Via Beet.TV

Perhaps the scariest term in business today is "behavioral targeting." It also turns out to be one of the best practices around to assure the combination of consumer choice and marketing effectiveness on the Internet. And in that gap lies a dilemma for the marketing and media industries - and, indeed, for all citizens. For if fear overtakes reality, it could dramatically limit the accessibility and diversity of the Web.

Here are just a few of the blogs talking about it:

Wall Street Journal All Things Digital

AgencySPY

Defamer

Marked

The emergence of elaborated companion banners, animated overlays, repurposed text or product feeds and the ability to run non-video creative are just a few of the more recent innovations.

Video Advertising: A Performance Medium by Any Measure by Bill Todd.

Personalizing your creative video messages are also key in maximizing this technology. 

Not only can you optimize with video, but it is important to keep up to date with search as well. Max Kalehoff reminds us how to do so in this captivating blog post reminding us that we are nothing without a link.

Read More:

Video Advertising: A Performance Medium by Any Measure by Bill Todd

Making Video Personal by Phil Leggiere

You're Nothing Without a Link by Max Kalehoff

And the scary thing is: They are succeeding. I’ve detailed this “break-the-Web” effort in an article in yesterday’s Huffington Post. I urge you to print it out, circulate it, and oppose the forces that would force you under. (More on that later.)

Because virtually all of you reading this are scrambling to build your businesses in the face of a looming recession, you’ve probably been too busy to notice that a drive is underway to goad the Federal and State governments to regulate the core processes and technologies that underlie the operations of the Internet. The anti-Internet coalition’s proposals hide under the cover of very real, very legitimate concerns that citizens have over their personal privacy. But rather than focus on the real privacy dangers – loose data security policies, identity theft, Government intrusions into citizens’ phone and email records – these groups aim to shut down “advertising networks” and “third party entities,” including those central to the infrastructure of interactive media and advertising.

Hatred for Consumerism

If it were merely technological ignorance that’s driving them, it would be correctable. But even a casual read shows these groups are actually opposed to the consumer economy itself. And in their hatred for consumerism, they have drafted recommendations so breathtakingly broad that, if they stand, many sites will go under. Particularly vulnerable are the small, ad-supported sites that serve niche interests – the political blogs, ethnic dot-coms, and hobbyist Web sites that depend on ad networks to sell and place their ads. (I identified some of the potential victims in a Business Week article last week: Web communities like Disaboom.com, an ad-supported site for people with disabilities, run by Dr. Glen House, himself a quadriplegic.) Right behind them are the newspaper and magazine companies that are building vertical ad networks to extend their audience reach on the Web.

Here’s a sampling of some of the proposals gaining traction in Washington and State capitals:

• The Connecticut state assembly is likely to pass a bill that labels standard interactive advertising practices “unscrupulous,” and would, for the first time in the U.S., regulate the Web by creating inflexible controls on how any third party involved in Internet advertising collects and uses anonymized data.
• A New York State legislator has introduced a bill that would allow consumers to pull non-identifying information out of aggregated databases and regulate the companies that deliver 90 percent of the ads on the Web.
• Under the implicit threat of formal regulation, the Federal Trade Commission has issued guidelines that would prevent media, agencies, and marketers from using non-identifying data to make ads more relevant and products more effective for consumers. The FTC would require Web site operators to obtain permission from users for any changes in their privacy policies – paradoxically, even if the sites have no information identifying those users or means of getting in touch with them.
• In a signed editorial, The New York Times asked the Federal government to regulate the collection of the types of demographic information marketers have routinely gathered for decades, and recommended that all online data collection, including the measurement of Web traffic, be banned unless users explicitly provide permission.

Let’s be very, very clear: The IAB is utterly committed to protecting citizens’ privacy. Peoples’ names, addresses, Social Security numbers, financial and health records, and anything that can be associated with their identity ought to be under lock and seal, if that’s what they desire. All the major interactive media companies are equally unswerving in their commitment; they know (and have expressed repeatedly) that violating consumer privacy expectations is virtually an invitation to users to flee their sites for friendlier environments. We favor (and are working with other major marketing, media, and consumer associations toward) meaningful self-regulation of consumer privacy online.

But let’s be equally clear that these anti-consumerist efforts are not about protecting peoples’ identities. They are about shutting down consumer marketing – and limiting consumer choice in communications and consumption. Jeff Chester, the frequently quoted proprietor of the Center for Digital Democracy and one of the FTC’s favorite anti-Internet witnesses, has increasingly come clean on his real motivation. He opposes practices “to get individual consumers to behave or act in ways that favor or reflect the marketer’s goals,” he wrote in his blog on April 11. He went at it again this week, writing to Business Week that the Internet is “a commercial surveillance system that rivals the NSA… all so we can be encouraged to behave favorably to some marketing message.”

The paper explains how the platforms have fundamentally shifted the digital experience for consumers and advertisers alike, defines UGC and social media, provides a detailed overview of the latest advertising opportunities, and details case studies of campaigns that have successfully utilized UGC and social media.

I’m committed to finding you the hottest topics and freshest commentary in the interactive world so please feel free to email me at Shira@iab.net with articles that you feel should be posted.  I can’t promise to get to all of them, but I’ll do the best I can to pick out the most relevant and timely links to highlight in this space. Also, if you like what you see, be sure to sign up for the IABlog RSS feed.

This week I have two pieces to share with you:

1) Initiative’s most recent White Paper by Janice Finkel-Greene which discusses the upcoming transition of television signals from analog to digital. Click here to read the 2009 Digital Transition: Y2K +9?. 

2) Cathy Taylor's piece on The Future of Advertising for the Project on Excellence in Journalism. It draws together a lot of research into a one-stop-shop for understanding what’s going on in media.

Those of you who were part of the sold-out crowd know that IAB’s just-concluded Annual Meeting in Phoenix was a soaring success: We made news repeatedly, we celebrated the difference-makers who are building the interactive industry, we facilitated deal-making among member companies, and – most importantly -- we brought into the open, for public debate, the sorest, most troublesome issue for our membership: Are advertising and the media that convey it just another commodity, or do they have transcendent value for marketers and consumers?

My answer: Both.

The debate was exquisitely captured over the three days in a thrust by IAB’s new chair, Wenda Harris Millard, and a parry by Doubleclick executive Michael Rubenstein. In a widely blogged comment in her speech opening the Annual, Ms. Millard, the president, media, of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, told the packed house, “We must not trade our advertising inventory like pork bellies.” Mr. Rubenstein, the head of Doubleclick’s new online advertising exchange, responded two days later, during his appearance on a panel debating the pros and cons of exchanges. Noting that the trading mechanism and the value of the traded product are distinct from each other, as they are in the gem exchanges of Antwerp, he said: “We like to think of our publisher impressions as diamonds, not pork bellies.”

Please note that at the end of this clog, I intend to give a major-league plug for our March 31 conference that is devoted solely to this subject, “IAB Marketplace: Networks & Xchanges,” an all-day deep dive in New York. But now (and over the next several weeks, if I can hold to a schedule), I’d like to offer some history and analysis about the progress of advertising, and why the IAB has made the evolution of our value chain a top strategic priority for 2008.

Michael Wolf had his hands full with this panel!



Jim Spanfeller says exchanges disassociate the content provider from the advertiser.



Bill Wise feels the exchange is a platform that allows the combination of art and science.



Patrick Keane wants transparency and visibility as a publisher.



Michael Rubenstein expresses that buyers are looking to have access to inventory
and they want the controls in their hands.

• Platforms are competing for your attention.
• Media is not a commodity if you don't want it to be.
• You can surmount commoditization with insights and a great user experience.
• We must pursue the digital immigrants.
• Agencies need the help f the media and the platforms.

Ms. Sharkey took us through a deep dive into the world of BabyCenter.  Throughout her presentation, we observed a new type of media company – the insights engine.  And within this insights engine is an ecosystem of engagement or as Ms. Sharkey preferred to call it, an egosystem.  It’s made up of the ways moms interact – from the Web to blogs, email, IM, Facebook and more.  The bottom line of this presentation is that there is more to advertising and marketing on the Web than impressions and ad serving.

Kimberly Kadlec talks about how we need to go beyond the consumer and look at things differently.




Tina Sharkey illuminates the audience on the wonders of BabyCenter and the valuable insights it brings to marketers.

Our next panel was all about behavioral targeting. The member of the panel were:

Moderator: Matthew Wise, President and CEO, Q Interactive
Heidi Browning, Senior Vice President, Client Solutions, FOX Interactive Media
Bill Gossman, President and CEO, Revenue Science
Jay Krihak, Mediaedge:cia Sr Partner, Group Media Director, MEC Interaction
Joe Kyriakoza, Vice President, Product Strategy, Jumpstart Automotive Media

Each person brought his or her own expert perspective on the possibilities on behavioral targeting and where the industry needs to go to embrace and maximize value. Behavioral targeting is here and it is only going to become stronger and more embraced.

Mathew Wise was passionate when he expressed, “The Web hates protection.”


Bill Gossman believes, “the companies that are going to be good at this are the
ones who can pull out the ideal candidates for advertisers.”

Joe Kyriakoza told us how the automotive space is one of the key drivers of behavioral
targeting because of the highly coveted audience.

Jay Krihak states, “you cannot look at behavior targeting as the end all be all for direct response and branding. You must identify the individual elements.”

Heidi Browning is proud that, “you can do a focus group every day for every demographic across the country and
not get a fraction of the insights that we get each day from our users.”

Up next - Jason Kilar, CEO of Hulu.  Stay tuned!

Monday 2:30pm
Next up was Brian McAndrews, Microsoft’s new digital advertising chief. Given the current situation between Microsoft and Yahoo!, it was quite interesting to hear what McAndrews had to say in contrast to Jerry Yang and Susan Decker this morning.  He went into great detail on the work Microsoft is doing on their ad network and where they see the future heading.  One item that he placed a great deal of focus on is the data warehouse.  In order to do the kind of targeting that there is the potential to do, a massive data warehouse will be required in order to analyze, aggregate, predict and target.  He also expressed that you invent in the platform to innovate.  The digital ecosystem is all about change, innovation and opportunity.  He also stated that a comprehensive digital platform requires tremendous investment and scale, and by using that platform, publishers can invest in content and audience building.  Finally, we were treated to an overview of Microsoft’s Engagement ROI, a new system for analyzing the action driven by ads.

Moderator: John Battelle, Founder and Chairman, Federated Media Publishing
Matt Freeman, CEO, Tribal DDB
Don Friedman, EVP and CMO, Computer Associates
Lauren Wiener, Senior Vice President, Meredith Interactive Media
Peter Horan, CEO, IAC Media and Advertising

Check out some photos below -

The panel speaks of the new platforms that are based on conversation and how they are monetized.

Matt Freeman believes that in today's ecosystem, whoever gets to the senior decision maker with good ideas essentially takes money from everyone else.

Don Friedman has a simply principle – anything published must be of value to the customer

Lauren Wiener uses her insights on the CRM side to bring great ideas to Digitas and then go back to the brands.

Peter Horan talks about how were are transitioning away from the high buy-in broadcast model into a conversational model.

That's it for the morning session.  I'm off to lunch (unfortunately the events staff did not take my advice and cater from In-N-Out Burger) and then we'll have more live from Ecosystem 2.0 this afternoon!

Monday 11:15am
Chris Vollmer, Media Practices Leader from Booz Allen Hamilton, just finished his presentation on the second half of the Marketing & Media Ecosystem 2010 study. This may have been the most informative hour of the conference so far.  There really is no way for me to address the depth and grasp of this groundbreaking study in this tiny bit of cyberspace I have here for the Ecosystem 2.0 Live Blog.  In a nutshell, online activity is on a tear.  However, there are still tremendous growth opportunities and this study outlined many of those.  We'll have the full presentation on IAB.net in the coming days if not sooner.  Please remember to come back and download it.

Chris Vollmer tells us how marketers want advertising that provides a service – that consumers find valuable.

Monday 10:15am
Jerry Yang and Susan Decker just left the stage and it was quite an eventful hour.  Yang opened up with some reflection, remembering the days before the dot.com bust – when all knew that a more sustainable model had to be built.  And over the last five years, we’ve seen that. He spoke of Yahoo!’s strength in being part of our ecosystem as well as Yahoo! being an ecosystem in itself. Most importantly, he spoke of personalization and openness.  How do we drive a better experience for users and advertisers? Yang expressed that it’s about creating an advertiser and user experience that is flawless and creative.

Susan Decker then spoke about Yahoo!’s focus on making the process simpler for everyone engaging with each other in the advertising process.  She spoke of Yahoo!’s ad network, Panama, and their hope of revolutionizing the advertising industry by removing the headaches. Yahoo! hopes to leverage the power of all the users in the industry – and wants to do for the advertising industry what the DVR did for VCR users – revolutionize with simplicity in ways not thought possible.  Ultimately the goal is to allow publishers and advertisers to focus on creating and getting to the right audience at the right time.

Last but not least was a spirited Q&A with Randall Rothenberg.  Rothenberg put on his reporter's cap and wasted no time in raising the elephant in the room of Microsoft’s attempted purchase.  This issue is so public that there was not much Yang could say that we have not already read.  However, he did speak of the galvanizing affect it has had within Yahoo!.  Susan added that this combined with the fact that more R&D dollars than ever are going towards new products, both on the consumer and advertiser side, makes this one of the most exciting first quarters ever at Yahoo!.

Randall spoke of branded publishers being fearful of platform consolidation and potential commoditization. Yang feels that rather than commoditizing, platforms are building the tools to enable more creativity. The tools that are shown to publishers are garnering the reactions of “wow, I can do so much more.”

Another interesting response came when Susan Decker was asked what today’s sales force needs to do differently than 10 years ago. She stated that what is happening now allows them to focus less on ad operations and more on sales channels. They can think of how to optimize the marketing funnel – how to increase awareness and branding. They can now use any product online to achieve a goal – search, video, mobile – it’s not just about display.

Overall, a very special session to watch, especially given how busy the folks at Yahoo! must be these days.  Chris Vollmer from Booz Allen is up next to talk about the second half of Marketing & Media Ecosystem 2010.  Stay tuned for more!

Jerry Yang asks "how do we drive a better experience for our users and our advertisers?"

Susan Decker is all smiles as she speaks about Yahoo!'s new ad network.

In response to the ownership of data,Yang expresses, "The consumer is still the king and they ultimately decide how they want to respond in this medium. We know there is an ecosystem developing.  Now we have to figure out the rules.”

Monday 8:55am
Good morning and welcome back to the Ecosystem 2.0 Live Blog from the IAB Annual Meeting in Phoenix, AZ.  We will once again be covering all the action as it happens.  Last night ended on a very fun note with a wonderful outdoor networking reception.  All in attendance looked to have a great time and we'll have a gallery of photos up soon on IAB.net. Right now, the general session room is filling up as everyone in attendance is waiting to hear what Jerry Yang and Susan Decker of Yahoo! will have to say.  Stay tuned for more!

Rick Brunner does some entertaining for Rich LeFurgy and the rest of the welcome reception last night.

Wenda Harris Millard believes the coming year in media will be more volitile and hair-raising than the one that just passed.

Sunday Evening 6:15pm
Jim Spanfeller just left the stage after a brief reflection on this two-year tenure as Chairman of the IAB Board.  He pointed out three key items on his agenda when he took the position two years ago.  The first is making metrics more transparent as well as referenceable between online and offline media - something that the IAB has put a tremendous amount of diligence and effort into. Second was giving the IAB a seat in Washington, something achieved just over a year ago when the IAB opened its Washington, DC office.  And finally, he talked about content and how people go to the internet for great content - both editorial and services and we need to recognize that more than ever.

Spanfeller states, "We need to acknowledge, nourish and recognize great content."

Sunday Evening 6:00pm
A pleasant and well deserved surprise as Randall Rothenberg givens Jim Spanfeller an award for his contributions to the IAB and the industry.

Sunday Evening 5:30pm
Let’s get the show on the road!  Randall Rothenberg, IAB President and CEO just opened up with some powerful remarks. He emphasized that this conference is about coming together to respond to industry demands.  It is incumbent on us to know and write the rules that will guide interactive moving forward.  Everyone is this room works hard to compete against each other and that drives tremendous growth.  But at the same time, we must also be willing to work together.  This is crucial as we work to drive ownership of the consumer.  He stated it best when he said “Ecosystem 2.0 is all of us working together to build businesses and improve lives.”

Rothenberg draws smiles from the rooms when he says “We must be willing to beat each others brains out and we must be willing to work together.”

Sunday Evening 5:00pm
Hello and welcome to the Ecosystem 2.0 live blog from the IAB Annual Meeting in Phoenix, Arizona. Right now there’s a great buzz in the room. The general session is slowly filling up in anticipation of Randall Rothenberg, Jim Spanfeller and Wenda Harris Millard taking the stage to open the meeting. Stay tuned for photos, updates and commentary as the evening continues. And, please post your comments, questions and observations below. Remember to hit refresh throughout the next two days to keep up with all the action.