Open letter to social media advertising Gods.

Here’s a new model for social media advertising — show me what I want! If you do that, I will work with you, I’ll cooperate. It will be a beautiful friendship. The current advertising model doesn’t work. We all know that. If I search for a flight to Barcelona, please do not show me advertising for Expedia or every other travel services website for the next three weeks, or if I search for a new dishwasher please don’t show me the advertising for furniture. You are not clever. I already bought the dishwasher, it’s annoying and you are wasting your client’s advertising dollars.

Here’s my deal, I’ll tell you what I want, it may be specific or vague, and you, using your considerable computing power (when you are not mining crypto) please go and find it and show me what I want. You can charge sale commission, get paid for advertising, I don’t care. Give me the interface where I can enter categories, keywords, wish lists, etc. and you show me what I am looking for. So if I enter “man’s running shoes under 50 dollars” please show me advertising for ONLY man’s running shoes under 50 dollars, not basketball shorts, and for the love of G-d no yoga pants. Please don’t assume I don’t know what I want, or when I see the goddamned yoga pants I will start crying and buy it in every color imaginable. If I don’t see anything I like I will change the parameters, increase the price range, I’ll adjust. If I enter “European vacation”, okay, go to town, show me what you’ve got, but not advertising for cruise-ship trips down the Yongding river, not trips to Alaska, Europe, that’s all I want! And if I enter “present for Mom”, again give me your ideas for a present that’s all.

If you can do that, we all will be better off. The data you collect from poor internet junkies like me will be priceless. Don’t you want to know what we really want? And for a change, I will get from you what is really useful.

I am tired of the relationship we have so far. You and your advertising clients have all the power. You can make me look at the ads based on any keywords you people choose, my previous searches, whatever, regardless if that keyword have anything to do with my interests right now. Your smart advertising slingers can think of all the associations they want, the truth is I almost never see advertising I want. So let’s change the word of advertising, I will start telling you what I want to spend money on and you can start showing me things that are relevant to me.

Can you do that for me? Please, pretty please? If you do, I promise to love social media again!

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Dan Raykhman, CEO of Fungible Network

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