THE IAB TESTIFIES BEFORE CONGRESS
IAB Urges Congress to Protect Consumer's Access to Free Online Information and Entertainment
The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) testified last week before the House Consumer Protection Subcommittee warning Congress that proposed legislative solutions around spyware could do more harm than good. H.R. 964, the SPY Act, is intended to target surreptitiously downloaded software, otherwise known as "spyware." While the goal is well-intended, the proposed legislation could negatively impact the online and interactive advertising industry, and ultimately a consumer's access to free online information, entertainment and unparalleled products and services.
We believe this legislation deserves a fresh look by this new Congress. We therefore have urged the Subcommittee to consider three key factors. First, any legislative solution must be technology neutral. Given the astonishing rate at which technology advances, legislative attempts to regulate it have proven difficult to craft and often result in unintended consequences. Nobody wants legislation that will stifle improvements in the technology of the future. Second, rather than regulate the technology itself, Congress should seek to regulate the abuses of the technology. By focusing their efforts here, we firmly believe Congress can achieve real progress in the fight against spyware. Lastly, legislators should acknowledge the great progress made by the Federal Trade Commission and state enforcement authorities in recent years. These organizations have brought an increasingly greater number of complaints against spyware companies and through their law enforcement activities and settlements, have provided legitimate industry actors with clear guidelines on what is and is not acceptable under existing law.
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The 2007 Leadership Forum: Performance Marketing was held on March 14 and from registration to the final cocktail toast, this year's Leadership Forum: Performance Marketing was an unprecedented success. Performance Marketing has indisputably changed and both marketer and consumer adoption of the plethora of new Interactive tools is transforming it into one of the most critical and exciting pieces of the marketing mix. Here are some highlights:
Digital video is one of the most exciting tools to arrive into the already jam-packed Interactive arsenal. Consumers and marketers alike have embraced it awed by its amazing power to connect and engage. It's revolutionizing Interactivity as we know it and it's only the beginning. At this year's Leadership Forum: Digital Video, we'll bring together the industry's best thinkers, to inform and educate marketers and agencies on the most pressing issues facing the advancement of online video and emerging technologies. People like, Jason Hirschorn, president of Sling Media Entertainment Group who will share how he and his team are building even richer more engaging experiences for their customers.
Calendar of Events:
April 15th, 1pm – 6pm Attend this one-day workshop as part of Re:think 2007, ARF's annual convention and expo. The ARF and industry leaders have studied the first decade of online advertising performance and research. These findings will be shared and the published online advertising guide, The Online Advertising Playbook will be publicly released. From over 1,200 case studies, The ARF has synthesized the core truths about what works and how it works to better understand interactive advertising. Learn inside insights from the ARF and the team of online experts. Digitas and Avenue A/Razorfish will deconstruct two case studies of online success stories, play by play, every trial and error step of the way. These cases will provide discussions and analysis of the Playbooks lessons learned.
What is causing your ad impression discrepancies? How much of your traffic is really from your customers vs. non-human agents? Are you filtering with the same list as the third party ad servers and other publishers? Who's really visiting your web site? How are your customers using your site? The IAB/ABCe International Spiders & Bots List can help you answer all these questions. It is the most comprehensive and current public list of non-human user agents in the world. Updated monthly by some of the largest publishers and most experienced web-audit experts, this list is necessary for accurately filtering your advertising and web server logs. It knows which bots are still active and which are not. The major publishers and third-party ad-servers are using it, and if discrepancies are an issue for you, you should be using it too. Without it, you will never know what is real and what is not. Contact Jeremy Fain (jeremy@iab.net) if you have questions or subscribe now by clicking here. Measurement Certification Update:
Committee Feature
The Search Committee Member companies participating on this committee include:
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