Recent trends and developments in the fields of Big Data, Machine Learning, and Artificial Intelligence are completely transforming the way brands are engaging and communicating with their audience, allowing more personalized communications than ever. With the spread of social networking sites, such as Facebook, YouTube or Instagram a new opportunity arises for companies to connect to their consumers. However, since social media personalization implies the collection and analysis of highly personal data, consumers may develop negative reactions, attitudes or perceptions towards personalized advertising. Research covers extensively issues such as privacy concerns, invasiveness, forced exposure or irritation, which can lead to advertising avoidance. Though understanding the user perspective is crucial, the topic advertising avoidance in the context of personalization, especially in social media environments, hasn’t been discussed at great length. The purpose of this thesis is to understand how YouTube users experience personalized advertising while using the platform. The empirical findings of this thesis contribute to the ongoing research on personalized advertising within a social media setting. In addition, by understanding what can influence personalized ad avoidance on YouTube and describing how consumers express ad avoidance on the platform, this thesis aims to nurture a deeper understanding of the phenomenon. This study is based on an interpretative, abductive as well as a qualitative research design. It uses semi-structured interviews to explore the views, experiences, beliefs, and motivations of individual participants as well as focus groups that can leverage group dynamics to generate new qualitative data. The results of this thesis show that YouTube users experience ad avoidance in relationship with personalized ads for several reasons linked to prior negative attitudes, perceived goal impediment or ad irritation. The analysis of the findings revealed that users can experience cognitive, affective and behavioral ad avoidance as presented in the literature, but a theoretical model which can perfectly explain the phenomena of personalized ad avoidance on social media is currently not existent. While some antecedents claimed by the previously mentioned theoretical frameworks were also visible in the study, additional aspects may have an impact on how consumers experience personalized advertising avoidance in the social media environment, and more specifically on YouTube.

Syfte: Syftet med studien är att undersöka hur regleringar av insamling av kunddata påverkar B2C-företagens digitala marknadsföring, vilka konsekvenser som uppstår, samt hur denna förändring hanterats.  Metod: Studien är baserad på en kvalitativ metod. För insamling av empiriskt material har semistrukturerade intervjuer utförts där en intervjuguide skapades som är baserat på den teoretiska referensramen. Med en tematisk analys fick vi fram tre olika teman.  Resultat och slutsats: Studien visar att B2C-företag initialt påverkades negativt med mindre lönsamhet. Studien visar också hur företagen lyckats hantera förändringarna genom att exempelvis jobba med fler sociala plattformar och anpassa marknadsföringen utefter plattformens förutsättningar. Examensarbetets bidrag: Studiens teoretiska bidrag är ett resultat som kan överföras till B2C-företag både i Sverige och utanför. Det praktiska bidraget är hur verksamheter kan anpassa sina strategier och vilken typ av åtgärder som kan implementeras för att lösa problem av liknande natur.  Förslag till vidare forskning: På grund av att denna studie inriktar sig på B2C-företag rekommenderar vi forskning kring B2B-företagför att tillgodogöra mer kunskap om ämnet. / Aim: The aim of the study is to investigate how data regulations affect B2C companies’ digital marketing, the consequences, and how this change was handled. Method: The study is based on a qualitative method. The gathering of empirical material was conducted with semi-structured interviews with the assistance of an interview guide based on the theoretical framework. With a thematic analysis we identified three different themes. Result and Conclusions: The study shows that B2C companies were initially negatively impacted with less profitability. The study also shows how companies managed to handle the changes by working with more social media platforms and adapt the marketing according to the platform’s conditions.  Contribution of the thesis: The study’s theoretical contributions are a result that can be transferred to B2C companies both in Sweden and abroad. The practical contribution is how companies can adapt their strategies. Suggestions for future research: Since this study focuses on B2C companies, we suggest more research on the effects for B2B companies to assimilate more knowledge

Digital marketing is constantly adapting and evolving in line with technological advances. One of these advances is the digitalization, which has given rise to Programmatic Advertising (PA). In order to practice PA, the companies need to collect data about consumers' preferences and personal interests. On the other hand, consumers have a need to protect their privacy. The needs of these two parties cross each other which creates the tension, called the Personalization-privacy paradox. In this study, we intend to investigate consumers' attitudes towards PA and whether personalization gives rise to improved browsing experiences or evenviolates their privacy. A quantitative study was conducted, where the independent variable was called Personalization and the dependent variables - Attractiveness, Annoyance, Invasiveness and Trade-off. The results of bivariate regression analysis showed that all of the dependent variables of the study were statistically significant. The results also illustrated that the majority of the respondents experienced PA ads as beneficial, but also invasive. These results are in line with the Utility maximization theory, as PA ads were considered both beneficial and risky. Therefore, consumers would have incentives to disclose their personal information as long as the percieved benefits would outweigh perceived risks, generated by PA. We concluded that there are no clear, predetermined answers to what attitudes consumers have towards PA, but this can vary from case to case, which is in line with both the Privacy calculus theory and the Utility maximization theory. This involves a risk-benefit analysis, performed by consumers, where perceived benefits exceeding perceived risks would generate positive attitudes and vice versa

In recent years, personalized marketing has developed and the use of it has become more common in social media in Sweden. It has also increased as a preferred marketing method within the real estate industry after seeing how successful it has been in other industries. Personal marketing means a gradual change for real estate agents and also for their consumers to be exposed to residential objects in this way, as trust between the parties can be problematic. A house buying process can go quickly when a dream house is found, but it is also a comprehensive deal that not can be too impulsive. The purpose of the thesis is to study how individualized advertisements of residential properties are applied in the real estate industry and how potential customers experience this type of advertising. An interview was conducted with real estate agents to be able to investigate how real estate companies work with the method. Consumers have been interviewed to get a confirmation of how they experience personalized advertising in regards to the real estate industry and the fact that it can be perceived as a sales tool and thus can affect the real estate agent's trust and independent role. The interviews conducted were of a semi-structured nature and were based on an interview guide. The result of the study show that real estate agents generally believe that the method is successful but that it is not confirmed by the consumers interviewed. Consumers considered that the personalized ads can generally be perceived as intrusive and a threat to privacy. In the analysis, result and theory are linked together to be able to describe similarities and differences with other industries. The analysis revealed some results, which among other things is that consumers have a positive attitude towards personalized advertisements regarding residential objects if the real estate agents use the integrity for the right purpose. In our conclusion, it has emerged from the real estate agents that the personalized advertisements of residential properties have resulted in more speculators and higher prices, which has been confirmed by consumers. It is also important that the real estate agents not only put focus in selling the objects, it is also important to show the consumer confidence so the personalized ads can work in the real estate industry. / Under de senaste åren har individanpassade annonser utvecklats och blivit allt vanligare i sociala medier i Sverige. Fastighetsmäklarbranschen har under de senaste åren tillämpat marknadsföringsmetoden eftersom den har visat sig fungerat bra inom andra branscher. Det kan innebära en successiv omställning för både fastighetsmäklare som konsumenter att bli exponerad av bostadsobjekt via annonserna eftersom förtroendet mellan parterna kan bli problematiskt. En bostadsaffär är en omfattande affär som inte får bli impulsiv, samtidigt kan en köpprocess gå snabbt när ett drömboende hittas. Syftet med uppsatsen är att studera hur individanpassade annonser av bostadsobjekt tillämpas inom fastighetsmäklarbranschen samt hur potentiella kunder upplever den här annonseringen. En intervju har genomförts med fastighetsmäklare för att kunna undersöka hur fastighetsmäklarföretag arbetar med fenomenet. Konsumenterna har intervjuats för att få en bekräftelse på hur de upplever individanpassade annonser av bostadsobjekt inom branschen, med hänsyn till att det kan upplevas som ett säljverktyg och därmed kan påverka fastighetsmäklarens förtroende och oberoende roll. De intervjuer som genomförts har varit i semistrukturerad karaktär och har utgått från en intervjuguide. I empirin har det framgått att fastighetsmäklarna generellt anser att marknadskommunikationen fungerar bra men att det inte blir bekräftat av de konsumenter som intervjuats. Konsumenterna ansåg att de individanpassade annonserna generellt kan uppfattas som påträngande och ett hot på integriteten. I analysen kopplades empirin och teorin för att kunna beskriva likheter och skillnader mot andra branscher. I analysen framkom det att konsumenterna har en positiv inställning till individanpassade annonser gällande bostadsobjekt om fastighetsmäklarna använder den insamlade data av rätt syfte. I vår slutsats har det framgått från fastighetsmäklarna att de individanpassade annonserna av bostadsobjekt har gett fler spekulanter och högre slutpriser vilket har bekräftats av konsumenterna. Det framgick också att det är viktigt att fastighetsmäklarna inte enbart satsar på att sälja objektet, utan även visar förtroende för konsumenten för att de individanpassade annonserna ska fungera inom fastighetsmäklarbranschen.