Category: behavioral targeting watch

Online Advertising: “Overnight” Ratings–a la TV– Come to the Internet, inc. Mobile. Facebook Endorses Nielsen’s Cross-Platform Tracking

For years, we have explained that the Internet’s future has been tied to the TV and advertising business models of the past.  So it’s not surprising that this week comScore announced that “digital overnights” are now part of its service offerings for marketers and advertisers.  In a release, they explain that its “new service features several groundbreaking enhancements for digital media planning and optimization, including the availability of digital GRP “overnights,” campaign reporting across global markets, verification of ad delivery by audience and geography, and detailed campaign analysis by creative and placement strategy…By offering views of digital performance that have long been the standard in the TV business, any buyer should be supremely confident about allocating dollars to the platform where the most valuable attention can be found.”

Nielsen also added ratings for online programming to its product offerings, as part of the move to measure and track users across all platforms, including mobile.  As its release noted:  “marketers and media companies alike will now have a simpler way to measure the combined reach of TV, the web and even mobile advertising…Nielsen will be able to provide reach, frequency and Gross Rating Point (GRP) measures for online advertising campaigns of nearly any size, running nearly anywhere on the web.  Campaign reporting will be available within just days after the launch of a campaign, providing vital delivery information in-flight to both advertisers and publishers.”   Facebook, which is partnering with Nielsen to help expand its big brand ad selling business, enthusiastically endorsed the new product:  “More and more marketers are creating integrated, cross-platform campaigns and we need a better way to measure how they perform,” said Mike Murphy, Vice President, Global Sales, Facebook. “We think creative campaigns are more effective when marketers combine TV and digital in a way that extends the big idea online and makes it social through an ongoing, two-way connection.  With their expertise, Nielsen can help marketers measure the impact of true cross-platform campaigns.”

Google’s Ad Targeting on Finance & Health via its Exchange: Do you know this?

Google tells users, policymakers and reporters that its “ad preference manager” is an effective consumer tool that addresses behavioral marketing.  But on its Doubleclick Ad Exchange, advertisers can use Google provided tools to target online consumers based on a wide range of product and issue “vertical” categories, including health and finance.  Here’s what Google says advertisers can target in the health and financial area.  Ask yourself.  Did you know this and shouldn’t all this be truly transparent, under full user control, with real safeguards about how such information can be obtained and used?  We do. Google isn’t the only one doing this, of course:
Doubleclick Category Targeting Codes:
category::Finance
category::Finance>Accounting & Auditing
category::Finance>Accounting & Auditing>Tax Preparation & Planning
category::Finance>Banking
category::Finance>Credit & Lending
category::Finance>Credit & Lending>Auto Financing
category::Finance>Credit & Lending>College Financing
category::Finance>Credit & Lending>Credit Cards
category::Finance>Credit & Lending>Debt Management
category::Finance>Credit & Lending>Home Financing
category::Finance>Currencies & Foreign Exchange
category::Finance>Financial Planning
category::Finance>Grants & Financial Assistance
category::Finance>Insurance
category::Finance>Insurance>Auto Insurance
category::Finance>Insurance>Health Insurance
category::Finance>Insurance>Home Insurance
category::Finance>Investing
category::Finance>Investing>Commodities & Futures Trading
category::Finance>Retirement & Pension

Health
category::Health
category::Health>Aging & Geriatrics
category::Health>Aging & Geriatrics>Alzheimer’s Disease
category::Health>Alternative & Natural Medicine
category::Health>Alternative & Natural Medicine>Acupuncture & Chinese Medicine
category::Health>Alternative & Natural Medicine>Cleansing & Detoxification
category::Health>Health Conditions
category::Health>Health Conditions>AIDS & HIV
category::Health>Health Conditions>Allergies
category::Health>Health Conditions>Arthritis
category::Health>Health Conditions>Cancer
category::Health>Health Conditions>Cold & Flu
category::Health>Health Conditions>Diabetes
category::Health>Health Conditions>Ear Nose & Throat
category::Health>Health Conditions>Eating Disorders
category::Health>Health Conditions>GERD & Digestive Disorders
category::Health>Health Conditions>Genetic Disorders
category::Health>Health Conditions>Heart & Hypertension
category::Health>Health Conditions>Infectious Diseases
category::Health>Health Conditions>Infectious Diseases>Parasites & Parasitic Diseases
category::Health>Health Conditions>Infectious Diseases>Vaccines & Immunizations
category::Health>Health Conditions>Injury
category::Health>Health Conditions>Neurological Disorders
category::Health>Health Conditions>Obesity
category::Health>Health Conditions>Pain Management
category::Health>Health Conditions>Pain Management>Headaches & Migraines
category::Health>Health Conditions>Respiratory Conditions
category::Health>Health Conditions>Respiratory Conditions>Asthma
category::Health>Health Conditions>Skin Conditions
category::Health>Health Conditions>Sleep Disorders
category::Health>Health Education & Medical Training
category::Health>Health Foundations & Medical Research
category::Health>Medical Devices & Equipment
category::Health>Medical Facilities & Services
category::Health>Medical Facilities & Services>Doctors’ Offices
category::Health>Medical Facilities & Services>Hospitals & Treatment Centers
category::Health>Medical Facilities & Services>Medical Procedures
category::Health>Medical Facilities & Services>Medical Procedures>Medical Tests & Exams
category::Health>Medical Facilities & Services>Medical Procedures>Surgery
category::Health>Medical Facilities & Services>Physical Therapy
category::Health>Medical Literature & Resources
category::Health>Medical Literature & Resources>Medical Photos & Illustration
category::Health>Men’s Health
category::Health>Mental Health
category::Health>Mental Health>Anxiety & Stress
category::Health>Mental Health>Depression
category::Health>Mental Health>Learning & Developmental Disabilities
category::Health>Mental Health>Learning & Developmental Disabilities>ADD & ADHD
category::Health>Nursing
category::Health>Nursing>Assisted Living & Long Term Care
category::Health>Nutrition
category::Health>Nutrition>Special & Restricted Diets
category::Health>Nutrition>Special & Restricted Diets>Cholesterol Issues
category::Health>Nutrition>Vitamins & Supplements
category::Health>Oral & Dental Care
category::Health>Pediatrics
category::Health>Pharmacy
category::Health>Pharmacy>Drugs & Medications
category::Health>Public Health
category::Health>Public Health>Health Policy
category::Health>Public Health>Occupational Health & Safety
category::Health>Public Health>Poisons & Overdoses
category::Health>Reproductive Health
category::Health>Reproductive Health>Birth Control
category::Health>Reproductive Health>Erectile Dysfunction
category::Health>Reproductive Health>Infertility
category::Health>Reproductive Health>OBGYN
category::Health>Reproductive Health>Sex Education & Counseling
category::Health>Reproductive Health>Sexual Enhancement
category::Health>Reproductive Health>Sexually Transmitted Diseases
category::Health>Substance Abuse
category::Health>Substance Abuse>Smoking & Smoking Cessation
category::Health>Substance Abuse>Steroids & Performance-Enhancing Drugs
category::Health>Vision Care
category::Health>Vision Care>Eyeglasses & Contacts
category::Health>Women’s Health

Yahoo’s Targets Millions of Users for its Largest Advertisers, via a “Magic Formula” Powering its Ad Auction System

Preston McAfee Magic FormulaThat’s the formula Yahoo is using to please its largest advertisers, explains an article in The Register.  The report explains that Yahoo’s economist Preston McAfee has created a “magical formula” for its ad targeting service:  “a formula designed to keep Yahoo!’s largest advertisers as happy as possible. It lets each of those guaranteed-contract advertisers pick and choose — in remarkably precise fashion — how their ads are targeted, even though there are more than three trillion possible targets…Yes, Yahoo! has advertisers who only want to reach women between the ages of twenty and thirty. But it also has advertisers who only want to advertise in cities where the sun is shining. There are brokerage houses who only want to advertise when the stock market is up…What is really ‘magic’ about this is that it gave us a backdoor way to price three trillion different pieces of advertiser demand,” McAfee says…The setup also gives Yahoo! fine-grain control over each advertiser’s campaign. “It gives us a dial to favor an advertiser,” he continues. “If one of our advertisers is not getting enough impressions, we turn the dial and increase their bids, to make sure we fulfill the contract.”

But what’s needed is a policy formula–that creates privacy and other consumer protection safeguards.  Online marketing’s use of advanced computing systems and real-time ad auctions of data on individual users underscores the problem–the industry is running amok.   Consumers shouldn’t be subject to powerful invisible technologies that track, profile, target and sell them to the highest bidder.

Google, Time Warner, Washington Post, Verizon, Canoe Ventures [Comcast] Funding Online Ad Lobby’s Campaign Against Consumer Privacy Safeguards

The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) is a lobbying group that is working to oppose federal (or state) legislation and regulation that would protect consumer privacy online.  It recently led the lobbying campaign that removed from the new financial reform bill a key provision that would have enabled the FTC to better protect consumers.  What companies are helping fund the IAB’s Orwellian named “Consumer Protection and Education Campaign” battling consumer and privacy groups?  Here’s a list of the financial donors, who have ponied up about $500k so far.  Other companies are contributing free online ad space for the IAB’s campaign–1 billion impressions worth. The donors are:
AdMob
AudienceScience
Canoe Ventures
Cars.com
CPX Interactive
eBureau
Eyeblaster
Feeva Technology
Google
IDG.net
IM Services Group
Mediamath
Meredith Interactive
Microsoft
Quantcast
Sharethis
ShortTail
Simulmedia
Time Warner
Traffic Marketplace
Tumri
Verizon
Washington Post
WildTangent

Facebook Finagling: Getting You to Push the “Like” Button and Opt-In to Third Party Apps, Marketers, and Data Collection

As Facebook builds a larger online marketing and data collection infrastructure around the world, in the U.S.,  India, and in the EU, it’s important regulators, researchers, privacy and consumer protection advocates investigate how it operates its social media marketing business.  Facebook prefers to keep its interactive “marketing to the social graph” ad approach largely out of public view.  For example, last week, noted Inside Facebook, there was this change [our bold]:

“Open Graph-enabled third-party websites can now include Like buttons that create a connection with a Page, not just share an object. Page Likes can be more valuable because they opt a user into receiving updates about the Page in their news feed, and displaying the connection on their profile. Developers don’t need to include any description of what the Like button actually points to, meaning users may be unaware that their click is in fact subscribing and connecting them. The change will help developers convert one-time visitors into members of their Page’s community.”

This is a good illustration of how Facebook (and others) zeal in promoting third party data and financial relationships threatens to further undermine privacy and related consumer protection concerns.

Digital Junk Food Marketing Watch: Cox’s Adify Bringing Behavioral Targeting to Food Marketing to Youth and Others?

Adify–owned by Cox Enterprises–provides online marketing and network tools–including behavioral targeting. It offers advertisers the ability to track you site to site (retargeting), can “deploy tracking beacons,” and uses “sophisticated logic to define targetable behavioral segments.”  Adify’s “platform powers more than 160 of the world’s best vertical ad networks, and connects premium brand advertisers to the deeply engaged audiences of thousands of quality mid- and long-tail sites.” Its network provides services for a number of sites, including those targeting African Americans, Gays and Lesbians and others.  It now is moving into what is called the “food vertical” business–which means helping quick service restaurants and other food and beverage companies target youth and others.

The FTC is now looking into the digital marketing of food and beverages to youth–prodded by my CDD.  No food marketer should use behavioral targeting or any related data collection and profiling technique when targeting children and adolescents.  Questions must also be raised about vulnerable populations as well.   Cox should ensure that its Adify doesn’t multiple the country’s obesity epidemic.

Google Sells To Advertisers: User Profiles for Consumers Looking for Credit Cards [UK]

The new Consumer Financial Protection Board–and the FTC–will have their digital hands full as they begin to investigate the stealth world of online financial marketing.   Disclosure and consumer control has to be built into these applications–but they are not.  Of interest is a trial run by Google in the UK to sell credit cards, part of its move into “comparison” marketing.  According to New Media Age [my emphasis], “Google is testing its own [credit card] comparison product, launched earlier this year.  Currently focused purely on UK credit card providers, it lets users search on Google, click on an interactive ad showing rates from participating advertisers and takes them to a comparison page. Advertisers bid for user profiles that match their target audience and pay on a cost-per-lead basis.”

Take a look at Google’s credit card comparison site; does a consumer know about the advertiser bidding to buy their profile? See also Google similar product selling mortgages here in the U.S.

Attention Shoppers: Google pitches itself to retailers that “one out of five searches on Google is related to location”

Google is promoting its online clout for generating offline sales.  Given its expansion of mobile and location targeting, we think this upcoming panel featuring Google’s “Head of Consumer Goods” is of interest [our emphasis]:

Search terms for consumer packaged goods from “yogurt” to “laundry detergent” to “eyeshadow” have seen double-digit growth, year over year. Why? Today’s consumer actually begins the path to purchase long before she enters the store. She is tech savvy, equipped with Internet speed as well as a smartphone. The new “info shopper” capitalizes on research, reviews, sales, couponing and her online “community” to influence her in-store decisions. Because one out of five searches on Google is related to location, integration of digital in the complete path-to-purchase cycle is today’s shopper marketing game changer. In this session, Google will share data, insights and a case study that demonstrates the positive effect online marketing has on in-store sales.

Understand:

Why the consumer’s changing media and shopping habits necessitate the inclusion of a digital strategy in your integrated shopper marketing plans
How a best-in-class shopper marketing program leveraged strong manufacturer, retail and media integration to drive sales
How search specifically has been proven to drive sale

Mobile Marketer Delivers “Real World Behavioral Targeting”–they know where you are and what you do!

Mobile marketers have embraced the behavioral tracking, profiling and targeting paradigm–but they now add real location.  Brightkite, which offers “highly targeted mobile media, says it delivers “Ultra-Targeted Advertising,” including:

Real World Behavioral targeting

Want to target people who have purchased items in a hardware store? Or people who go to the movies more than twice a month? Or people that buy coffee more than three times a week? We know who they are, and can put your campaign in front of an audience who cares.

Examples:

For Pantene, we targeted people in hair salons.
For Dentyne, we targeted people in social groups of two or more…

Location and Place targeting

We can target by precise geography – such as, people in Tulsa, people within 2 miles of a KFC, people at Costco, people in a bar, etc.

Examples:

For Chevrolet, we targeted people within 3 miles of a dealership on a given weekend.
For Jack in the Box, we targeted people within 2 miles of a restaurant in the week following the launch of smoothies in each restaurant…

Activity

Want to target people who are currently doing something specific? We know what our members are doing throughout the day, so we can get a relevant ad to match their current activity.

Example:

For Grey Goose Vodka, we targeted people over 21 engaged in drinking and nightlife activities…

Weather

We know the location of our millions of users, and we also know the precise weather in each location. This allows us to target or optimize ads according to the local weather. We can deliver ads only when the temperature is over certain threshold, or deliver different creatives if the weather is sunny, cloudy, raining, snowing.

Example:

Diet Coke wanted to target people when the afternoon temperature was over 75°.
Big-O tires wanted to target to days with ice or heavy rain.

Google’s new `simplifed’ Privacy Policy: More disclosure and honesty required [updated]

Last week Google announced it was “simplifying and updating” its privacy policies.  As it so often does, the announcement was framed as a `we did for your good’ kind of effort.  “[W]e want to make our policies more transparent and understandable,” it explained, noting that “most privacy policies are still too hard to understand.” But as so often with Google and other online marketers, you have to both read between the digital lines and also analyze what’s really going on.

Google’s revised policy, which takes effect October 3, fails to really explain to consumers/users what’s actually going on.  Like other privacy policies, Google claims that all its data collection is to “provide you with a better experience and to improve the quality of our services.”  But what they really mean–and what the Congress, the FTC and other regulators must require them to disclose–is that they have crafted a wide-ranging system designed to foster personalized data collection and online targeting.  Missing from the revised Privacy Policy (which Google, btw, is pitching to privacy advocates and no doubt others as a  paragon of digital virtue) is any candid disclosure on how its Doubleclick, Admob, Google Display Network, Ad Exchange, Teracent, and other services collect information from and about us.

Google isn’t alone–Facebook, Microsoft, Yahoo and everyone else rely on a purposefully deceptive privacy policy to engage in data collection activities that require disclosure and individual user control.  Google is also reshaping its privacy policy to better capture all the data it can collect across multiple platforms and applications. Here, just for the record, is what Google advertised in Ad Age’s recent Ad Exchange and online advertising guide [excerpt]:  No matter how you define performance, the Google Display Network offers a solution. By bringing more measurability and precision to your advertising, it enables you to create, target and optimize ads based on real-time data, meaning better returns for you.

The Google Display Network helps advertisers and agencies achieve performance at scale by delivering relevant, accountable ads to their target audiences—in more places, more often…Precisely target your audience: The Google Display Network’s technology enables you to find customers based on their interests, sites they visit and when they’re engaging with relevant content via contextual targeting, or show specific messages to users who’ve already visited your site with remarketing…The Google Display Network provides opportunities to advertise in all such environments—feeds, games, mobile, social networks and video streams— enabling you to create an immersive experience for your audience.

PS.  Well, Google just also announced what its interactive display ad system can do for marketers.  How come this isn’t in the privacy policy in understandable language and full consumer control? Excerpt:  Advertising with Google used to be all about four lines of text, on Google.com and on our partner sites. No longer. Did you know that, outside of ads alongside search results, more than 40 percent of the ads that we show are now non-text ads? And that doesn’t include the 45 billion ads that our DoubleClick advertising products serve every day across the web.

We get excited by display advertising for a number of reasons…Teracent’s technology can automatically tailor and select the creative elements in an ad, and adjust them based on location, language, weather and even the past performance of ads, to show the optimal ad.  We’re focused on helping advertisers get the best results from their campaigns—by enabling creative branding campaigns, precise targeting, wide reach and effective measurement. Over recent years, we’ve added a ton of new features to YouTube and the Google Display Network, to help advertisers get—and measure—the results they’re after. From remarketing to Campaign Insights to video targeting on YouTube, we’re building tools that are helping advertisers get great results and enabling them to run some of the most amazing ad campaigns the world has ever seen.