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[privacy] Cable Group to Unveil Targeted-Ad Plan
From: "Richard M. Smith" <rms () computerbytesman com>
Date: Tue, 10 Jun 2008 10:10:57 -0400
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121305869367359447.html?mod=todays_us_market place Cable Group to Unveil Targeted-Ad Plan Project Canoe to Paddle Against Stronger Flow Of Dollars to the Web By VISHESH KUMAR and EMILY STEEL June 10, 2008; Page B8 For several years, the advertising world has been abuzz with speculation about the cable industry's plans to create a nationwide platform for targeted advertising. It is designed to be cable's solution to the growing amount of ad dollars flowing to the Web. On Tuesday, the cable companies behind the venture are set to release the first significant details about their plans. Dubbed Project Canoe, the joint venture among six of the leading cable companies is expected to announce that it has completed its long search for a chief executive officer. David Verklin, who formerly headed the Aegis Group and is one of the advertising industry's most outspoken figures, will be the CEO of Canoe Ventures LLC. Mr. Verklin, whose name has surfaced in recent months as a candidate to head the project, will face a long list of challenges. They range from getting six cable companies, each with its own agenda, to collaborate, to selling advertisers on a relatively untested format. While familiar on the Internet, so-called targeted advertising remains a new concept for the TV business -- but one that is increasingly vital to its future as an ad medium. The idea is that in order to compete, cable needs to be able to offer, say, a pet-food company a way to reach only those households likely to have dogs, or give an auto maker a way to mine only those people whose car leases are about to expire. Some cable companies give marketers a way to do that, but because each cable provider uses a different technology, the process is a hassle for most marketers. Canoe Ventures hopes to address that confusion by offering a single technology platform. It also plans to offer interactive advertising, which will allow viewers to drill down into certain pieces of a commercial to ask for brochures, see different ad endings and make purchases using their remote. In an interview Monday, Mr. Verklin said that Canoe Ventures plans to sell its new technology not to marketers directly but to programmers like Walt <http://online.wsj.com/quotes/main.html?type=djn&symbol=dis> Disney's ESPN or Viacom <http://online.wsj.com/quotes/main.html?type=djn&symbol=via> 's MTV. (Those programmers will then be able to offer the services to their advertisers.) The upside for the cable companies is that they don't have to build up their sales operations or risk alienating programmers by trying to go around them. The downside is that they may not capture as much ad revenue as they could with a more-direct approach. Something that may concern programmers -- and damp enthusiasm: Because targeted advertising theoretically offers more bang for the marketing buck, advertisers may end up reducing their overall cable spend. .
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- [privacy] Cable Group to Unveil Targeted-Ad Plan Richard M. Smith (Jun 10)