Comments on: Ad:Tech and Thoughts on Behavioral Marketing in Africa

By: Concerned African

Concerned African — Wed, 25 Apr 2007 16:18:19 +0000

Behavioural targetting can meen a lot of things and there isnt reallly enough african online advertisers to warrant targetting based n that. If you’ve ever had time to check out the ad source code of a big social network like hi5 you will notice your date of birth and sex is in their source code. Thats what its all about nowadays building a complete profile of your users and delivering ads based on that, traditional tv advertising is on its way out.

By: HASH

HASH — Tue, 24 Apr 2007 23:59:29 +0000

Good point David. Running Mashada.com for all these years, I can see how at least geographic data could be helpful for you when talking to advertisers.

I’d like to know about big media sites too though, whether it’s the Nigerian Tribune or the Kenya Nation, they have to have some idea of who their users are at a more stratified level. This could be geographic or it could be behavioral. I guess I’m just wondering if any of them use this type of segmentation in their ad serving?

Thanks for your input on your forums though. There’s one question answered.

By: David Kobia

David Kobia — Tue, 24 Apr 2007 22:52:15 +0000

Key to behavioral targeting is gathering colossal amounts of data – and useful data at that. Yahoo, MSN and AOL have been doing this for years and developed the necessary software. Companies like DoubleClick can also help build demographical data.

As far as Africa goes – I don’t think there’s enough data to perform behavioral targeting. Also the number of users online hasn’t hit a critical mass – so naturally broad targeting is the only option available.

The closest alternatives to behavioral targeting are:
1. GeoTargeting by Country/Region/City (Ip Address)
2. Advertising on sites that target niche groups of people