For once, I wondered here about the growing online advertising market, what will happen to it in the future and how much more it can grow in volume. And most importantly - what quality advertising is waiting for us in the future?

For reference: now the volume of the Russian Internet advertising market is estimated at $ 300 million. In 2006, the market grew by 2 times, in 2007 - by 1.5 times. Growth is slowing, but next year the cost of online advertising will approach the budget for advertising in newspapers. Internet advertising continues to take customers from television - and this is understandable: the number of Internet users is growing every year, and the average time that a modern Internet user spends online is 6-8 hours per day. Few people sit the same time in front of the TV or read newspapers.

I will not remind the story of how banner advertising has given way to context, I can only say that everything on the Internet is developing rapidly, and this is qualitative, and not quantitative. Qualitative difference from competitors is often the most important advantage in the world of Internet business. And when everyone tries to jump above others in quality, can you imagine how this world will change every day?

And it changes. Banner advertising was not enough, firstly, binding to the audience, and secondly - interactivity. Contextual advertising has solved these problems, and it would seem, what could be better? The trend of the last time - even more tight binding to a specific client. To this appeared adequate means: MySpace, Facebook, LinkedIn. In RuNet - “Mamba”, “VKontakte”, “MyKrug”.

MySpace for some time already offers advertisers the most narrow targeting , up to the interests of a specific user (the so-called social demographic targeting ). Recently, Yandex has also announced itself , but the example of Facebook is more interesting. They, too, have embarked on a narrow targeting path , but have made, among other things, an elegant move - they have entered into partnership agreements with a number of online stores, so now users of the social network can see in their news feeds that their friends in these stores are buying. Such consumers have already been called fan-sumers (from “fan” and “consumer”), and as a result, Facebook launched a powerful promotion mechanism — a recommendation mechanism.
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What will happen next?

When I woke up today, I thought: is it really impossible to guess the average needs of a person who is crawling out of bed in the morning with difficulty? Think what could be offered to him right at this moment? Breakfast in bed, a jar of energy, a taxi to the place of work, a call to the boss that “I am sick and tired”. Imagine if in the future you will see an advertisement on your alarm clock, and moreover with the ability to instantly order a service with delivery!

I specifically exaggerate that it is clear that there is no limit. If you think that such an advertisement will annoy me - imagine how the picture will change, if they tell me that just now my colleague at the other end of the city also woke up and also ordered this coffee ...

A great place to advertise is a fridge or microwave. If for filling the refrigerator it is enough to choose products on a small small screen (on which they also tell you what your friend recently bought), this will be perceived as a convenience rather than a manipulation.

So what?

1. Offer as narrow targeting as possible. The trend of narrowing targeting in online advertising will continue. The most narrow and effective targeting is the dream of any advertiser. You will be able to bind to the desires of every representative of the whole population - enrich yourself.
2. Use the recommendation engine. People are annoyed when they are being sent. The easiest way to fasten the recommendation mechanism is to inform the buyer, “what they are taking now.” And technically it can be implemented through the “mash-up”.

Original article published in my blog.