Customized campaign videos provide glimpse of targeted TV's future

10/29/2008 2:00 PM EDT

Apparently I'm not the only one to discover it, as some 5.2 million personalized videos had already been sent out as of early this week, according to the organization's web site. The service is completely free, of course -- this is, in effect, a customized campaign ad.

I'm not sure if it's definitively the world's first individually customized political TV commercial, but I think it may well be. In this era where targeted TV advertising is still in its infancy (see Targeted TV commercials), this customized video provides a humorous window on things to come. While most people assume targeted advertising will be based on demographic groups -- a car company showing fancy cars to wealthier viewers and barebones models to those of more moderate means, for example -- such groups in the future may seem as cumbersome as the mass audience of TV is today. In the future, TV advertising may become completely customized and individualized.

The customization here is limited to text, of course -- all they really have to work with is a first and last name -- but the integration of the text into the fast-paced video "news" report is excellent. See for yourself.