Disney CEO says young consumers "don't care" about behavioural targeting privacy

by Noelle McElhatton, marketingdirectmag.co.uk 27-Jul-09, 08:00

LONDON - In perhaps the most high profile pronouncement so far on the controversial issue of behavioural targeting, the chief executive of Walt Disney has declared his support for the technology and its commercial capabilities.

Robert Iger told the Fortune Brainstorm Tech conference in California last week that media companies should use individual tracking data to target ads and argued that younger people "don't care" about the privacy aspects around this.

He said he was "actually pretty bullish about what technology is going to allow in terms of behavioural tracking. I think we are going to have information to sell to marketers."

Iger was a member of the conference's "Digital Kingdom: New Business Models For a Media Giant" panel.

Advertising will grow more sophisticated as media firms begin tracking consumer preferences and selling the data on to advertisers, he said.

Iger acknowledged privacy concerns about behavioural targeting, but argued that such complaints generally came from older consumers.

"Kids don't care," Iger said, adding that his own adult children "can't figure out what I'm talking about" when he asks them about their online privacy concerns.

Media companies can boost online sales by either selling consumer information or by marketing directly to consumers based on individual tastes.

"If we know that you've gone online and looked at five different autos online, you are a great consumer for us to serve up a 30-second ad for a car," Iger said.

Comments

John Gallen - 27/07/2009

The 'kids don't care' because the kids are not aware. That still does not mean that they approve.

Charlie Baker - 27/07/2009

As a 26 year old, I probably still count as a kid. I don't see the issue with behavioural targeting at all. I'd much rather see ads that applied to me, rather than 20 Tampax ads and a few free Bingo. If anything it ads to the content of the site and gives the impression the site is aimed directly at me.

Joe Hughes - 27/07/2009

Lack of understanding like this is exactly why traditional media is suffering so badly at the moment. This is another attempt by traditional media trying to fix a broken business model with a broken idea. I actually blogged on brand republic a few weeks about this subject, I won't go through the whole argument again but just look at the case of Phorm and the EU's reaction to what it did with BT. Even if kids don't care\(Which as the comment by John pointed out there is a big difference between not understanding and not caring) The EU do.