Skeptics say the effectiveness of online ads is misleading because the benchmarks marketers use don't distinguish people buying from ads and those buying anyway
The Correspondent : Tweets: @alicesalisburyj , @flexlibris , @thepunkrockshop , @theofanning , @gerrymcgovern , @ingridlunden , @woganmay , @radiomorgenland , @saminprint , @frolleinjune , and @wolfiechristl See also Mediagazer Tweets: Alice Salisbury / @alicesalisburyj : “Bad methodology makes everyone happy,” The article is mainly about online ads, but it exemplifies almost everything that's wrong with the way brands use research and insight at every stage, from strategy to creative development to media https://thecorrespondent.com/ ... Alison Macrina / @flexlibris : mixed feelings about this. online advertising probably is bullshit (which these authors aren't first to point out) but that doesn't mean it isn't manipulating us by colonizing all of our space/attention. not to mention the other ways all that data is used. https://thecorrespondent.com/ ... Tom Donald / @thepunkrockshop : CEOs and boards are being unintentionally duped by CMOs and marketing depts who've fallen prey to cult-like groupthink based on bad stats and obscuring jargon. This article should set off a bomb, but won't. Everyone's salaries depend on magical thinking: https://thecorrespondent.com/ ... Theo Fanning / @theofanning : While I believe in advertising, this article certain confirms some of my own misgivings about how data is being used to “improve” it. https://thecorrespondent.com/ ... Gerry McGovern / @gerrymcgovern : The new dot com bubble is here: it's called online advertising - “What you call love was invented by guys like me to sell nylons,” said an ad man - The Correspondent https://thecorrespondent.com/ ... Ingrid / @ingridlunden : This has always been my complaint with retargeting: why show me jeans if I JUST BOUGHT SOME JEANS? https://twitter.com/... @woganmay : “The experiment ended up showing that, for years, eBay had been spending millions of dollars on fruitless online advertising excess, and that the joke had been entirely on the company.” Oof. https://twitter.com/... Radio Morgenland / @radiomorgenland : 🧡#Consciousness - “Just like we believe our research is important, even if it isn't.” That's why #science is a believe systems like any other believe systems like #religions....it is conveyed by humans that are convinced they know the truth! https://thecorrespondent.com/ ... Sam Trilling / @saminprint : “Keep that in mind the next time you read one of those calamity stories about Google, Facebook or Cambridge Analytica.. Realistically, advertising does something, but only a small something - and at any rate it does far less than most advertisers believe.” https://thecorrespondent.com/ ... Jule Neumann / @frolleinjune : “When these experiments showed that ads were utterly pointless, advertisers were not bothered in the slightest. [...] Even when they knew, or could have known, that their ad campaigns were not very profitable, it had no impact on how they behaved.” https://thecorrespondent.com/ ... Wolfie Christl / @wolfiechristl : Despite being a $270bn industry, I also believe that much of today's behavioral advertising is empty promises or even a giant fraud. This piece explains, in part, why. But I think it's too quick to dismiss concerns about personalized digital environments. https://thecorrespondent.com/ ... See also Mediagazer