Have you heard about the Netflix prize?
The mail-order movie rental mogul is offering $1 million to anyone who can develop an online movie recommendation software that is 10% more accurate at predicting what people will like than its current algorithm.
The serious size of the purse is an indication of just how badly Netflix wants to get a skosh better at producing recommendations its users feel good about. $1 million: That’s a lot of Jujubes.
I applaud the effort. But while the Netflix competition is slated to continue at least until 2011, its time may already be running out.
We’re becoming more accustomed to getting our reviews and recommendations the old-fashioned way: from real people, most of whom we’ll never meet face to face. With more user-generated content on Web sites, going to the Internet to find advice on everything from game consoles to guinea fowl recipes will become more personal all the time.
Those less structured environments are more effective at directing preferences because they work in a social context. People join a community, post a few comments, perhaps exchange notes or pokes with other members and get to feel they know the group. That gives them the confidence to sort through the picks and pans for the ones they feel they can trust.
Of course, the Web will always have a place for structured merchandising. Software is behind two of the biggest success stories in e-commerce, Google and Amazon.
But I believe marketers and promoters are going to have to get more active about incorporating social networks and communities into their campaigns as our Internet use matures. I can foresee a point at which simply launching a new product with a single campaign or promo idea — even an interactive one — will seem narrow and thin without some viral potential built into it.
And the bigger the buy, the more personal I want the advice to be. I’ll take my chances on a new shampoo. When it comes to a vacation destination, a new car or a video camera, I’m going to want to hear from someone who’s been there, driven one or tried to use it during a five-year-old’s birthday party.
As the Web moves forward, it’s going to be increasingly important to get real people speaking up for your message or offering. Marketers should be trying on different tactics now to enlist those citizen advocates.
Oh, and Netflix? Consider adding a human touch to your recommendation system. At the very least, give me a rating button that replaces the bland “Not Interested” with something more expressive: for example, “Would Rather Undergo Elective Surgery Than Watch This Dreck.”
You can have that improvement for nothing.
