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On the role of Distinguished Engineer and CTO Mindset Apr 27, 2025 The future is bright Mar 30, 2025 On Amazon Prime Video’s move to a monolith May 14, 2023 All developers should know UNIX Jun 30, 2022 Java is no longer relevant May 29, 2022 TypeScript is a productivity problem in and of itself Apr 20, 2022 The passwords are no longer a necessity. Let’s find a good alternative. Mar 2, 2020 Microsoft acquires Citus Data Jan 26, 2019 Facebook is the new Microsoft Apr 14, 2018 Leaving Facebook and Twitter: here are the alternatives Mar 25, 2018 Emails, politics, and common sense Jan 14, 2017 Windows 10: a confession from an iOS traitor Jan 4, 2017 Apple’s recent announcements have been underwhelming Oct 29, 2016 Why I switched to Android and Google Project Fi and why should you Aug 28, 2016 In search for the mythical neutrality among top-tier public cloud providers Jun 18, 2016 Files and folders: apps vs documents May 26, 2016 What can we learn from the last week's salesforce.com outage ? May 15, 2016 Managed IT is not the future of the cloud Apr 9, 2016 OAuth 2.0: the protocol at the center of the universe Jan 1, 2016 What Every College Computer Science Freshman Should Know Aug 14, 2015 Big Data Should Be Used To Make Ads More Relevant Jul 29, 2015 Attracting STEM Graduates to Traditional Enterprise IT Jul 4, 2015 Smart IT Departments Own Their Business API and Take Ownership of Data Governance May 13, 2015 The Clarkson School Class of 2015 Commencement speech May 5, 2015 Microsoft and Apple Have Everything to Lose if Chromebooks Succeed Mar 31, 2015 Java, Linux and UNIX: How much things have progressed Dec 7, 2010

Big Data Should Be Used To Make Ads More Relevant

July 29, 2015

[caption id="attachment_181" align="aligncenter" width="584"]"Advertising" -- Photo Credit Mathias Klang "Advertising"
Photo Credit Mathias Klang[/caption]

It is 2015 and by now advertising agencies could have figured out the best way to deliver relevant ads to viewers. They have not. Hulu is the prime illustration of this phenomenon.

We canceled our DirecTV subscription and declined to use Comcast for anything more than Internet access for over three years now. When I watch shows on Hulu I get ads that I never act on because they are so irrelevant.

The most irrelevant ad on Hulu is the one advertising Hulu Plus itself. I am already a subscriber and they should be able to tell. The second most irrelevant ad is the one telling me, repeatedly, that they got their hands on the full collection of “Seinfeld” episodes - which I am already four seasons into!

While watching Hulu it is also not uncommon for me to get advertisements for shows that are only available to cable subscribers. But I am not, and I made it clear that there is no circumstance under which we will subscribe to cable television. Shows not available on Netflix, Hulu or Amazon Prime might as well not exist. There is not going to be a conversion in response to Xfinity TV ads on Hulu from yours truly.

Hulu product advertisements leave much to be desired as well. Why advertise Microsoft products to someone who uses Apple products and Linux ?

There is so much Hulu could do to create more relevant ads for me. Hulu knows well enough who I am and what my interests are. They know my IP, they can search the Internet for my name. They can give me a way to disable irrelevant or annoying commercials.

The age of Big Data and voluntary surrender of privacy should have brought more meaningful and more relevant advertising. The knowledge the advertisers have about consumers is unprecedented. They should use it.