Steve Smith, reports for Behavioral Insider: “According to Peerset, an ad targeting venture that leverages social data in a unique way, our interests are reflected most accurately by our expressions online rather than our browsing history.” For example:” If you mention the word “chocolate” here and there in your online blog and comment posts, the odds are pretty good you are also interested in Audis, lacrosse, Easthampton and weeds.”
J.D. Power and Associates, famous for its quantitative measures of consumer behavior when it comes to car buying, is now adding that sort of qualitative research for its clients. Writing for Marketing Daily, Karl Greenberg, says the company’s new Auto Intelligence Monitor, combines data and insight from social media conversations about automaker brands and models with marketplace retail sales and segment data. In a semi-scholarly post for the U.K.’s Car Rental, Mark Rainford writes, “magazines are developing the core competencies required for a multi-platform future. Auto journalists will always need to be good to write, but soon every journalist is expected to be proficient in video production, presentation, editing, and some may need to know how we can develop electronic media such as Web pages and online magazines. The Internet should not be seen as a problem for auto magazines but more of a price change.”
And quotes Autocar editor-in-chief Steve Cropley: “It could be suggested that Autocar has become a hybrid magazine, printed and distributed each week, but also with a daily updated online presence at www.autocar.com.