A simple matter of…

First of all I should make it clear - I loathe adverts and advertising. When I go and buy something I like to make an informed decision, advertising is rarely aimed at providing this. Just “we are cool”, “nothing is more effective” or just complete abuse of science and statistics (which IMO should be banned unless it’s scientifically rigorous and fair).

I did have a thought last night, I’m sure all those webbugs and ad-tracking would be more effective if you know who the person at the end of the cookie was. You could even tie it in to other forms of advertising (oh, this person has suddenly started looking at cars, perhaps we should get the local garage to mailshot them). You could target adverts to selected people.

One way to do this would be to have some prize where you had to _preregister_ in order to win. Then every thousand adverts (or whatever) they win a prize (or a discount or a free trial). Advertising would be much more powerful - and it might slow the adoption of ad-blocking software.