Your digital personality could shape online ads

MONTREAL —Businesses may soon have the option of using consumers’ digital personalities to tailor online ads and offers, rather than relying on traditional demographics.

Demographics — age, income, gender, race — have been used for decades in marketing but, as shopping moves online, the amount of personal information that retailers can collect from consumers is playing a larger role.

A study by MasterCard has created five “digital personas” it says consumers around the world, including Canadians, adopt when they go online. These personas categorize consumers by how much information they want to share and what they expect in return.

For example, 21 per cent of those surveyed are “open sharers” who are regularly online and expect deals in return for giving personal information such as financial status, phone numbers and social insurance numbers.

Another 21 percent, called “simple interactors,” includes some of the most dedicated social network users although they are not particularly tech-savvy. They will share personal data but most of them still prefer to shop in stores, which may make targeted ads less relevant.

The world wide study of 9,000 online shoppers was done by MasterCard to gather information for its bank and retail customers.

“If you can make an offer compelling enough, you can get information from consumers which is going to help you make more targeted offers,” said Theodore Iacobuzio, vice-president of MasterCard’s global insight group.

A retail website using the personas could show products, offer loyalty points and discounts to shoppers visiting the site, based on their online personalities. But there are limits to what people will share online. One digital personality singled out in the study involved consumers who are highly aware of targeted marketing but the most guarded of their privacy. They comprise 17 per cent of those surveyed.

Associate professor Ken Wong said that consumers, at some point, may push back. “You may not want all of the details of your life revealed. To some extent we are what we buy,” said Wong, who teaches at Queen’s University School of Business in Kingston, Ont.

The other digital personalities defined by MasterCard are shoppers who mostly use the Internet to do research before buying but have a low awareness of targeted marketing. Passive users spend the least amount of time online of all the personas but are more willing to trade data for something in return.