Advertising in a world of algorithms
I just watched this new TED talk by a guy named ‘Kevin Slavin’ and it blew my mind a little. Especially his Netflix example, because this sparked a thought about a part of the future of advertising. Here we go …
When Netflix’s recommendation engine/algorithm is not trying to show you what you might like in general, but what you like to watch next, the target of advertising can change dramatically. If this algorithm determines about 60% of all movie choices on Netflix, because the movies this engine chooses for you are the movies that will appear on your Netflix homepage, and companies like Time Warner get paid based on how much their movies are being watched, the goal of their advertisements will change. Suddenly Time Warner’s advertising doesn’t want to directly influence what you want to watch now or in the near future and with this go around Netflix’s algorithm. But it wants to influence your whole movie watching behavior, because then it has an impact on the actual result of Netflix’s algorithm and that leads to their movies being featured first on your Netflix homepage. Whoaa… Mindfuck 2020.
