The uncanny valley of personalisation

This article explores personalisation, looking at the possibilities offered by machine learning tech deployed on big data, but warns that adland may be more excited about developments than the customers.

The uncanny valley of personalisation: Why we must build humanity and serendipity into our marketing machines

Oliver Feldwick CHI & Partners

Automated communication that is personalised but robotic is creepy, clumsy and usually fails in its mission. Humans enjoy the journey of discovering brands by chance. We need to build serendipity into personalisation, be transparent in our messaging, and inject human insight and empathy into digital marketing as demonstrated by Amazon and Spotify.

The Admap Prize 2016 This essay was the Gold Award winner of The Admap Prize 2016. For more information visit the Prize page...

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