Commentary
Avoiding 'Truman Show' Moments
- by Phil Leggiere , February 27, 2009
The proposition "If we build it they will come" is by now nearly universally recognized as a fallacy by marketers, as well as, nowadays, even most real estate developers. Unfortunately in many sectors
of the online advertising world, where behavioral is all the buzz, another often unwarranted assumption has taken …
Regarding behavioral ads that are "out-of-context"...users may say that they believe these to be creepy but in my experience, these generally garner the highest response & back-end performance for clients.
Just because something is in context doesn't necessarily make it guaranteed to be relevant to the user's needs at the time. If user shows interest in a particular topic/product/website/etc. but takes no action, an out-of-context ad may be even more relevant to them if they are further down the purchase funnel when they see that ad.
Don't disagree with the fact that most people think it is creepy (if they even notice it), but that doesn't prevent them from clicking.
You quote Moran saying:
"I think all of us have what you might call 'Truman Show' moments," he says. " I had one when I went on a technology site and then later on that day I was on CNN.com reading about the presidential election 'Oh, my god' behavioral targeting is going haywire."
I feel kinda stupid asking . . . but what does this quote mean?