To paraphrase Graham, there is an elephant in the room when it comes to BT, namely a lack of standardization across solutions. According to Graham, this is no small obstacle, as he writes, "It could prevent BT from gaining the foothold it really needs to complete its paradigm shift."
As Graham sees it, the landscape of BT solutions is a mixed bag of practices because providers employ different approaches to reach consumers. While Graham concedes that the spirit of experimentation in that area will likely pay dividends in terms of innovation, it is something of a drawback for advertisers because running a campaign with a single vendor won't put the message in front of all potential buyers.
For Graham, there is no easy fix for the standardization problem. Although he points out that media exchange solutions and the establishment of standards by a governing body such as the IAB should go a long way toward allowing BT to reach its full potential.
A primer on privacy
At some point in a conversation about BT, someone will likely use the S-word, according to Graham: spying. "There's no way to sugar coat this," Graham writes. "In order to learn more about individual consumers, marketers have to resort to 'spying.'"
While Graham details the some of the legal and business concerns those employing BT should have when it comes to issues of privacy, he makes the point that advertisers and publishers who use BT need to demonstrate to consumers that the practice benefits all parties involved.
"Benefit is the key word here," Graham writes. "As consumers, we demand to know 'what's in it for me' before taking any action. Relevancy is king. If I'm going to give you something, I expect to get something in return."
Beyond BT, the human element
While BT may look like a numbers-heavy discipline, the truth of the matter is that it's really more of a human art. After all, as Graham explains, "it's difficult to understand the parameters of BT without first understanding the realm of human behavior." For that reason alone, Graham delivers some basics on studies in human behavior as they relate to ad campaigns.
According to Graham, the relevance of an ad, whether it's served up via BT or otherwise, comes down to how the ad plays to our core emotions. Whether the ad meshes with our self-described identity, or whether it conflicts with how we see ourselves, will also determine whether a given message can break through the noise of everyday life.
Resources
While "Fishing From a Barrel" is meant to serve as a roadmap for a BT campaign, as well as a strong argument for BT in general, Graham rightly assumes that his readers may not be quite as far along in adopting BT as he would hope. For that reason, Graham concludes his book with a useful "Resource Pack," which contains contact information for various firms offering BT solutions, and better still for the novice reader, brief, easily digested descriptions of what those companies do.
"Fishing From a Barrel" is available from LearningCraft.
Michael Estrin is the associate editor at iMedia Connection. Read full bio.
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