Personalized vs. Personified advertising

The origin of Personalization

Personalized advertising has been around since the early 1990s and was certainly impactful in its heyday. But as the industry has evolved to reflect an increasing demand for data privacy, the days of Personalization are numbered. In fact, Gartner has predicted that 80% of marketers will abandon personalization by 2025. This has left a gap for a new solution to lead the future of AdTech toward a consumer-friendly market, wherein relevant advertising never compromises user privacy. 

Digital advertising has long been synonymous with the collection of large quantities of personal data to create hyper-targeted advertising experiences. This overreliance on data has revealed a critical flaw that became apparent during the industry crackdown on personal data collection. Without the ability to utilize third-party cookies and IDs, many advertisers have been missing the fuel that has kept their marketing machines running. 

The downfall of Personalization

Personalized marketing utilizes data analysis and technology to create advertising experiences that are unique to each consumer. Essentially, it is leveraging data collection and digital tracking to deliver customized messaging to users at the right time. This sounds great on paper, as the user is exposed to advertising relevant to their interests, and advertisers benefit from higher conversion rates. 

However, the lack of ROI and scalability has revealed the shortcomings of personalization, particularly as regulatory and ethical considerations have become more stringent. As consumers have become more aware of the value of their data, the sample size has only diminished further. This has presented the opportunity to step back and pose an interesting question. Why are advertisers targeting individuals? Perhaps they have been getting it wrong all along. Advertisers don’t need to reach people at an individual level. Instead, they should be engaging groups with similar interests at scale.  

Enter the age of Personified Advertising

First coined by Gartner in 2015, personified advertising is the latest breakthrough in AdTech that combines a privacy-first approach with the accuracy and relevance of personalization. It is defined as ‘‘a digital strategy where companies leverage consumer segments (Personas) rather than personal data to deliver relevant and engaging advertising experiences.’’ These consumer segments are referred to as ‘personas’ and have been collated without the use of any personal data. These personas are group targeted based on the content they are likely to consume, rather than individually using identifiers. 

Related: 

Reject All: As Cookies Crumble, ‘Personified’ Advertising Can Forge A New Path

A persona could be a 35-year-old female living in the city with a strong interest in botany and healthy living. A traditional advertiser may think the logical course of action would be to advertise local florists or plant-based meal kits. Personified advertising considers that people often have multiple interests, which opens up numerous advertising opportunities that personalization lacks data on. Using the previous example, they are likely to live an active lifestyle and therefore are a prime candidate to deliver advertising for home fitness equipment. 

Ogury Personified Advertising Engine

While Personified Advertising certainly differentiates itself from other forms of advertising due in part to its abstinence from cookies and IDs, it is not a dataless technology. Ogury Personified Advertising Engine is built on seven years of consenting user data that is validated through surveys, bid request data, and best-in-class contextual and semantic data. 

Since the beginning of Ogury, we have asked for user consent when collecting data; long before the crackdown from regulators. This foresight has meant that Ogury has gone completely cookieless and ID-less since 2021. Our current and massive data set has provided us with industry-leading audience intelligence that offers a true indication of the user journey outside the ad network. 

Ogury packages this knowledge into formats that both respect the user and provide the highest performance available on the market. We exclusively utilize 100% on-screen formats that demand attention and provide a dynamic and interactive experience to the user.

Join countless other leading advertisers who have seen the future of digital advertising and get Personified today!