holy grail of advertising

On page 233 Kevin Lee, as many marketing heroes before him, briefly speaks about social networking, though it quickly leads him to the topic of narrowcasting. Narrowcasting is basically about one on one marketing, in opposition to mass marketing, which Lee sees as the Holy Grail of advertising, which would be sort of an everybody wins condition. Nobody really wants to deal with advertising, but if you don’t have a choice, most people would like to see something of relevance, and marketers want to more efficiently target the receivers, and this is where narrowcasting comes in with its’ targeted ads. Lee sees social networks as a place where narrowcasting could happen. I guess it’s because this is a place where you can find out what individuals actually want, and at the right moment make them an offer that they won’t see as intrusive. Because I still believe that one of the biggest problems with advertising in with a social network is that users find it intrusive. I think these are Internet users that are relatively used to online ads, and therefore are used to simply ignoring them, but in a social context this disregard would quickly be replaced by annoyance, which of course would have the exact opposite effect the marketer’s after. However, if the ad’s related to something the receiver wants or needs, this annoyance will probably not chip in. More likely that it actually will be welcomed! A win win situation! This is probably a way more costly way to market ones’ product, but it’s definitely a more efficient way that will pay off in the end. I could see this as being the future of advertising.