Who wants to advertise to me?

I was reading a post by Shel Israel of Naked Conversations fame entitled New Comm Forum: Changing Media Panel where I ran across the assertion that "we are at an inflection point where advertisers are finding a more targeted audience online". That got me thinking about exactly who would or could or should be advertising to me. I'm not sure I have the answer, but obviously I spend a fair amount of money each year, so in theory there are quite a number of advertisers who would benefit by getting my attention. The problem is that so many advertisers are completely clueless about how to get my attention.

Like everyone else, I am bombarded with ads, but very few of them attract my attention. It's as if they didn't want my attention.

Even trying to target me based on solid demographics won't help to attract my attention. My interests and needs are a bit out of sync with my actual demographics.

To me, the key would be if the advertisers could actually tap into my needs or even my desires. Imagine how effective ads could be if they had a sense of what I believe?

And then there is timing. If you hit me when I'm not ready to buy, you've lost me or wasted your time, but if you hit me when I am "engaged" and ready to buy, I'll be much more responsive to the ad.

So, yes, advertisers could target me, but currently they do a particularly lousy job of it.

Ultimately, I think it comes down to the fact that advertisers insist at talking at me rather than with me. They don't seem to grasp the concept of a conversation.

-- Jack Krupansky