In an article written by Tarun Wadhwa of Forbes, I learned
of the topic “digital market manipulation.”
What I didn’t realize was that I was being exposed to this form of
advertising for some time now but did not realize the name for it. This term has to do with the merging of
social media and paid advertisements and has become increasingly popular
recently. If you use Facebook, Twitter,
or Vine; you are exposed to the “paid advertisements” that pop up in your
newsfeed. These ads are often a type of
product that you have purchased in the past, or may be one that an algorithm
determined you to be a potential customer in the future. Popular viners often have advertisements
incorporated in their six second videos that are clearly a result of their
popularity on Twitter’s video sharing site, Vine.
Wadhwa gives an example in the article about what digital
market manipulation may come to be in the near future, “Imagine that you are halfway through the second week of
a grueling diet. It’s been going alright – but lunches are always the hardest
for you. You walk out of your office building to get a salad, when suddenly,
you get a text message. It’s from a nearby restaurant offering you a discount
on your favorite burger, encouraging you to “cheat just this once” and they’ll
throw in a free side of fries.”
The majority of
people in today’s society have a negative association with internet tracking
and targeted advertisements because they feel that they are having their
privacy violated and used against them with specific ads that pop up in the
websites they use. With digital market
manipulation, this type of advertising is only going to increase in frequency
and accuracy and it will be even more important for corporate marketers to
understand the “sweet spot” of being creepy and effective.
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