| Watching You | Targeting You: Personal Ads | If You Go Along |
Watching You
TERRY MYERSON, Interse Corporation: [Interse sells software that measure consumer behavior
at Web sites.]
"If they're reading your company overview information before they get to
product information, what products is the company overview driving them to look at?
"We can watch--we can watch this happen in real time, if we want.
"We can watch these consumers move through your information.
"If you connect through America Online, America Online knows everything about
you--or Prodigy or CompuServe.
"Those guys know basically everything.
"When you register, you're specifying your
income, how many children you have, whether you have pets, what kind of home you live in.
"So those traditional online services know anything and everything about
you."
Targeting You: Personal Ads
MICHAEL TROIANO, Ogilvy & Mather: [Troiano is head of Ogilvy's interactive marketing group.]
"It's a way for me to target not by proxy, not by saying 'men 35 to 54 who live in these
zip codes,' but by individuals.
"I know someone is interested in what I have to sell.
"They have identified themselves as being interested in it. That's the value.
"Today the consumer has to self-identify and there may be ways around that.
"Once we figure out how to do it with the technology, we'll have to address the
ethical issue of how much are our consumers comfortable with us finding out?" "The privacy question gets a little more complicated because the ads that
you will get on these systems will be different from the ads that we get today." "You're going to get a customized commercial. You will get a commercial, an
advertisement that is geared specifically to who you are, where you are in terms of location, in terms
of navigation and maybe things like time of day." "...Yale Brown and Matt
Walker were part of the team that created the computer software for Stargazer
[an interactive television system developed and being tested by Bell Atlantic].
"Consumers, they decided, were Stargazer's most valuable product.
"So they've created a new program that sends specific ads to specific
customers." "So the mass audience gets different advertisements. Different groups get
different ads at the same time." "At the same time." "And the machine knows who's watching." "That's correct." "And the machine sends the right ad to the right people." "That's right."
RAY SMITH [CEO, Bell Atlantic]:
"For doctors, they're going to get Mercedes Benz ads, right? And it's going to be very
much more targeted." "You mean if you're a doctor--" "Right." "--and I'm a physical education instructor at a high school in Glen Oaks,
Illinois--" "Right." "We're both watching the same show--" "You'll get a different commercial." "Really?" "Yes. Not only will you be able to get a different commercial and one that would be
more adapted to--to your needs, but you're more likely to buy it.
"Remember, this is interactive. You're going to be able to click on and buy
it right there.
"So the impulse buy in the commercial will
change the commercial form, as well.
"A button will appear with a little icon on the screen. You know,
you sort of click on it and it gives you the information about the
purchase of whatever it is."
If You Go Along
ROBERT KRULWICH: [Frontline Interviewer]
"If things go the way you're planning, somewhere in your computer you'll
know the movies I've seen.
"Somewhere in your computer you'll know the clothes I bought.
"Somewhere in your computer you'll know the ads that I've seen and how long I've lingered.
"You will know more about me than even the government, than maybe even my wife.
"Shouldn't I be a little frightened to let you have so much information?" "If you're frightened to have this information in some sort of data base, then you can
have it removed. You will have total control of all of the information that comes out of your
purchases." "If everybody decides to be really private about their advertising viewing,
then you have got nothing here." "Exactly." "That's true." "So you have to hope that people are going to be 'Hmmm' about their
privacy, that they'll let people watch them." "Privacy is an issue that has to be handled by the people who are producing the
advertisements, who are running the networks and are running the government." "But in the meantime, you'll reach as many as you possibly can, under the
circumstances." "Sure." "That's business on the information highway."
Another Way Web Ads May Hurt Vulnerable Children: Targeted Ads
Contents of Editorial Standards for Web Advertising
Responses to Counter-Arguments
Top"As the user interacts with this, we not only can watch them to see what
they're looking at, but how they're moving through your sales cycle.
Top
ROBERT KRULWICH: [Frontline Interviewer]
YALE BROWN: [a creator of Bell Atlantic's Stargazer interactive TV project]
ROBERT KRULWICH:
ROBERT KRULWICH:
YALE BROWN:
ROBERT KRULWICH:
YALE BROWN:
ROBERT KRULWICH:
YALE BROWN:
Top
ROBERT KRULWICH:
RAY SMITH:
ROBERT KRULWICH:
RAY SMITH:
ROBERT KRULWICH:
RAY SMITH:
ROBERT KRULWICH:
RAY SMITH:
Top
RAY SMITH: [CEO, Bell Atlantic]
ROBERT KRULWICH:
MATT WALKER: [a creator of Stargazer, Bell Atlantic's interactive TV project]
YALE BROWN: [also a creator of Stargazer]
ROBERT KRULWICH:
YALE BROWN:
ROBERT KRULWICH:
MATT WALKER:
YALE BROWN: