Video Versioning Offshore

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Publicis Groupe, the French advertising holding company, is doing some of today’s most forward thinking and, in my view, has jumped over the other holding companies in terms of trailblazing this digital adventure we’ve embarked upon.

 

One of the Publicis companies, Digitas, is doing some curious things in terms of targeting broadcast.  They are offshoring production work to Asia to create versions of TV ads that are viewer specific.  (By one estimate noted in the New York Times today, an advertiser has created over 4,000 versions of a single ad.)  This approach is intended to increase ad relevance which will increase the power to motivate sale.

 

If we can somehow identify a digital fingerprint for each viewer and serve them up a tailored ad, we have achieved the holy grail of the ad biz.  The copy would change based upon the age and education of the viewer. The visuals might change based upon the address of the viewer. Price, promotion and even product could be tied to income level.

 

But let’s face it, video editing and content versioning of all this stuff will take thousands of hours, and though offshoring it to a workforce making $5 a day sounds appealing, who will be the exercising creative oversight? The first wave of this stuff will be nasty bad.  The good news?  You may only see that nasty commercial once, thanks to digital tracking.  Stay tuned for more discussion of digital and 3-D targeting.