananas (and other safe items) with coupons for baby formula & diapers

• Harder to tell that Target is targeting you because you’re pregnant


They’re still stalking you, only they’re getting better at it!

iBeacons Galore


Breaking Down the Creepiness Factor

• Demographics

– Creepiness thresholds for different populations

– Cultural & regional differences

• Desensitization

– Takes time with any demographic


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Normal Distribution

• Some percentage of anydemographic will think your marketing is creepy

• How much creepiness-related backlash can you tolerate?

• Just how creepy is your marketing, anyway?


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Ask Your Users!

Mitigating Creepiness

• Well-targeted, personalized marketing isn’t always creepy

– In some cases consumers welcome and value such marketing

– So, what’s the difference?


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Explicit Opt-Ins?

• Only if they remember opting in

– Messages must contain content they expect & appreciate

– Even opting in isn’t good enough if people are surprised by the level of information marketer has about them

• Who wants to wait around for a trickle of opt-ins!

– Need a better way to address creepiness while still improving ability to target desired audience


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The Art of Data-Driven Targeted Marketing

• Most marketing activities don’t require the formal opt-in process that bulk email does

• Still important to ask users’ permission for increased levels of interaction and targeting

• If only in a subtle and informal way


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The Antidote to Creepiness

• Today’s marketing cannot be a one-way street

– Back-and-forth between company & customer

– Most important lesson from social media marketing

• Customers want to be informed and empowered

• Engage in real conversations with your customers & respect their desires


Conversation!

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mitigating the digital creepiness factor

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