m a s s l e s s _ c o m m u n i c a t i o n

For my inaugural post, I thought I’d explain in a little more depth what my MBA thesis is actually about by providing both a very early abstract and an outline, below. Future posts will be thought pieces based on my research, the purpose being to get some ideas “on paper” as I write for my April 6th full draft deadline, but also to vet some of my ideas before I make them part of the “official” thesis. So, I always appreciate questions, suggestions, and comments of all varieties on what I post on the blog. You can also email me at eleanor@sloan.mit.edu.

General overview

In the last several years, fragmentation of audiences has forced much of the advertising community to revise its thinking about delivering messages through mass communication channels. As new media forms have emerged that enable interactive search, collaborative filtering and social networking among consumers, so have opportunities to target advertising, yet how to make the most effective use of these tools has proven more elusive. The purpose of this thesis is to review past and current practices in targeted advertising, understand consumer motivations and attitudes about privacy and ubiquity of ads, and project future trends and directions for designing and targeting personalized advertising content.

At the moment, I’m working with an outline that divides the document into eight parts:

1. Introduction and Overview

a. What is targeted online advertising?
b. Why is this subject important? Why now?

2. History & background

a. Timeline and trends since mid-1990s
b. Evolution of types of targeting, origins of theory and industry approach
c. Consumer behavior on the web, the importance of relevance and cognitive processing of ads online

3. Targeted online advertising today

a. Users and providers of targeted online advertising – an overview
b. Technologies and platforms
c. Perceived benefits of targeted advertising
d. Consumer experience
e. Integration with broader marketing and advertising campaigns
f. Issues and drawbacks of using these techniques

4. Metrics & outcomes

a. Metrics and success indicators
b. Consumer and press reaction (brand impact, sales impact)

5. Regulation and privacy

a. Key issues in the U.S. market – privacy laws, FTC involvement and self-regulation initiatives

6. Case studies of non-U.S. markets – May include Ireland, Poland, U.K., China, Japan – still deciding which ones would make the most sense

7. Future outlook

a. Will certain types of targeting become more prevalent?
b. What does the regulatory landscape suggest?
c. How big a part of advertising spending may it become, relative to other media?
d. What could technological change affect?
e. What will it be like to be an agency? An advertiser? A consumer?

8. Conclusion

I am expecting that parts 3 (current state), 5 (regulation and privacy), and 7 (future state) will be the key parts of the document, and the ones that require the most research and development. I also think they will be the most interesting and challenging to write.