Digital Marketing Is Broken And This Browser Fixes It
Let’s face it, marketing in 2021 is kind of screwed up.
The same machine learning algorithms that destabilize society by spreading manipulative disinformation worldwide are used to feed us an increasingly creepy stream of hyper-personalized content and advertising. We as consumers feel spied on and exploited, as if someone is eavesdropping on our thoughts and using that information to predict the best way to invade our brains and open our wallets.
We Feed Ourselves To The Machine
As a digital marketing expert, I often feel like I’m in the belly of the beast. I’m covered in social media grease, gripping the monkey wrench of machine learning, tightening the screws on some monolithic boiler unit feeding hot profits up to the shareholders sunbathing on the upper decks. The fuel is human attention, and when we pick up our smartphones, we shovel our mindloads into the furnace of the internet.
Most marketers justify the dubious morality of the current system with something like, “When used correctly, digital marketing connects products and services with the people who want and need them far more efficiently than was previously possible.”
In other words, the ability for an algorithm to predict what we will want to purchase next is exactly what we have have always wanted. Yeah, right.
Imagine a black box of artificial intelligence serving you a customized, endless stream of entertainment content, embedded with advertising. It knows exactly what to show you next to get you to shovel as much of your attention and money into the machine, which in turn sends back data that makes the system even smarter.
Does that sound like your idea of a good time? Is that what you always wanted as a consumer? As a human being?
The answer for most of us is “no”, and yet TikTok’s massive popularity tells a different story. We clearly enjoy what the black boxes serve up, and why wouldn’t we? That’s their purpose.
We find ourselves in a double bind we can’t escape: Clearly, digital marketing technology continues to develop down a very problematic path, but few of us are willing to turn off the content tap and stop scrolling to infinity.
There must be a better way between feeding the beast and slaying it by unplugging completely.
Be Brave
One answer may lie where the digital marketing problem begins: In your browser. Chrome, Edge, and Firefox track your every move and interaction. Browser data is fed into the creepy digital marketing machine. Your attention generates data, and your data is used to attract more attention in a never-ending cycle.
Many people turn to ad blockers, VPNs and other technological solutions. While these are increasingly mainstream and great tools, what if you could replace the browser itself with one based on a business model that fixes what’s broken with digital marketing by offering a better solution for everyone?
Enter the Brave browser. Created by the creator of JavaScript and former CEO of Mozilla (makers of Firefox), Brave is, above all, a great web browser. Based on the same open-source Chromium code that forms the foundation of Chrome, it actually loads webpages 3x faster on average. Ad blocking and extended privacy features are built in. The clean, intuitive user interface rivals all other browsers. For my money (actually, Brave is 100% free), it’s is the best browser on the market, and that’s why I’ve made it my default.
But I haven’t gotten to what is by far the coolest aspect of Brave: The Basic Attention Token. In fact, it has a real shot at being the silver bullet that fixes today’s broken digital marketing.
Here’s essentially how it works: Opt-in, and you’ll get paid in BAT cryptocurrency for browsing websites that support BAT (there are quite a few). You can also opt-in to receive notification-style ads targeted to your specific web history. Your data is anonymized and not shared with other parties, it’s just used to target relevant ads (that you can always opt out of). More BAT is paid to those who click on these ads.
From the digital marketer’s perspective, this is incredible. Brave gives companies the ability to continue using cutting-edge digital technology while respecting the privacy of their users and customers. This system also incentivizes users to click on ads and learn more about products that are actually of interest to them. The ads I’ve received on Brave have been very relevant and unobtrusive.
Still not convinced? As I am writing this, BAT cryptocurrency prices have skyrocketing, up 818% in the last year, 100% in the last month, and 20% in the last 24 hours.
So let me repeat: The Brave browser pays you to browse and view ads in BAT cryptocurrency, which is surging in price. It’s probably the best browser on the market today. Its ethics are rock-solid and it’s actively trying to fix a dangerously broken digital marketing ecosystem.
Reimagining the entire digital marketing ecosystem to benefit both consumers and businesses is just one aspect of many that make Brave a must-have app. I haven’t even touched on the super-robust, built-in privacy options which dwarf the protections of any mainstream browser.
Brave is not paying me to write this. I just find this browser to be one of the most exciting developments in web technology in the last 10 years. I believe in their mission, I believe they have a real shot at making the biggest positive change in marketing in decades. I believe we are just now beginning to see an exponential rise in adoption of BAT and the Brave browser. And I believe if you get in early now, you’ll thank me later!
