I agree, activity based targeting is the future which is why I think that the mobile phone will be the dominant advertising platform in the future. Am writing about this today.

Can it be that the traditional Target Group thinking leads us on a more obvious path of what Stephen King defined as “Old Science” in his article Advertising Art or Science? And what we need to do is remove ourselves from this a bit to scientific and linear approach on how to create solutions and become more imaginative.

Of course we need knowledge and insight in order to create attractive advertising, but the Target Group approach might be a bit to old-school academic? We might end up looking for solutions in all the wrong places. Places that don’t really exit outside our research.

OK, I’m rambling here :o) I’ll try to gather my thoughts and repost :o)

I would of course recommend having a look at what Indi Young is doing with her Mental Models. It’s a bit of area, but she has some great insights.
http://www.rosenfeldmedia.com/books/mental-models/

Also thanks for the tip – missed this the first time http://russelldavies.typepad.com/advertising_practitioner/2008/03/non-obvious-sur.html

Interestingly one of the more interesting conversations I’ve had in digital with a well respected marketeer in the States is the Non obvious data relationships that Russell posted about.

My brunch companion’s assertion was that the auto industry can pretty much pick up who wants to buy a car even if they state categorically they don’t. Another nail in the coffin for a lot of research.

Good to catch up finally in San Fran!