Author Archive
Anonymity in Name Only (or.. the digital advertising version of “Guess Who?”)
The latest article in the WSJ’s series on web privacy, this one from Emily Steel and Julia Angwin, drills deeper into the behavioral targeting as the catalyst for the continued chipping away at anonymity on the web. The article focuses on companies, like demand-side platform [x+1], and takes a detailed look at how they use audience targeting technology to serve specific ads to consumers based on their web behavior, past retail purchases, etc. Through the use of cookies, credit card companies can immediately place website visitors into categories and serve them different credit card offers, depending on where they fall on the socio-economic ladder. Do you seem like you have an average credit score and no college degree? You’re going to get a less desirable card offer. Been to a bunch of gambling sites lately? You might be denied outright.
Companies like [x+1] partner with analytics firms such as Nielsen to match their internet behavior with certain demographic profiles. One example is “White Picket Fences.” People in this group live in small cities, have a median household income of $53,901, are 25 to 44 years old with kids, work in white-collar or service jobs, generally own their own home, and have some college education.
It’s pretty impressive, from an technical perspective. It’s also totally creepy.. and not all together accurate. These methods not only place people into overly generalized buckets (which can be offensive), but the bigger consequence for marketers is that at the end of the day, it’s still just guesswork.
Companies that that target ads based on behavioral data from cookies, etc., are still just guessing at whether consumers will be interested in their products. I might make about as much money as the cookie says I do, but I may not actually be interested in what you’re selling. You might be getting me confused with my spouse, who actually likes going to see live concerts (I’m a listen at home while cooking dinner type of person), or you might just have the information completely wrong because you’ve used a series of data points to figure out who I am instead of just asking me.
There are better options out there. When you ask someone to sign up for your ads, you take the guesswork out by allowing consumers to tell you which products they’re interested in. You don’t need to bucket them.. they’ll do it for you. Run an ad on a relevant site, give people the opportunity to opt-in to your marketing messages, and ask them a few questions. It’s not only a more effective method for guarding consumers’ privacy, but it’s also a better way to do business by creating an engaged, loyal following for your brand.
The game “Guess Who?” went out of style in the 80s for a reason.
Wall Street Journal: A Series on Internet Privacy
Ever wonder why you look up the definition of “clay courts” on Dictionary.com, check out a few tennis rackets online, and suddenly, see ads for everything from tennis sneakers to all inclusive tennis vacations on almost EVERY site you visit? The answer, our dear friends, is called behavioral targeting and to find out more, the Wall Street Journal has launched an investigative series on online advertising and privacy. 
The Journal conducted a study to analyze the various tracking technologies deployed by advertising businesses to monitor web browsing activities of Internet users. What they found might surprise you. Here are some highlights:
- One of the fastest-growing businesses online is the business of spying on Internet users.
- The top 50 U.S. sites installed an average of 64 pieces of tracking technology on to peoples’ computers.
- New technologies scan in real time what people are doing on a web page (they can even track your medical conditions).
- This information is bought and sold in advertising exchanges, where companies sell buckets of “attributes” to marketers (college-educated men 18-24 with incomes over 30k… don’t worry, car companies know who you are!)
- Tracking is done without users’ explicit consent and often times, the sites themselves have no idea that they’re placing pixels on people’s machines. A tracking file on MSN.com that predicted age, gender, marital status, children, and home ownership status was unknown to Microsoft or Targus, the company that created the file. Neither company knew where the tracking file came from, or how it got onto MSN.com.
- “Beacons” also known as pixels and web bugs, track can track with more granularity than your every day cookie – beacons know what is being typed, and what your mouse is doing.
It’s a tricky situation. The advertising side argues that all of the free content on the web needs to be subsidized somehow (it’s just business). Politicians and consumer advocacy groups argue that this type of targeting is the equivalent of someone following you around the mall to see which stores you like and then tracking your purchases (it’s just creepy).
Our stance?
First, we think that any research/reporting that brings greater attention to the need for transparency and privacy in the online ad industry is a positive sign. At Pontiflex, we firmly support consumer choice in deciding when, how and how much data they want to provide advertisers.
Second, whether it’s behavioral targeting or mini cameras installed on people’s computers that capture retinal movements on web pages, we don’t believe that these solutions solve the core issue of understanding who you’re talking to (i.e. the actual human being), and giving them what they want.
Marketing is still, at the end of the day, about getting to know your consumers. The technological prowess of the internet should make that a whole lot easier. Not because a new type of tracking device is invented everyday, but because there are so many touch points through which a marketer can get to know people. If you want to learn more about users, build an actual relationship with them. Find out what kind of emails they want to get, understand what kind of content they want you to share with them, engage them in a dialogue. In other words, treat people like people, not like tiny pieces of data that could, maybe, somehow, if you get the data just right based on a series of generalizations, buy something.
For easy reading, here’s where you can find the WSJ series thus far:
The Web’s New Gold Mine: Your Secrets, July 30, 2010
Sites Feed Personal Details to New Tracking Industry, July 30, 2010
How to Avoid Prying Eyes, July 30, 2010
What They Know About You, July 31, 2010
The Journal’s Methodology, July 31, 2010
Microsoft Quashed Effort to Boost Online Privacy, Aug. 2, 2010
Privacy: The Latest from the FTC
According to reports by Kate Kaye of ClickZ and Wendy Davis of MediaPost, the FTC is closely examining a “Do Not Track” list for online ads. It would operate similarly to the current “Do Not Call” lists wherein consumers can opt-out of telemarketing. People would still receive online ads, but their past browsing history would not be used to target ads their way.
FTC Chairman Jon D. Leibowitz stated support for even more consumer control over online ads. He told lawmakers that he personally favored opt-in consent to behavioral targeting, a step that, in his opinion, would go further in protecting consumer privacy. In an opt-in model, people would actually have to give marketers permission to track their online behavior. Politicians argue that current privacy policies aren’t well enough understood by consumers, who may not be aware of exactly how their online data is being used.
If this legislation is passed, it could have huge implications for many advertising companies who rely on behavioral targeting and “opt-out” methods.
What will it change for us? Nothing.
We’ve built our company on the core belief that people should sign up for the ads they want to see, and that giving consumers a say over what brands they interact with is better for everyone. People feel safe; marketers get to dialogue with people who actually want to hear from them.
For more information on how online advertising should protect consumer interests, check out our privacy center.
Digital DUMBO & Pontiflex: Get your Job On
We’re thrilled to be sponsoring Digital DUMBO tomorrow night. Join us for “Get Your Job On” at The Dumbo Loft. Enjoy beer and cocktails on us, get to know some of the great companies in the neighborhood, and who knows? Maybe get yourself a new job.
Month after month, the newspapers report shrinking job numbers. However, fueled by the digital economy, DUMBO continues to grow. Why? Because there are hundreds of companies in the Digital District that are providing services that matter in the new economy. And the good news is….THEY’RE HIRING in:
- Sales
- Marketing
- Technology
- Mobile app development
- Project Management
- Client Services
- User Experience
- Visual Design
Attend the Digital DUMBO event at The Dumbo Loft on July 29th from 6:30 – 8:30 and have the chance to meet decision makers from some of the industries hottest media and technologies companies. At the event, you can find out more about hiring at HUGE, Pontiflex, The JAR Group, Carrot Creative, DealNews.com, FanFeedr among many other companies. These companies are working with some of the world’s most recognizable brands from Ford, Disney, PepsiCo, ASPCA, Tommy Hilfiger, Heinz and many others.
This will be a great chance to meet hiring managers and learn about opportunities over casual drinks!
Note: You don’t need to be actively persuing a new career to attend. The event, as usual, is open to everyone and will be in the typical Digital DUMBO format.
Where:
The Dumbo Loft
155 Water Street
Brooklyn, NY
When:
Thursday, July 29th
6:30 pm – 9:30 pm
The Business Development Institute: Social Convergence
Have you been to an event hosted by the Business Development Institute? You should.
The Pontiflex Marketing team spent the morning at “Social Convergence & The Enterprise: Case Studies and Roundtables.” It was a fantastic event. The speakers were all industry thought-leaders, the audience was highly engaged, and most importantly, the word “leverage” was only used once.
Highlights:
- Brian Kenny, Harvard Business School’s Chief Marketing and Communications Officer, speaking about cross-organizational social integration (@hbscmo).
- Jenny Dervin, Director of Corporate Comm at Jet Blue, discussing crisis management through Twitter and YouTube (@SkyWriter012).
- Stacie Bright, Sr. Communications Marketing Manager at Unilever, talking about brand building for some of the world’s biggest consumer products (Dove, Axe, etc) through social media (@Dove).
- Paul Hernacki, CTO of Definition 6, sharing insights about Coke’s pioneering social campaign (@phernacki).
- Evan Welsh, Director of Global Media Relations for SAP, presenting on how to take a B2B software company and turn it into one of the world’s most engaging brands through social and blogger outreach (@evwelsh).
Learn more about all of the speakers and register for BDI’s next event here.
User Data – What Quid Pro Quo Could Look Like…
Is it privacy that users care about, or is it control? According to The New York Times, a new start up called Bynamite, is betting on the latter.
The company argues that personal information is incredible valuable to advertisers – so why should Facebook, Google, Yahoo and other businesses that make money from selling personal information get all of the benefits? Instead, consumers should have insight into and control over what gets shared and how. And, they should get something for it.
Bynamite proposes a model in which consumers would receive pop-up alerts telling them what information ad networks have on them. Users can then change that info to reflect their interests more accurately. For example, if ad networks think you’re interested in car ads because you fit a particular demographic profile, but in reality, you’re not interested at all, you can change your settings so that you receive more relevant ads.
In exchange for personal information, consumers would be rewarded through virtual currency, micropayments, or discounts.
As advocates for consumer control over personal information, we’re certainly intrigued. What do you think?
New opportunities from online brand dollars…
Lightspeed, a global VC firm, predicted today that branding dollars will continue to move online as the internet proves itself an effective medium for meeting branding objectives:
What’s been holding it back? Traditionally, internet advertising has been focused around direct response metrics: impressions, clicks, interactions – and not branding metrics: awareness, purchase intent, familiarity. Currently, the most common solution for big brands who are looking for brand safety, reach/frequency, etc. are portals and large sites which are quite expensive.
The opportunity? For more cost-efficient, scalable media solutions that address branding goals.
Read the entire post on the Lightspeed blog.
The best soccer commercial EVER?
In honor of this past World Cup, AdFreak posted the 10 best soccer commercials of all time. They chose Nike’s “Write the Future” as number one. Do you agree? Watch and decide:
P is for Pet Crazy
We’ve all heard the stereotypes that dog people and cat people are different. But are they really? And, how do you find people online who care about pets but aren’t exclusively going to pet related sites?
Meghan Keane of eConsultancy has the answers. She recently wrote about our work with PetPlace.com, a Nielsen top 10 pet site, that has been steadily growing its house file by paying attention to two very important details:
1. There are big differences between dog lovers and cat lovers, and email content should vary accordingly.
2. People concerned about their own health are concerned about pet health as well.
Using Pontiflex as an email and social acquisition platform, PetPlace ran a targeted ad campaign to reach women 25-54 on health and pet related sites, and based on their preferences between dogs and cats, sent them different content.
The result? Sign-ups acquired through Pontiflex matched organic sign-ups in terms of open and click rates, product purchase rates, and advertising involvement rates.
Since starting the campaign in August 2009, the site has added over 50,000 qualified subscribers and plans to double its email database.
Read the entire case study on eConsultancy.
Political Advertising: What People Really Want
Here at Pontiflex, our hunch has always been that American voters get a bum rap. Yes, okay, past elections haven’t had the best track record (during the 2008 election, only 56.8% of the public rocked the vote). But, is it really that people are disengaged? Is there space for political advertising to combat apathy and get people more involved?
To find out, we partnered with Harris Interactive to conduct a survey to see how people really feel about political advertising. What are the best channels for increasing political engagement? What kinds of information are people most willing to share? How often should campaigns and causes be reaching out?
The answers can be summarized in the following sentence (or, because we’re talking politics here, in the following “sound bite”):
People actually want to hear from political campaigns and causes between election cycles, and the best way to reach them is through email and social media (not through broadcast, direct mail, or telephone).
Here are the stats:
- Of those willing to give out personal information to political campaigns and causes, 85% would be willing to give email and social media information in the future.
- In contrast, 32% of adults would be willing to share their home and/or work address; and only 18% would be willing to share their phone number.
- More than half of adults (55%) want to hear about political campaigns/causes that are important to them from a candidate or elected official before new/re-election campaigns begin via email multiple times a year.
- 63% of adults said that emails they have signed up for are at least somewhat effective in motivating them to get more involved (donate, share information with friends and family, volunteer) with a political cause or campaign. Broadcast ranks second (56% say it is at least somewhat effective in motivating them to get more involved through TV/radio ads).
So, if you’re a political candidate or a cause marketer, don’t wait until the next election cycle to reach out to voters. Get them to sign up for your newsletters and start sending emails now. Start connecting with them on Facebook and Twitter today. And make sure that when people hear from you, it’s on a regular basis.
Voter turnout for the next election is yet to be seen, But when it comes to political advertising, the people have cast their ballots: frequent communication via email and social media wins the popular vote.
Read the full survey details (including methodology) in the official release.
Arun Krishnan
Jason Penta
zlasker
Roshan Bangera
Jordan Cohen
eadlman
Geoff Grauer
Jerrie Gullick
Jon Beardsley
Nick Herman
Stacy Huggins
Tiffany Sumner
Avantika Banerjee
Daniel Egan
Lisa Khan
tgeisenheimer
pontiflexrob
Ganesh Prabhu
