Learning about audience targeting at Digiday:Target

While arriving in taxi accompanied by Don Steele, I had misconceptions of what Digiday: target was about. Digiday brought together many brands and technologies to examine how they can effectively target their audience and broaden their audience. I believed this seminar that Don was taking me to would be a more open digital exposition featuring many different brands trying to sell physical hardware or software. However I found that this exposition sold mostly different forms of service powered by software. I was happy to see how many people know and respected Don. I graciously feed off his company and was introduced to many influential and innovative people. I was surprised to see how vast the market of audience targeting for the internet is.
This internship has exposed me to world I have not acknowledged before. I learned that the digital space has its own unique language and terms, which I am learning slowly. I learned a bit more about Behavior targeting, which is a technique used by online publishers and advertisers to increase the effectiveness of their campaigns. Behavioral targeting uses information collected on an individual's web-browsing behavior, such as the pages they have visited or the searches they have made, to select which advertisements to display to that individual. Practitioners believe this helps them deliver their online advertisements to the users who are most likely to be interested. I gained knowledge of why when I m searching for sneakers online I will see ads for Nike and Reebok.
Search engine optimization is responsible for this. SEO is the process of improving the volume or quality of traffic to a website from search engines via "natural" ("organic" or "algorithmic") search results.
I learned direct marketing as commercial communication (direct mail, e-mail, and telemarketing, blasts) with consumers or businesses, which is unsolicited. I have learned that direct marketing has its downfalls if the consumer does not want to be marketed to. At digiday geo marketing was briefly mentioned. Geomarketing is the integration of Geographical intelligence into all marketing aspects including sales and distribution. Digiday expressed how the internet has improved on Geomarketing with IP addresses and iphones.
I also have received a better idea of how e-commerce is conducted through service providers. Digiday taught me a lot. It was like being thrown into a foreign world and slowly learning how that world operates and what languages or terms are regularly used. I could see and relate to how MTV Networks marketed their service and product, as being an intern for the company, however other companies still puzzled me as to how they make profit or how they conduct their business. I took the time to take a few hand-out pamphlets to see what these companies actually do. After researching online I was able to see how The Rubicon project offers a service so dramatically different than how MTVN provides a service as Rubicon deals with more with inventory. Digital marketing is a slowly revealing world. I am thankful for the eye opening opportunity.