False advertising:
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Not the big cheese
Category: ranting
Random thoughts, frustrations, ideas and opinions. Quality not guaranteed, consume only under adult supervision
Long ago I worked on advertising when mobile advertising was not a solved problem and startups still had a play. Early on that work branched out to other possible advertising channels for CSPs. I spent much time studying and discussing the complications around advertising on “Shared Device”. The attraction of mobile advertising from the CSP point of view was the ability to know the consumer. Since there is a tight correlation between a user and a mobile phone, i.e. you don’t tend to share a mobile between two people, the profile a handset usage and other attributes is, or was and I assume still is, highly valuable as it enables better targeting of ads. The big discussions about shared devices came when started to extend the ad models to pay TV CSPs. Can an individual user be identified to better target ads and to avoid showing inappropriate ads to users? At the time the general answer was no. The primary reason being that outside the US TVs are a shared resource in most households (in the US the trend was more towards a one-to-one relationship due to the higher number of TVs per household). On a shared device a lowest common denominator needs to be taken when selecting ads. I’m massively oversimplifying here, and I assume the big brains at the successful advertising companies have a better solution here but let’s take an extreme example to illustrate the point.
Imagine a CSP build a profile for an end-customer based on their viewing habits via the CSP’s pay TV service. This particular profile shows that the end-customer consumes programing targeted at “kids and families” on a regular basis — cartoons — the consumer also consumes more adult, male oriented content — mixed martial arts — (not to be sexist here but teenage and twenty-something guys are the main audience right?). There is no good way on this information alone to know if the household includes kids and adults or just adults who like “kids cartoons” — see brony [wikipedia.org]. Assume for a second the TV is owned by a single male who does in fact enjoy watching “kids” cartoons. The advertisers for kids products are most likely wasting any advertising spend on this user.
Targeting and personalization is hard, and it harder on shared devices. It’s all about confidence and heuristics and blah blah blah… It’s much more complex than my example but anyway, I told you that story to tell you this one so stay with me.
I have an Apple TV and I recently downloaded the Vevo [vevo.com] app. Vevo is an app version of MTV from the 80’s — it actually shows music videos. The cool feature that led me down the roundabout train of thought, is that you don’t need to log in on the Apple TV. Instead you just open the Vevo app on your mobile on the same network and presto! You’re in. It does not matter if the mobile is mine or my wife’s, just that the app is on the device and turned on (in focus). This means that, theoretically as I have not seen it in practice in my limited use, my wife’s profile can be different from mine and attached to her personal device and not the shared Apple TV. This could be a good way to link a shared device with an identified end-user. Bake this method of login into a CSPs set-top box and your can offer better personalization of content and a lower friction path to protecting user information.
For example, Netflix allows multiple user profiles, include kids specific profiles which block inappropriate content but users just have to select an icon to use the other profile so kids could select the parents account and watch all the zombie apocalypse they want. Now Netflix could, and maybe the do, add a PIN or password to secure the non-kids accounts but entering PINs and/or passwords via remote controls is limiting and downright annoying on the Apple TV remote with is lack of buttons. Linking the Netflix app on the parent’s mobile allows Netflix to rely on the user authentication mechanism on the device, such as PIN or Apple’s TouchID.
Anyway. It’s a half-formed idea and I see many things to confirm, clarify and comment on as I type this but it struck me as a cool feature I had not seen before that could have potential. And now it’s past my bedtime.
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Kindle blue balls!
So… doing some Black Friday cyber shopping from here in APAC – today from Indonesia. I was on Amazon [amazon.com] and…
Quick aside: I’m a complete Amazon fan-boy, maybe more than I am an Apple fan-boy. I sold my soul to Apple but Amazon has my heart. I’ve been using Amazon since 1997. When I need to check an old address — in Virginia, in DC, in England, in Singapore! I check my Amazon shipping addresses. Hardly a week goes buy that I don’t buy something from Amazon. Thank you Jeff!
… Picking up where we left off. I was Black Friday shopping on Amazon. Since I live in Singapore I have to buy things that say “ships to Singapore.” Since it’s Black Friday there are lots of sales, and the headline that caught my eye today was the Kindle device sales. I have a Kindle, generation 2 or 3 of the small one I think, but at Black Friday prices maybe it’s time to upgrade. Amiright? So, I checked out all the models and low and behold the basic model ships to Singapore!
So I immediately added it to my cart. Sweet antici………..pation [youtube.com]! I spent a few minutes more browsing around — can’t find a replacement 2.5mm male to 3.5mm male audio cable for my B&W P5s that “ships to Singapore”, damn it! — and checkout time. Sign in, select shipping address — Singapore! — and what the bloody hell, “problem with items in my shopping cart?”!?!
Ahhhhh! Sold by Amazon Export LLC, but not exported to Singapore? Ahhhh! Blue balls! Blue. Balls.
After struggling for a while to find some sort of combinations of magical clicks to get it to work I resorted to chatting with a service rep. They were nice and after a few seconds were able to confirm that, indeed, Kindle devices cannot be exported to Singapore. I informed them that the site clearly stated the item was “eligible for shipping to Singapore” and needs to be checked. They said thanks for the feedback and they would escalate the issue to the relevant team. Nothing further to be done. No new Kindle for me. But to Amazon’s credit a a hours later I got an email from Amazon apologizing for the issue and confirming that it was indeed forwarded to the Kindle team to review and fix. You hear that Jeff? Fix it. Blue balls suck.
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#DontPrayForParis
There is a lot of #PrayForParis on Facebook [facebook.com] and Twitter [twitter.com] but I think praying is exactly the wrong response… The men who did this prayed to the same God just before they killed those people. I posted my feelings on Facebook when the tag first crossed my feed, but thought it deserved a bit more thinking…
I’m absolutely assuming the people who did this did it in the name of their interpretation of their religion and that that religion was Islam. Since IS has claimed responsibility. But I’m not being anti-Muslim here, terrorism in the name of religion is not confined to any one religion – Catholic Republicans or Protestant Unionist in Ireland, Hindu nationalist in India, Buddhist nuts in Sri Lanka or Myanmar. It doesn’t matter. Religion is one of the most divisive labels on the planet creating in-group and out-groups over whose supernatural belief is more correct — a, by nature, un-provable conjecture — just perpetuates violence in the name of that belief. Religion, of course, does not, in any way, have a monopoly on creating in-groups and out-groups on which people will base violence; nation states promote patriotism which begets nationalism, just another form of bigotry. Race, sex, age, disability, an any number of other factors are all convenient facets to frame ones in-group and treat all others badly. It’s natural, stereotypes might be wrong but they make life so much easier. In fact they are an absolutely necessity allowing us to quickly gauge situations that could be life threatening and so our minds are very good at stereotyping things, including people. When applied to other humans in a “civilized” society is where we run into issues. The irony is that we should all know to look beyond our instinctive stereotyping and live to a higher standard, after all the golden rule “occurs in some form in nearly every religion and ethical tradition.” (quoted from the Golden Rule [wikipedia.org]). Everyone posting their #PrayForParis thoughts should take a moment to remember the atrocities committed in the name of their religion. Instead of praying try to remember that 300 years since the beginning of the Age of Enlightenment [wikipedia.org] and we still struggle to live up to its ideals; best expressed in the French “liberté, égalité, fraternité” [wikipedia.org] (excusing its inherent sexism).
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Apple Default Text Fail
