The Next Frontier of Digital Targeting

 
A recent article on digital targeting on AdAge.com discussed the capabilities that YuMe, a video ad network, has developed to target individual households with custom ads.  The technology is at a premium, so the cost to do so is relative high for the few households that match the advertiser’s desired target, however there would be very little waste.  Currently the strategy is being piloted by Hyundai, which has the dollars to test such an innovative placement strategy.
YuMe has built upon this strategy by retargeting in-steam video ads for screens not associated with cable viewing.  At the moment, behavioral profiling is difficult on mobile devices because smart phones do not allow for the same cookie placement that desktop computers do.
I think the next logical next step is for a multi-screen technology company, such as AT&T, which has mobile, cable and telephone properties to tie all of their data together across all platforms and target it’s users based on data they have already collected.
For example, I think eventually we will be able to target a household that subscribes to AT&T U-verse and AT&T as their mobile and landline telephone provider to have their behaviors profiled and also tied back to purchases made on the same credit card that is used to pay the above for the above services.  If this is possible, and doesn’t invade privacy laws, we could understand the demographics and behaviors of consumers on a household level and serve appropriate advertising messages to them on the same screens that have helped us collect the data.