How advertisers took advantage of the popularity of ‘Fifty Shades of Grey’ among women

The release of “Fifty Shades of Grey” has sparked debate between fans and haters of the book-turned-film.

In the United Kingdom, “Fifty Shades” sold a record number of ad slots and brought in new advertisers in the cinema advertising industry, including big names like Calvin Klein Jeans and Vibez, an adult clothing retailer.

Utilizing data from NCM Research indicating that more than half of women aged 18 to 34 are likely to watch the movie in theaters, female-focused brands grabbed the opportunity to engage with the young, upmarket, and social media savvy people that the film attracts. Renault paid for “gold spots”—the last commercial message after the trailers and right before the start of the film—during the “Fifty Shades” screenings, while Revlon bought the “silver spots”—the last ad to run before the trailers start. Many of these brands tried to tailor these ads to match the film’s raunchy reputation.

Though the success of these ads is yet to be seen, targeted advertising has long been proven as an effective means of reaching audiences not only in the cinema but also mobile devices, social media, and web content in general. According to a poll done by the Digital Advertising Alliance, 70 percent of the respondents said that they liked ads tailored to their interests, in contrast with only 16 percent who preferred generic ads.

Facebook is one social media platform that makes use of such technology. Facebook can target the geography of a user, as well as glean data from the user’s conversations, profile, and general behavior in order to help big brands tailor their marketing campaigns to the user’s interests and activities.If you have a Facebook account, you will notice that the products that you’ve bought before appear as ads on your news feed. That is because Facebook uses knowledge about your purchase to promote a related product sold by their e-commerce advertisers.

Ads from MobioINsider, another social media platform, also make use of targeted advertising as fans need to view an ad first before they can see the answers of their favorite influencers to their questions. Since influencers have target audiences, it is easy to modify ads to their consumers’ needs.

There are several ways that marketers can gain insight into their customers’ buying behavior. Simply knowing their location is extremely valuable for targeting people, as there are e-commerce sites that cater only to a certain country or geography. Sometimes, customers are asked to fill out online forms that include their gender, age, civil status, and nationality. Some brands also use open graph targeting, which allows them to find Facebook users who have logged into their websites using their Facebook details. It makes it easier for businesses to track the pages that the user visited and re-target them on Facebook with ads promoting said product.

For consumers, advertisement targeting provides more effective delivery of desired product or service, as they are likely to click on a shoe ad if the style, brand, and color are similar to their preferences. It also allows for more effective delivery of a message that relates to their interests.

Advertisers also benefit from this technique as it provides for more efficient campaign development. Having knowledge about what your audience wants enables you to deliver what they need. You no longer have to go through the trial and error process and waste precious advertising resources and budget just to find the ad that converts followers to buyers. Hence, the business gets to have increased return of investment, as targeted ads yield higher results for lower costs. It’s certainly a win-win situation for both consumers and advertisers.

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