3 Personalization Innovations to Expect From Digital Advertising

The first iPhone launched the summer before I graduated from college. The curriculum for a degree in advertising at the time didn’t envisage the mobile and data explosion ahead—advertisers would soon buy audiences rather than channels, robots would buy ads from other robots and rookie content creators would make more money off a few brand-sponsored posts than seasoned directors make in a lifetime. Imagine! Now, we widely accept that our phones are listening to us to collect data about us for advertising, but still, digital advertising feels lackluster, not personalized enough. My Instagram feed is packed with engagement rings, alcohol-free elixirs and Tahoe vacation deals—is this all that a recently engaged, Dry January-observing snowboarder can hope for? We can and should expect more from advertising. I see three areas where advancements in personalization would pave the way for better advertising experiences that perform better—and also cultivate meaningful connections between brands and consumers. Tone matching People attune their style of speech to one another, according to communication accommodation theory. One facet of this theory, the similarity-attraction effect, suggests that “the more similar our attitudes and beliefs are to those of others, the more likely it is for them to be attracted to us.” Advertisers should take advantage of advances in natural language processing (NLP) to develop digital messaging that speaks to consumers in styles they prefer, leading them to feel like they’re connecting with a brand voice attuned to more than just their basic topical preferences. For example, a tool called Crystal uses natural language processing to figure out that my boss prefers for people to get to the point quickly. It’s an NLP technology that can identify linguistic patterns and recommend communication preferences. Tone matching promises to make advertising messages feel more like human conversations. Smart advertisers can use it to increase consumers’ attraction to their brand, product or service by analyzing a user’s observable language footprint and tailoring ad messages accordingly. Dynamic personalization technology could pepper a 30-second video advertisement with cheeky quips for someone whose social media comments are sarcastic and witty. Brands could opt for fact-heavy product information for consumers who communicate more literally and directly. This goes beyond serving Tahoe vacation ads to the snowboarders among us, personalizing messaging on a level that will make consumers feel a deeper affinity for a brand. In addition to tone matching, the similarity-attraction effect points toward another futuristic possibility for personalization that I’ll call "lifestyle matching." The idea here is that, just as tone matching customizes brand messaging to ape the communication style of the customer, lifestyle matching takes on features of the customer’s lifestyle, again accentuating the potential for brand affinity. Lifestyle matching Current technologies like Mirriad enable dynamic product placement into digital content. For example, coffee brand Carte Noir worked with Mirriad to insert a branded cup into a scene within the Netflix program “Call My Agent.” T-Mobile and Tecate beer used the technology to insert signage and products into video content. Now, imagine the same technology altering elements of an ad or film protagonist’s lifestyle to make them more similar and relatable to you. For example, their pet looks strikingly similar to your yellow Lab. Their screen saver happens to be your favorite travel spot. Their car, a Toyota Land Cruiser, is your favorite color—would you find Toyota Land Cruisers more appealing based on these relatable details of the main character’s life? Similarity-attraction effect suggests you may, which would make lifestyle matching an alluring sandbox for advertising innovation. Outcome-aware creative Advertising could also dynamically adjust for unexpected, localized outcomes and events like sports games, economic changes, unseasonable weather and breaking news—all of which impact mood, mindset, priorities and a customer’s receptiveness to an advertisement. Take sports. Sports fans’ moods are greatly affected by whether the home team won on game day. There are trillions of potential win, loss or tie outcomes in an average professional sports season. An advertiser could not manually respond to those exponential and unpredictable outcomes across a national audience. However, with an advanced, outcome-aware personalization technology, an advertiser could adjust advertising creative to serve a congratulatory advertisement to fans whose team just won, a consolation advertisement to fans grieving their loss or even an encouraging advertisement when the live score is nail-bitingly close. Each scenario would increase the advertiser’s ability to make a relevant, meaningful connection with a fan who lives and breathes their team’s performance. Another application for outcome-aware personalization would be adjusting for sudden economic changes. A brand could adopt reassuring messaging when the economy has taken a hard fall and optimism when it’s thriving. Perhaps most appealing for any advertiser concerned about brand safety: ensuring an on-message campaign, regardless of sensitive breaking news. Aspirationally, technology like this would have prevented Corona Seltzer from its “coming ashore soon” messaging that was poorly timed with the coronavirus outbreak, for example. A more personalized future for digital ads To be sure, matching the content of digital ads to customer preferences is a step up from blasting a general population with messages most will find irrelevant. But digital advertisers should not accept topical relevance as the gold standard for innovation or personalization. The new gold standard for personalization will be advertising with human soft skills, ads that adjust their tone, appearance and message in order to be more relatable, likable and conscientious, much like people do in order to win favor and build more meaningful connections.