Behavioural targeting is not an absolute truth

Behavioural targeting will not provide an absolute truth that means no one will ever be served an irrelevant ad – it is just an improvement on what has gone before, according to Ian Dowds, UK vice president of Specific Media.

Speaking at today’s Media Playground conference in London, Dowds said: “We have been guilty of making claims that we can get to the absolute truth… it’s not like that, [behavioural targeting] is just an improvement.”

In the eyes of many in the industry, part of the improvement will come with the addition of an industry standard currency, something which UKOM – formerly JICIMS – is working towards.

Agenda21 managing director Nick Suckley, a panellist at the event, said that although there is a lot of data available there is a definite need for an industry currency, with Richard Windle, MD of Ipsos MediaCT, pointing out that “a lot of time can be wasted when there’s no coherent agreement over currency”.

“We don’t know what the ideal currency would be for the internet,” he added.

Talking specifically about UKOM, which is set to launch in January 2010, Suckley was enthusiastic. “It’s near as dammit a JIC so it’s near as dammit a currency, which is great for the industry,” he said.

One of the delegates at the event, the IPA’s Lynne Robinson, said she was looking forward to having UKOM providing the industry with consumer-centric data.

“We do need consumer centric measurement,” she said. “We have that already with Touchpoints across all media but I’m very much looking forward to UKOM data.”