Audience Targeting is an efficient way of defining your target group. It increases campaign effectiveness by showing the right message, to the right people, at the right time.

Compared to other targeting techniques, Audience Targeting allows for a far more detailed profile of the target group. The amount of detail increases relevance of an advertisement to the consumer and provides the advertiser with higher quality visitors.

How it works

Firstly, internet users are profiled, using their daily browsing habits to identify key properties:
• Age
• Sex
• Geographic location
• Interests
• Intentions
• Behaviour
• Income

With this information you can specify your target group in great detail to reach the buyers you need. Audience Targeting can also help you target people outside of your usual target group. You could, for example, target people with an intention to buy a product like yours, or target people that have shown a high amount of interest in these kinds of products.

Privacy

Although Audience Targeting requires information of a personal nature, it also respects online privacy. None of the collected data contains personally identifiable information, so it can’t be traced back to a real person.

Audience Targeting is the most sophisticated way of advertising currently available. Ask one of our account managers what it could do for you.

As you might have seen in our ‘Out of Office’-reply, last Wednesday (June 9th, 2010) all of the company’s employees participated in a day of teambuilding; I-VY Adventure Training to be exact. It was a physically and mentally challenging day, but also an awesome experience for the entire team.

Adventure Training is an active way of teambuilding with a learning-by-doing approach, based on a series of team exercises. All of these exercises are dependent on the participants trusting each other, working together as a team and respecting one another, all the while minding physical and mental safety.

We got to do a series of exercises, like crossing a rope with all team members at the exact same time, or climbing and standing upright on a 10 meter high pole without railing and then getting three of your colleagues up there with you. After each exercise we had to evaluate the outcome, the process behind it and the teamwork. The evaluation would indicate shortcomings to improve upon in the following exercises, as well as work situations.

In other exercises we had to match a colleague’s character to an animal, or classify his/her team role on the work floor by using roles on a ship as a metaphor. It was amazing to see how easily all team members opened up to each other and dealt with evaluations, self-actualization, criticism and even confrontations.

At the end of the day some highly needed talks were had and we concluded the Adventure Training with a tasty barbeque. We are certain this training will benefit all employees, the work climate and our clients from here on out.

It’s safe to say there will be more days like these in the future, until then we leave you in the quite capable hands of our team.

According to Yahoo!, the next big opportunity in online advertising will be the introduction of digital memories. Their research suggests people would want to remember and act on advertisements, but far too often life intervenes and the ad is lost. By giving people the possibility to save an ad and come back to it at a better time, conversion rates could increase.

Every day we make choices on what to deal with right away and what to postpone. Yet when we come across an interesting ad, you can only choose to act on it right there and then or lose it forever. Yahoo’s research points out attempts are made by interested people to get the ad back.

Almost 9% of the respondents (UK) declare to make print screens or copies of advertisements for later use or to share with someone else. Others revisit or refresh the webpage, visit the brand’s website or use search-engines, but some of these potential customers still remain unsuccessful in retrieving the information/offer seen in the original advertisement.

Digital Memories to the rescue!

Digital Memories could help potential customers to retrieve the ads at a later point in time. A Digital Memory would work by giving people the options to send an ad to an email address, a mobile phone, share it on social networks or save it in a user’s profile.

These options could be triggered by the click of an icon, as illustrated in the image on the right. It’s a relatively small change, which could significantly increase your advertisements conversion rates.

However

The implementation of this functionality is dependent on (at least) one of several parties. It could, for example, become a part of your advertisement or the advertising space. The value will differ per solution, which brings us to the underlying question in Yahoo’s theory: How do we as an industry take on these new developments and opportunities in a way that’s both beneficial to consumers as well as advertisers? Because, as in advertising, the solution needs to make the customer feel empowered.

The TechConnect team gathered at the office early, last Saturday. We should have had an adventurous day together, but we got one surprise after another, and things worked out pretty differently!

After taking our caffeine shot, several times, we took our bags and found ourselves a seat in the bus. For a moment there was some doubt about whether or not everybody made it, but it didn't take long to discover that everybody was present. So, we took off...

The first surprise came soon. At the office, we couldn't find the address of the indoor location on the Internet, so we called and found out that there isn't an indoor location at all! Dressed in long sleeves and sports pants this surely wasn't the ideal outfit to wear when it's freezing. However, we already drove for some time and figured that we might as well go on with it. As long as it would rain, everything would be fine!

Once we arrived at Almere, the weather had become worse, and instead of facing the cold, we went into the restaurant and decided to deal with it later. We had something to drink, and once we made 2 groups, divided sweaters, and figured we wouldn't find more courage, we walked outside and dealt with the next surprise.

Outside, we received a protective harness, and we were told that our shoes wouldn't suit the obstacle course. Rubber shoes, still wet from former contestants, were handed out, and that it was freezing didn't help a thing. The cold already started to take its toll, and we hadn't even begun yet.

We gathered at the first obstacle, and before our guide finished his explanation, it started to snow. Welcome surprise number 3! The cushions filled with air became slippery, and instead of laughing at the first team, the second team stood around the cushions to catch them when they fell. Rivalry disappeared when the snow appeared...

The following obstacles became slippery and somewhat dangerous too, so instead of fighting against each other, we were fighting with each other. After 2.5 hours, our time was up, and despite the fact that everybody was cold and longing to put on some dry clothes, we did have fun.

It didn't take very long before we were all eating delicious soup, and some other snacks. After warming up, we decided to go back home, so we could take a shower!

The team building served its goal greatly. TechConnect exists out of a close group of people who know the value of helping each other when times get tough!

If you want to see more pictures, click here.