Category: Google

New AT&T-funded “Future of Privacy” Group: Will it Support Real Privacy Protection or Serve as a Surrogate for Self-regulation and Data Collection?

A new group co-directed by former DoubleClick and AOL chief privacy officer Jules Polonetsky, called the “Future of Privacy Forum,” has been announced. It is connected to the law firm representing AT&T–Proskauer Rose–which has a considerable practice in the online marketing and data collection area. Other backers include Intel, General Electric, IBM and Wal-Mart.

We are concerned, however, that the role of the Forum is to help discourage Congress from enacting an opt-in regime for data collection. Both ISPs–such as AT&T, Verizon, Comcast and Time Warner–as well as online advertising companies such as Google/DoubleClick, Yahoo, and Microsoft must be governed by privacy laws which empower and protect consumers. The role of ISPs in any data collection for targeted online marketing, in particular, requires serious analysis and stringent safeguards. AT&T, Google, Microsoft, Comcast, the online ad networks, and social media marketers (to name a few) must be required to provide meaningful disclosure, transparency, accountability and user control (with special rules governing health, financial and data involving children and youth). Self-regulation has failed. If the Future of Privacy group is to have any legitimacy, it will work to support serious federal rules. But if it trots out some sort of voluntary code of conduct as a way to undermine the growing call for real privacy safeguards, this new group may soon be viewed as beholden to its funders and backers.

Google’s Eric Schmidt’s Bluster Against Antitrust Regulators: A Failure to Live Up to His Convictions?

In today’s New York Times, Google CEO Eric Schmidt suggests that everyone other than Google is confused, ignorant, or incorrect about how the search giant operates its online ad business. It seems in his worldview, no one–not certainly the Department of Justice–should have raised a finger of concern over its proposed alliance with Yahoo. Schmidt told the Times yesterday that “We canceled the deal with about one hour to go before a lawsuit was going to be filed against our deal. We concluded after a lot of soul-searching that it was not in our best interest to go through a lengthy and costly trial which we believe we ultimately would have won.”

If Mr. Schmidt really believed that he was right and everyone else was incorrect, he should have stood up and fought–instead of jilting Yahoo just as they were about to be conjoined. However, we believe that Google choose to abandon the deal because it didn’t want to further open itself to regulatory review–which would have demonstrated why its Yahoo deal would have been bad for competition and privacy.

Google’s DC Lobbying Office Warned Company About Now Scuttled Deal with Yahoo

The enterprising columnist Kara Swisher has done terrific work analyzing the now scuttled Google/Yahoo alliance. She has reported that Google’s lobbying office in Washington, D.C. actually tried to convince top company officials to not pursue the deal. The Google D.C. lobbyists correctly understood that the company is now under the “radar” of a growing number of regulators and privacy advocates from around the world. The failure of the company to heed this sound advice illustrates how its top management is out of touch with the realities of its own market and societal impact.
Here’s an excerpt from a recent Kara “Boomtown” column: “Early on, that was also a big worry of Google’s own operatives in D.C., who expressed concern–largely ignored at HQ, where execs really do see themselves as not even slightly evil–about its growing image as a scary behemoth.”

Online Ad Privacy Watch: Google Adding DoubleClick to its AdSense System

Policymakers will need to closely examine the role DoubleClick will play in collecting, analyzing, and helping profile consumers (whether they are online, seeing a video, or using a mobile device, for example). Here’s an email Google is reported sending out this week. My bold:

“We understand that the recent economic turmoil has created a lot of uncertainty in the lives of AdSense publishers. During these difficult times, we’re continuing to invest in innovations that improve publisher monetization and advertiser value in the content network.

We’re focusing on further developing our product offerings and boosting ad performance for publishers. We recently announced advancements in AdSense for search and experiments to make ads more effective. We’re bringing DoubleClick technologies to AdSense publishers, and we’ll continue to launch new products and features. We’re also continuing to improve our offerings for AdWords advertisers, making it easier for them to target the Google content network. Features for advertisers, such as the new display ad builder, are designed to improve ad performance on AdSense publisher sites.

We’ll keep driving technological progress, but our best asset will always be our publisher partners. The strength of AdSense lies in the value of the content you bring to users and the quality of the sites you bring to advertisers. Our success is tied to yours. We look forward to partnering with you for the long term, and remain dedicated to helping you succeed.”

Google Expanding its Online Video Advertising via Rich Media Applications and Commissions to Ad Agencies

Along with its new research fund for academics and its work to harness neuromarketing, Google is now luring more advertisers to run ads on YouTube and its content network. Here’s an excerpt from the UK’s New Media Age [a terrific] trade publication: “Google is to introduce agency commission for video advertising to encourage increased investment and progress within the sector. The company says it will launch an “incentivisation programme” to show Google’s commitment in developing video advertising opportunities across its network, including YouTube…Google is… also working with rich-media specialist Tangozebra, which it acquired as part of the DoubleClick deal, to develop new ad formats…

Jonathan Gillespie, Google head of media solutions and YouTube in the UK, said, “We believe that online video specifically is going to be the next stage of evolution in the display marketplace.”

source: Google to introduce agency commission on video ads. Will Cooper. NMA. October 31, 2008

Google’s new funding program for Academics: $ for studies on “Brand Development,” Click Generation” and “for moving traditional video spots from broadcast to broadband”

The advertising industry is engaged in a growing research effort to push the boundaries of marketing. It wishes, for example, to reach deeply into our unconscious mind in order to generate a range of behavioral responses. Marketers are exploring how the new tools of digital advertising can influence consumer emotions.

For example, Google is now engaged in consumer neuroscience research to make its YouTube ads more effective. But Google wants more academic help so it can improve its digital marketing prowess. So Google and global ad giant WPP have joined forces to create “a new research program to improve understanding and practices in online marketing, and to better understand the relationship between online and offline media.” The program will be run by a trio of scholars, including Google’s own Hal Varian, Professor John Quelch, senior associate dean of Harvard Business School (who is a a non-executive director of WPP), and Professor Glen Urban, former dean of the Sloan School of Management at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Varian told DM News that “We want to encourage more research about how online and offline media work together to influence consumer choices. We think that such research will contribute to more effective and more measurable advertising performance.” DM News also reported that Mark Read, CEO of WPP Digital and WPP’s director of strategy explained that “[T]he industry, our clients and our companies will benefit from the application of some of the world’s finest academic research minds into how online media influences consumers.”

Don’t expect, by the way, any grants to be awarded that examine the ethical dimensions of interactive marketing; or new threats to personal privacy and autonomy; the implications of Google’s growing global control over online ad revenues on publishing; or the negative environmental and social consequences of promoting a digital marketing system which could lead to over-consumption.

Here are some of the research questions Google hopes will draw academics into its program:

    • How does a brand establish a framework for assessing how much should be spent online? How much advertising should be directed at brand development versus specific click generation?…
    • How do you set digital advertising budgets and tactics when in intensively competitive product categories?…
    • What are good guidelines for moving traditional video spots from broadcast to broadband?
    • What is the causal relationship between brand health and search success? And what is the link between search and sales? How does search contribute to word of mouth recommendation?
    • How can banner ads be more effective?
    • How do you model the consumer response to digital advertising in social networks or mobile media?
    • What do we know and what more do we need to know about on-line audiences?
    • How can advertisers be welcome in social networks?
    • Recipients will be invited to attend a conference in Fall 2009 (Sept/Oct) where they can share their preliminary findings.

Google’s Study on How Singaporeans Research Financial Products & Services

excerpt: “A Google survey of Singaporean financial research and purchasing habits has found that nearly three out of four or 70 per cent the island state’s residents go online to research financial products and services that interest them...With the current economic uncertainty, financial institutions should enhance their online presence and digital marketing efforts to find new customers and strengthen current customer relationships in today’s cost-conscious consumer environment, said Lori Sobel, head of sales for Google Southeast Asia.

“… At a time when most of their potential customers are researching financial products on the Internet, companies cannot risk missing out on the opportunity to convert them into clients.”

source: “More Singaporeans going online to become finance-savvy.” Digital Media. 24 Oct. 2008

Google Boosts its Show-Biz Presence with Awards for Best Hollywood Movie Use of Digital Marketing, including Virtual Worlds, Online Games and Search

The marketing folks over at Google’s DoubleClick division have been trolling the movie studios to offer them marketing help. Google is now running the “Digital Movie Advertising Creative Showcase Awards.” The GoogOscars are awarded in three categories: “Theatrical Release Rich Media Ad(s),” “Home Entertainment Rich Media Ad(s),” and for a “Multi-Channel Digital Campaign.” In order to enter the contest, the campaign must include at least three of the following “interactive digital elements”–

1. Website
2. Rich media ads
3. Search campaign
4. ARG
5. Mobile
6. Viral/video webisodes
7. Virtual world
8. User-Generated Content
9. Social Networking
10. Online Game(s)
11. Digital Outdoor
12. DVD/Blue-Ray Interactive Experience/Extras

Here’s a link to the recent winners.

PS: It appears that Google is going on a digital marketing award spree! Google is also giving a travel industry award for an “integrated marketing campaign that exemplifies the best brand impact and consumer appeal.” Google has joined forces with the Hospitality Sales & Marketing Association International to deliver the award early next year.

 
 

Google Using Brain Research to Hone its Online Ads

Google has joined the stampede of advertisers who have embraced the tools of neuroscience to help them create the emerging generation of interactive ads. In the new model for marketing, the goal is to bypass our conscious, more rational, decision-making. They want to reach deeply into our emotional, unconscious, self. Hence, the gaggle of companies helping marketers with brain research. Google, by the way, is using the same company that recently tested how junk food ads affected consumer brains during the recent Olympic games. Neurofocus, the Berkeley-based company partnering with Google, won a major ad award for its help harnessing neuroscience to sell Frito-Lay chips. The growing role of neuroscience research for advertising (especially digital marketing) must be addressed by policymakers, health professionals, and other responsible parties. Here’s the Mediaweek excerpt:

“Google is so confident that its InVideo Ads product—those semi-transparent/animated overlay ads it launched on YouTube last year—are game changers that the company is turning to brain wave researchers to prove their effectiveness.

The search giant–in conjunction with MediaVest–has partnered with NeuroFocus, a researcher that specializes in biometrics, to gauge both how users respond to InVideo ads and how well those ads complement traditional banner ads. NeuroFocus specializes in measuring individuals’ brain response—by literally placing sensors on their heads—as well as other factors like pupil dilation and skin response.

“We were really interested in looking at what we think of as a pretty innovative ad unit,” explained Leah Spalding, advertising research manager, Google, who emphasized that since InVideo ads are designed to be non-intrusive, they warrant an evaluation that goes beyond traditional measures like click-through rates. “Standard metrics don’t tell the whole story…Specifically, after fielding a study among 40 participants last May, InVideo ads scored above average on a scale of one to 10 for measures like “attention” (8.5), “emotional engagement” (7.3) and “effectiveness” (6.6). According to officials, a 6.6 score is considered strong.”

source: “Google, MediaVest Tap Biometrics for InVideo Ads Play.” Mike Shields. Mediaweek. October 23, 2008.

and more on the research via Mediapost: “…the NeuroFocus research conducted in May looked at the reactions of 40 people to YouTube InVideo overlay and companion banner ads from a cross-section of MediaVest advertising clients.

The firm used biometric measures such as brainwave activity, eye-tracking and skin response to gauge the impact of ads. Based on criteria including attention level, emotional engagement and memory retention, it then comes up with an overall “effectiveness” score for ads.”

“Google: This is your brain on advertising.” Mark Walsh. Mediapost. Oct. 23, 2008

PS: Google has been holding research discussions on such topics as “The Neuroscience of Emotions [Sept. 16, 2008]. Here’s the link to a presentation via YouTube.

Here’s another on computational neuroscience by a researcher who works on online advertising.

Google Study on the Online Shopping Habits of Millionaires

Researching Google’s research projects are always illuminating about the priorities of the online ad giant. Here’s an excerpt on its new study, as reported by Advertising Age [sub. required]: The internet is a shopping destination of choice for the rich — and the one most preferred by the very rich, according to a study from Google.

The study…finds…millionaires vastly prefer online shopping to in-store and are much more likely to use the internet than their not-quite-as-wealthy brethren. In all, 95% of the 263 millionaires surveyed made their last luxury purchase online.

Ultra-affluents, as defined by Google, have net worths of $1 million or more and household incomes of at least $250,000 a year for married couples and at least $175,000 for singles. Millionaires are defined as those with an income of more than $1 million…Google said it looked at the 25-to-64 age bracket because that is the group most luxury marketers are interested in reaching…John McAteer, industry director-retail at Google, added that many chief marketers have misconceptions of their customers as “ladies who lunch.” In fact, he said, they are strapped for time and looking to the internet not only to shop but to find product reviews and information.

source: “Time Is Money: Wealthy Drop Dollars Online…
Google Study Finds Millionaires Prefer Efficiency of Web Shopping to Bricks-and-Mortar Stores for Luxury Purchases.” Natalie Zmuda and Abbey Klaassen. Ad Age. Oct. 20, 2008.