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On evidence, there are many combinations that make Goa a heady experience for visitors. But one that advertising professionals, gathered there for Goafest 2008, organised jointly by the Ad Agency Association of India and Ad Club of Mumbai, should be particularly cautious of is overleaping ambition combined with technological possibility. Both are currently testing new electronic frontiers. Both could come together in catastrophic ways. This sounds like spoilsport advice, but when placed in the context of all the anticipatory palm-rubbing brought on by the count of 3.5 billion cellphones already on the planet and the prospect of 40% of Indians equipped likewise by 2010, it deserves attention and interest, if not action. It is true that cellphones are being transformed into personal multimedia devices, with customers using them as pocket radios, TV sets, email-enablers and Net searchers. It is also tempting to foresee these as pivots of customer relationship cultivation, if not just advertising delivery devices, and backroom databases may even permit a fair degree of personalised interaction. Technology whizkids already have a barrage of advanced applications to offer. Advertisers who fail to adapt, the anxiety goes, will fail.
Yet, it is more likely that the advertisers who fail will be those who misunderstand differences of customer receptivity, not those slow on the technology uptake. Spare the customer some thought. Watching a commercial on a regular-sized TV screen is inherently an act of public reception, and the viewer disposition to the message is clearly positive. In contrast, a commercial intrusion into an intimately personal device like a cellphone, without the viewer having explicitly opted for it at that moment, could result in instant rejection. Invasive advertising in “public” fields is fine, but the same done in “private” spheres is not. This is common sense that telemarketers have already ruined so many banks’ reputations by ignoring. This should not, however, give advertisers an aversion to technology. They just need to think afresh. For one, there are polite ways to secure opt-ins. For another, the most powerful ad messages tend to be “artistic” in their approach. They have an appeal that attracts their intended target without being pushy. Such ads are best placed in the public sphere to exercise influence.
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