In a recent Xandr study, 75% of the 2,004 consumers surveyed said they think advertising has become more frequent lately – and a nearly equal number (73%) said that seeing an ad too many times makes them dislike it.
It’s been well-documented, by Communicus and others, that when a consumer sees 2 or 3 different ads within a campaign, in-market results on key performance indicators are significantly stronger than when that consumer sees just one ad, but 2 or 3 times as often.
As a result of these learnings, many advertisers are now seeing the wisdom of having multiple ads in-market. So how is it that so many consumers are saying that it’s getting worse than it used to be?
I think the main culprit is better media targeting – including not only programmatic but increasingly addressable buying that hones in on that one, exactly right, consumer. And guess what? That one, exactly right consumer is seeing your ad or ads way too many times. If the consumer reports are to be believed, it may very well be alienating him or her.
To make matters even worse, while the exact right consumer is being alienated, other, potentially right consumers may be being missed entirely.
The patterns we’re seeing lately in our studies suggest that as targeting gets more precise, and as addressable buys account for an ever increasing share of brands’ budgets, advertising awareness is shrinking. And it’s not just shrinking among the broad consumer population, it’s shrinking among the brand’s actual defined target. Those assumptions that are being made to define that specific consumer who’s potentially in the market for a brand may very well be causing the brand to miss others who are in the market, but who may look just a bit different than you’d expect.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m all in favor of improvements in media targeting that can reduce waste, minimize the number of consumers who are seeing ads that aren’t relevant to them, and ensure that your ads are being exposed to the right people and only the right people. But there is also a very real risk of traveling too far down this road that needs to be acknowledged. Specifically, it might be wise to at least consider the trade-off in value of reaching the one exact right person with the potential benefit of reaching just far enough outside that bullseye view to ensure that you’re not oversaturating a small number while losing out on the broader opportunity.
Like so much else in life, perhaps it’s just about finding the right balance.
Jeri Smith President / CEO
