Next GNNU Interview
We'll have GNNU's Webmaster Dennis Stillwell & their Director of Software Development Barry Pishdali .. We'll discuss what the software can do, how it stands out in its class, and what it means to the advertiser, the agency, and the newspaper.
This is after all exactly what the suitor wants .. the software property .. you'll get it all first hand from the heads that created it, tweaked it & made it the verification tool no one else has .. online late tomorrow.
This won't be a theory discussion, this will be a 'can do' discussion ... what GNI is offering clients right now.
Now .. here is a story from today's Wall Street Journal that fits the GNI model to a tee .. talk about a solution delivered right on time ...
April 19, 2000
Advertising
Agencies Form Group to Help Set
Guidelines for Ads on the Web
By KATHRYN KRANHOLD
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
Big advertising agencies are used to having a hand in establishing ad
practices on television networks, in magazines and newspapers. But with
Internet advertising, they have taken a backseat to the big Web
companies, such as Yahoo! and America Online, in setting standards.
Looking for a bigger voice online, agencies are forming a group called
New Media Consortium. The organization, which is scheduled to meet in
New York Thursday, is a direct response to what agencies see as the slow
progress made by FAST, or the Future of Advertising Stakeholders, a
broad-based industry coalition created by Procter & Gamble, the Internet
Advertising Bureau, and major Internet sites nearly two years ago as a
forum to establish online ad standards.
Since FAST was created, it has put forth a
few guidelines for online advertising, including
setting basic definitions such as the meaning of
a "click" on a banner ad or an "impression,"
which is when a banner appears on a Web
page. Additionally, the group has recommended guidelines for consumer
privacy online.
For many agency executives, even though they are represented in FAST,
the guidelines haven't gone far enough. With individual advertisers spending
millions of dollars online, executives say, standards are even more
important. According to the Internet Advertising Bureau, advertisers spent
$4.6 billion on online advertising in 1999, a 141% increase from 1998.
One of the new group's co-founders, Greg Smith, director of strategic
services at Darwin Digital, the interactive unit of Saatchi & Saatchi, said ad
agencies are looking for more specific, legal definitions of terms in order to
make Web sites more accountable for billing. For example, Mr. Smith
said, the issue often arises, "What is an impression? How can I prove an
impression?" Although FAST defines it, he said, there are questions over
whether a banner should be counted as an impression if only a portion of it
appears on the page before the user moves on to a new Web site.
"We are trying to nail down some things," Mr. Smith said, adding that he
respects the work conducted by FAST and its leaders, including former
Chairman Rich LeFurgy, who is head of the Internet Advertising Bureau.
Mr. Smith compared the state of the online advertising world to the time a
number of years ago when a group of women's magazines known as the
"Seven Sisters," which included "Women's Day" and "Redbook," dictated
the terms such as price and placement of an ad in magazines. Like the
sisters of old, Mr. Smith says, AOL and Yahoo allow for little negotiation
with advertisers and ad agencies.
Mr. LeFurgy, who remains on FAST's steering committee, said he wasn't
aware of the new agency coalition. He said FAST strives to be inclusive of
all its members, including the ad agencies, with every member carrying
equal weight in setting the guidelines.
"FAST was formed so we would have everybody together at the same
table, instead of having different groups going off doing different initiatives,"
he said.
So far, the New Media Coalition has a number of traditional agencies and
start-up interactive agencies signed up to attend Thursday's meeting,
according to the group's organizers, which includes Advertising.com, which
delivers ads to Web sites. Among those to be represented are WPP
Group's Ogilvy & Mather Worldwide and J. Walter Thompson; True
North Communications' Modem Media and FCB Worldwide; Interpublic
Group's Zentropy Partners, which recently spun off from
McCann-Erickson WorldGroup; Grey Advertising's Beyond Interactive;
and interactive agencies Organic and Agency.com.
Mr. Smith said the New Media Consortium plans eventually to invite
advertisers, Web sites and ad-serving companies to join the group.
Gerard Broussard, a senior partner within Ogilvy & Mather's
interactive-research department, said he thinks FAST has moved too
slowly, and that advertisers and their agencies need to step in to set
standards that look at pricing, as well as measuring the reach of an online
ad. |
