The Marketleap Report
Volume II, Issue #12, July 9th, 2002

Pushing Back the Flood
Continuing the Fight Against Pop-Unders, Intrusive Ads and More
By Keith Boswell

The invasive flood of ads never stops. Like a raging thunderstorm parked over a prairie, the torrent of pop-up/under pages is endless. A few issues back, I talked about some of the newer techniques that online ads are using to take over your web browser.

The conversation that ensued ended with the idea that grassroots efforts were needed to help control the airspace. Violators like Gator Software advertise a service but offer much more. Gator is a program that saves your personal information to fill out forms online including your credit card information, password, etc.

Besides storing your personal info, people who download and install Gator are choosing to share all of their online activities with Gator. Because Gator is tied into the web browser, if Gator is running, Gator delivers advertising to the user based on the websites they view.

These pop-up ads are delivered on top of web pages that already have their own advertising. A visitor to Ford.com might receive an ad from Toyota.com because Gator knows they have been looking at trucks. Companies would never sell ad space to a competitor on their website. Through Gator however, buyers can advertise on a competitor's website for a reasonable cost.

The practice recently landed Gator in court in an attempt to define the legality of the tactic. A group of publishers, including heavyweights like The Washington Post and Dow Jones, filed suit in late June to stop Gator from serving pop-up ads on their websites without their permission.

These publishers claim to be listed on the Gator ad sheets, their sites being sold without their consent. Their argument is by altering the intended display of the work, copyright and trademark laws are broken.

The U.S. Courts have already granted WeightWatchers.com a permanent injunction to bar DietWatch.com from advertising on their site through Gator. But large advertisers like General Motors, Target, American Express and others are exploring the possibilities of using ad technologies that deliver ads through third party software tied seamlessly into web browsers.

If advertisers are ganging up to find new ways in, does the end-user have a right to fight back? Who owns the experience between my computer and me? Ad-blocking software skirts the edges of this debate in a legally muddy puddle as thick as the swamp Gator currently sits in.

Programs like ZoneAlarm, Ad-Aware and Norton Internet Security help to block ads, monitor programs communicating back to their owners about you, and might even sniff out and uninstall programs like Gator.

I turned on ad blocking contained in Norton Internet Security to see if it worked on my computer. Sites usually cluttered with flashing banners were suddenly filled with strips of white space, making the absence of the ads eerily clear. Pop-ups still popped, but were void of any sales pitch.

As more advertisers and consumers jump blindly into online technologies who owns the space? Do advertisers have the right to find new ways to get in front of you using your web browser? Do you have the right to turn them all off?

Advertising is a given and it has benefits. Combining advertising with information profiling can be rewarding because it exposes people to broader choices. But the consumer should have a choice in how far advertisers can go. Personal computers aren't televisions that just receive signals one way.

Advertisers know they are dealing in a gray area but they choose to push the boundaries because they can. They are leaning on the courts for their conscience. Consumers need to understand and educate themselves about the tools they are using. If you choose to actively use technology, you should have the right to understand what that technology enables.

The long-awaited Platform for Privacy, an online standard that is supposed to allow consumers to control how much they tell advertisers, is still too far off. Smart advertisers should ask before they assume. Shoving ads down our throats reeks of arrogance and neglect for the two way street of doing good business.

What do all of you think? Send us a note to report@marketleap.com. We'll review your thoughts next time.

Intelligent and Original

From time to time this column has focused on captivating marketing campaigns, in an effort to spread the wealth when goodness is discovered. This week, I feel obliged to share with you the current campaign for Altoids Sours created by Leo Burnett.

Playing up the fact that Altoids sound like a body part, the new campaign highlighted at www.gonesour.com touches on the awkwardness of early adolescence. The print ads look like an old high-school yearbook. The website features three "training films" highlighting the transition from youth to young adult.

The style, humor and writing combine to make an original web concept that is worth checking out. The short films and campaign theme captures those weird moments of youth when all you know is that between yesterday and today your body isn't quite the same.

Responses to the last Marketleap Report

I am obliged to all of you that read my, as of late, sporadic ramblings about life, networked technology and marketing as it fits within my mind. Sometimes when I sit down to write, I envision myself taking notes for my first short story or the book I always tell myself I'm going to write.

Inevitably, those images and ideas leak out to all of you. Sometimes nearly unfiltered and raw. Ramblings, rants, thoughts and observations - tossed about in hopes of sparking a tongue. And so I look forward each week to the responses the article draws.

Last issue, I focused on my annoyance with ad banner surround that high-profile websites are selling in hopes of generating ad revenue in a time of ever tighter marketing budgets. A few of you were kind enough to react.

"What does all of this hooey really mean to me, the little guy, the guy who still assaults his keyboard with two very heavy fingers? Are you against all big business, or just the ones you can afford to hate?

Corporate sponsorship, like you said, has been around for ages. Thank god for the modern day Medicis. All creative endeavors are corporate sponsored. Be it directly or from the pocket book of someone who derives their livelihood from steering these overgrown tecals.

Why don't you step off your high horse for a sec and realize that even you, K-Ed Boswell from far east texas owes something to the big ugly. Where would you be today if not for that summer job at hastings, in Sherman? Don't forget I know where you're from and where you live, kinda"

still roo'd

Still Roo'd is a close enough friend to say these things and have them ring true in my heart. But my intentions are not to purge the world of big business. I seek to educate in the ways of spending less and getting more. Dollars are still required.

Earning a living from corporations has given me so much. I actively dive into the economic spread lay before me. That summer job at Hasting's Video, Record and Books taught me that I didn't want to be a cashier/sales/stock/video shelving type of guy.

I don't hate business, just the annoying ways that some choose to enter my economic circle. And I won't quit talking about it, unless all of you tell me to move on.

"Excellent, personal touch, and so true!"

Rod

"Left field"

Anonymous

I played left field in little league baseball. Not as long as I played first base, or miserably attempted to impersonate a pitcher, but I remember the waiting. Out there. Anon, I know where you're coming from.

"If search engines continue to be the most-used method for web users to find information, why do companies continue to spend money on banner ads, pop-ups, pop-unders, sponsorship? My theory is summed up in two words: ad agency. Traditional marketing continues to use comfortable methods that are foisted upon the responsible marketing groups as eyeball grabbers. They are positioned by the agency suits as something that is infinitely measurable (important to know, and impossible to sell without this assurance) and can be adapted to each target audience easier and cheaper than a print ad - which are incredibly overpriced to begin with so the virtual world of space advertising is much easier to "grasp", so to speak.

Oh, and by the way, Mr. Marketer, our commission doesn't suck on it either.

Search Engine Optimization is not where the $$$ are for an agency, so it becomes a component of a campaign, rather than the focus of the campaign. I'm sure that some savvy agencies have proposed a SEO solution as an exclusive component of a campaign, but it most likely would be rejected as folly by those who do not see the marketing power of search engines.

PPC (pay-per-click) is the next step for us, but I'm still not convinced it's a good investment. We shall see."

Obi-Fred

What can I say Obi-Fred, keep the force rolling. Til next time.