Focus. Online advertising winning and empowering consumers. Sintesi. Kimon Zorbas

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1 Onlin advrtising winning and mpowring consumrs Kimon Zorbas Sintsi 64 In qusto articolo si ospita il punto di vista dll industria dll Intrnt advrtising strmamnt favorvol allo sviluppo dll nuov tcnich di Onlin Bhavioural Advrtising. La pubblicità su Intrnt prmtt al consumator di accdr a informazioni rlativ a prodotti srvizi globali, fornndo loro possibilità di sclt più ampi risptto a quanto succsso in passato. Prché si clicca? La pubblicità richiama l attnzion di consumatori in quanto intrssati al prodotto; al consumator vngono fatt divrs propost, anch s non tutt sono particolarmnt allttanti. Il prodotto poi vin acquistato? Non ncssariamnt. Il consumator è padron dll propri dcisioni onlin allo stsso modo in cui lo sarbb offlin. Solitamnt i consumatori vogliono vdr una pubblicità prndr l propri dcisioni di consgunza, ma sarbb anch auspicabil ch l pubblicità dssro maggior importanza agli intrssi dgli utnti. Ovviamnt, gli opratori dovrbbro ffttuar alcuni studi rlativamnt al ssso, all tà, al luogo di rsidnza, o ad altri paramtri ch un advrtisr dovrbb conoscr prché il consumator li ha condivisi prcdntmnt. La soluzion tcnologica ch rnd l pubblicità più affini agli utnti è la Onlin Bhavioural Advrtising. Essa rapprsnta un voluzion nl sttor pubblicitario poiché rnd la pubblicità su Intrnt più vicina ai gusti dll utnt, in cambio, fornisc il ncssario finanziamnto pr mttr a punto apportar innovazioni all vari offrt srvizi Intrnt ch tutti noi usiamo. S la pubblicità è più affin ai gusti dgli utnti, è probabil ch si produca un fftto a catna, ch porta agli utilizzatori di Intrnt l accsso gratuito a un numro maggior di contnuti, srvizi applicazioni di qualità. In trmini conomici, quando si riduc il budgt si riducono anch l fficacia la prtinnza dlla campagna di markting. Rndr la pubblicità più attinnt al comportamnto dgli utnti è vantaggioso anch pr i wb publishr, in quanto la pubblicità fornisc loro un flusso di ntrat ch gli prmtt di continuar a fornir agli utnti contnuti gratuiti. La maggior part dlla Onlin Bhavioural Advrtising è ffttuata tramit i cosiddtti ad-ntwork, ch uniscono un mdia ownr (spsso un portal) un advrtisr utilizzando i cookis. Kimon Zorbas IAB Europ Sintsi a cura di Marco Pirani Altroconsumo Associazion Indipndnt di Consumatori

2 I consumatori possono scglir s usar o mno un dtrminato srvizio s vogliono o mno fruir dll Onlin Bhavioural Advrtising; tal possibilità è offrta agli utnti dai providr. S un utnt dcid di non accttar la Onlin Bhavioural Advrtising continurà a vdr gli annunci; qusti compariranno in modo più casual probabilmnt saranno molto mno affini ai suoi gusti. S un utnt dsidra srcitar la sua sclta di non avr la Onlin Bhavioural Advrtising, può smplicmnt praticar il suo opt-out non ricvr più qusta tipologia di pubblicità in futuro. Un altra possibilità ch hanno i consumatori è qulla di potr ffttivamnt cancllar alcun catgori o aggiungrn altr di loro intrss. L socità rispttabili sanno ch il loro succsso è lgato alla fiducia alla stima di propri utnti, quindi, risulta ncssario focalizzar significativ risors in tal ambito. Alcun ricrch hanno vidnziato ch il 70% dgli utnti sono attnti a slzionar quali informazioni prsonali condividr su Intrnt, mntr il 40% gnralmnt si fida dll informazioni disponibili su Intrnt. La pubblicità è la chiav pr l innovazion: finanzia nuovi modlli commrciali fornisc modalità di finanziamnto altrnativ pr una vasta gamma di sttori (srvizi prodotti). La pubblicità random, qulla in bas alla qual gli utnti vdono un avviso pubblicitario ch può ssr pr loro compltamnt irrilvant, può difficilmnt fornir l risors ncssari. Infatti, è improbabil ch qusto tipo di markting produca fftti rlativi a un srvizio o un prodotto, prtanto, non può giustificar i costi significativi di coloro ch acquistano tali spazi pubblicitari. La Onlin Bhavioural Advrtising è una prmium advrtising tchnology gnra ricavi più lvati pr i publishr, in quanto è più probabil ch gli utnti siano intrssati ad approfondir l ricrch sui prodotti i srvizi pubblicizzati. Garantisc, inoltr, offrt onlin di qualità lvata fornisc agli utnti informazioni sui prodotti srvizi di loro intrss. Fino a quando i consumatori saranno opportunamnt informati saranno libri di far l propri sclt, non si dovranno limitar qust tipologi di pubblicità, in quanto rapprsntano una risorsa significativa pr tutti i sttori dl mondo conomico. Th cas for Onlin Bhavioural Advrtising - making advrts (rally) rlvant for usrs Advrtising on th Intrnt allows th consumr to accss information on global products and srvics in a way which opns up options and choic to th consumr widr than vr bfor. Onlin Bhavioural Advrtising offrs consumrs th opportunity to bnfit from advrtising that is likly to b potntially mor 65

3 rlvant to thir intrsts, providing information on latst product offrings or srvics that thy might othrwis not b awar of. Such advrtising obviously nds to b rsponsibl advrtising but th Intrnt ultimatly placs mor powr in th hands of th consumr:.g. th consumr can choos whthr or not to rad mor about products or srvics advrtisd onlin, clicking on such ads, can mak us of comparativ pricing sits that hav grown in a wid varity of product sctors, to dtrmin whr bst prics and quality li. Ultimatly, th Intrnt offrs an opportunity for consumrs to shop in a mor global marktplac with gratr accss to information on products and srvics than vr bfor. Th Intrnt has brought a hug chang in how advrtising work mpowring th usr to dcid for him or hrslf what advrts to s and in what form, which has, in turn drivn a nd for much bttr forms of advrtising. W hav all sn good, somtims innovativ and fun advrts which mad us click on thm, or which ncourag us to ngag with th advrt,.g. in form of an mbddd littl gam. Equally, w v all com across advrts that did not gnrat any intrst, du to thir boring natur or our lack of intrst in th advrtisd product. In ths lattr cass, it is unlikly that an advrtisr will tmpt us to click on th advrt and th dcision lis with us as consumrs to show intrst or show no intrst. Usrs tak dcisions, not machins 66 Giving just on ral-lif xampl, of a prsonal natur, may illustrat how markting on of my pastims is climbing. Pr-Intrnt ag I would inform myslf about trnds and nw products prtty much xclusivly through climbing magazins. Through th Intrnt I find that whil rading articls on th topic I com across advrtising for nw products and I find myslf clicking on ths to find out about nw products, with offrings that ar vry global in natur. Why do I click? Clarly th advrt catchs my attntion bcaus I am intrstd in th product. It dos not lur m but had a proposition for m. Do I buy th product? Not ncssarily - I go through th sam considration procss rading an onlin product that I do whn I rad somthing in a magazin or har about it on tlvision. I think about which quipmnt I nd or want and pros and cons of buying it. My thought procss is not switchd off bcaus of th mdium through which I rciv th advrtising. I am th mastr of my dcisions onlin in th sam way that I would b offlin. Clarly it is important that th advrtising is not fals or mislading in its contnt, but this is somthing which should b tru as a common standard for all advrtising and is not dpndnt on th form that such advrtising taks. I want to s an advrt, mak myslf a dcision about it but I d also prfr to hav advrtising that might bar som rlvanc to my intrsts. A wll-known xampl of onlin bhavioural advrtising that has such potntial rlvanc to an

4 onlin usr is th amazon wbsit bookstor. A past purchas on on of th amazon sits, whil browsing on th sit, will ncountr advrts displaying books, dvd and othr products that might b of intrst to usrs, basd on his or hr past prfrncs (.g. through purchass or sarchs) and what othr usrs wr intrstd in who had purchasd som of th sam books/dvds. Amazon mrly suggsts a books or dvd may b of intrst and th consumr can ignor this suggstion or opt to rad furthr into th suggstion and thn dcid to purchas or not. It is th usr s prrogativ to click or to ignor a suggstion or an advrt. I would not lik th govrnmnt to dcid that I am unfit to mak such a choic. How to mak advrtising mor rlvant? In my climbing-xampl, a company that wants to advrtis a rlvant product to m would b asking - how do I know that this individual is intrstd in climbing? Wll, of cours th company would nd to mak crtain assumptions. My gndr may play a rol (thr might b gndr-spcific products), my ag, my location (it may b mor likly that I hav a climbing as a hobby living in a mountainous aras than othr parts), or othr paramtrs which could b ithr known to an advrtisr bcaus I shard thm (.g. a loyalty card schm whr I indicatd my intrsts) or thy ar basd on assumptions of my potntial intrsts. Of cours som paramtrs will not b known or cannot b assumd (corrctly): I might b not fit nough to climb any mor but still intrstd in th dvlopmnt of climbing products. Th tchnological solution that maks advrts mor rlvant is Onlin Bhavioural Advrtising. 1 Onlin Bhavioural Advrtising is an volution in th advrtising sctor that maks advrtising on th Intrnt mor rlvant for th usr and in rturn provids th ncssary funding to dvlop and innovat th various Intrnt offrs and srvics w all us. 2 Rsarch and survy rsults rpatdly conclud that viwing rlvant advrtising on th Intrnt is of gratr intrst to consumrs and businsss as rgular onlin usrs of th Intrnt. Insits Consulting conductd a rsarch, MC DC, askd ovr 32,000 consumrs in 16 Europan countris about trust and confidnc in th Intrnt. 3 On of th qustions focusd on th rlvanc of advrtising and askd usrs: «Surfing th Intrnt would b mor njoyabl if advrtising would b mor tailord to my nds and profil -To what xtnt do you agr with ach of th following statmnts?» 47% of usrs agr or rathr agr; 39% of usrs ar nutral; 9% of usrs rathr disagr; 5% of usrs fully disagr. 1 This articl is not addrssing th Dp Packt Inspction modls as thy ar not oprating in Europ (or lswhr) and as such hav no rlvanc for Onlin Bhavioural Advrtising in this contxt. 2 This tchnology could b also usd to mak contnt mor rlvant to us and.g. tailor onlin nws to our intrsts. 3 Th rsarch will b publishd soon and mad availabl on IAB Europ s wbsit. 67

5 Th obvious conclusion from this is that usrs would hav a much bttr onlin xprinc in rlation to advrtising if that advrtising was of rlvanc to thm, with only a small prcntag disagring that tailord advrtising would mak a diffrnc to thir onlin xprinc. What ar th potntial bnfits of making advrtising mor rlvant to Intrnt usrs? If advrtising is mor rlvant to th usrs thr is likly to b a knock-on ffct that provids Intrnt usrs with gratr accss to fr quality contnt, srvics and applications. Clarly it is bnficial to thos advrtisings products or srvics onlin to b abl to rach an audinc that is mor likly to b intrstd in thir products or srvics and not wast rsourcs on usrs who ar vry unlikly to hav any intrst (particularly whr th product or srvic is of a vry spcialisd natur). In conomic tims whn budgts ar rducd in all aras th ffctivnss and rlvanc of a markting campaign coms into vn sharpr focus. Gratr rlvanc of th advrtising is also bnficial to wb publishrs as advrtising provids thm with a rvnu stram that allows thm to continu to provid fr contnt to usrs. Advrtising rvnu is ky to fund futur innovations and srvics on th Intrnt and th mans by which many onlin srvics, including sarch ngins, mail providrs, social nt-working sits, ar abl to provid usrs with a srvic that is ntirly for fr and fundd by advrtising. But industry only gos halfway if it dlivrs mor intrsting advrtising to consumrs. Th othr part of th journy must b to rcognis th rquirmnt to xplain to consumrs how onlin advrtising works and to giv a choic to consumrs. Explaining Onlin Bhavioural Advrtising Thr ar diffrnt ways to provid bhavioural advrtising. At a basic lvl, information about th wb browsing activity - togthr with information about thousands of othr usrs browsing - is collctd and sgmntd into gnral groups, such as cars, financ and travl. An intrst profil (for xampl cars ) is infrrd from data about th sits a usr has visitd and a fil known as a cooki is placd on th usr s computr to idntify him as somon intrstd in th catgory cars. Advrtisrs and wbsits will tailor advrts for groups of usrs with similar intrsts and th cooki nabls such rlvant display advrtising to b dlivrd to th usr. Most of Onlin Bhavioural Advrtising is don through th so-calld ad-ntworks that bring togthr a mdia ownr (oftn a portal) with an advrtisr and us cookis for this purposs. 4 Cookis ar littl fils that kp a minimum amount of data and ar usd for many purposs, such as dtcting th oprating systm of your pc, your languag prfrncs, stor usrnams tc. Th 68 4 A good ovrviw on Onlin Bhavioural Advrtising can b found on th IAB Uk sit:

6 bauty of cookis is that th usr (and not th wb sit that st th cookis) has full control: h or sh can dlt cookis with an as of fw clicks and can vn st th browsr to accpt cookis from crtain wb sits cc. In an ffort to xplain to usrs what xactly Onlin Bhavioural Advrtising is, IAB Europ plans to crat a wb portal that provids usrs with information about Onlin Bhavioural Advrtising, th choics thy hav and how thy can xrcis thm. W rcognis that such wbsit nds to b offrd in mor languags than English and intnd to subsquntly add mor and mor languags so that all Europans can gt information in thir nativ languag. Explanation covrs two aspcts, namly tchnical functionality and th lgal contxt, ths bing th ky lmnts that wb sits nd to provid by law. Th lgal information is includd in th privacy sction on a wbsit. Som companis hav startd providing information on an advrt outsid th privacy sction, somthing that contributs to transparncy and usr accptanc. Our organisation, IAB Europ, wlcoms such initiativs and ncourags discussions on this topic. Th transparncy qustion is frquntly tid to th qustion of privacy safguards: dos Onlin Bhavioural Advrtising impact th data protction (or privacy) of usrs? All providrs of Onlin Bhavioural Advrtising hav to comply with th rquirmnts st out undr th Europan data protction framwork. In most cass, th information usd for targting advrts is not prsonal, in that usrs cannot b idntifid. Whr prsonal information (lik rgistration data) is usd, usrs hav bn told about it in th wbsit s privacy policy and thir consnt nds to b providd whn thy rgistr for th srvic in qustion. Usrs always hav a choic as to whthr or not thy want to rciv mor rlvant advrtising or not. Offring choics to consumrs In addition to th choic consumrs hav as to whthr to us or not a spcific srvic, Onlin Bhavioural Advrtising providrs giv usrs a choic whthr thy want Onlin Bhavioural Advrtising or not. In cas a usr dcids to not accpt Onlin Bhavioural Advrtising h will still s advrts. Thy will b just mor random and probably much lss rlvant. If a usr wants to xrcis his choic to not hav Onlin Bhavioural Advrtising, h or sh can asily opt-out from bing srvd such advrtising. Anothr choic consumrs hav is to actually dlt or add catgoris of thir intrsts. Two major companis hav rolld out such ad-prfrnc or ad-intrst managrs that giv usrs a tool to dlt crtain catgoris that ar includd for advrtising (.g. cars) or vn add othr catgoris. 5 Companis hav rcognisd th valu such tools hav for usrs and it could b xpctd that mor companis will offr such tools. 5 S.g. Yahoo: opt_out/targting/ or googl: prfrncs. 69

7 Th Yahoo sit givs m som information its machin has at that particular momnt,.g. which IP addrss my pc was assignd, which oprating systm my pc runs, tc. Ths catgoris of information ar rlvant to match th tchnical rquirmnts (fit th advrt on my scrn) and to srv th advrt. Th advrtisrs crat sgmnts and want to advrtis a product to.g. all womn living in Blgium btwn th ag of and th machin can pick an advrt that matchs thos paramtrs. Trust and confidnc ar prcondition to rtain customrs Rputabl companis know that in ordr to b succssful, thy rly on th trust and confidnc of thir usrs and nd to focus significant rsourcs to maintain this. In th onlin nvironmnt, whr it s so asy to chang srvic providrs, rputational damag has a vry significant impact. Usrs hav forcd larg companis to chang sttings or privacy policis in voicing thir discontnt. Thy know how to dal with th mdium Intrnt, thy ar incrasingly accustomd to it, ar smart and hav a halthy, somtims rsrvd attitud which rflcts thir maturity with th onlin mdium. Th MC DC study found out that 70% or usrs ar carful in slcting which prsonal information thy will shar on th Intrnt and also rvald that 40% of usrs gnrally trust information availabl on th Intrnt. Thr quartrs of Intrnt usrs wr awar of Privacy policis but only 4 out of 10 usrs said thy rgularly rad thm, which is prtty much akin to th ral world and how w intract with policis from car parking notics to supr markt trms and conditions. Conclusion 70 How will th world look tomorrow? Nw applications will nabl usrs to intract in ways w cannot imagin. Should w limit th potntial of such innovations for Europ? I bliv w should ncourag innovation and govrnmnt should not try and limit th innovation potntial without vry good rason for doing so. Advrtising is ky to innovation: it funds nw businss modls and provids altrnativ financing modls for a wid rang of srvic and product sctors. Advrtising is also ky to accssibl information, providing a mans to financ publishing, from daily nwspaprs to nich intrst aras. Publishrs ar facd with significant challngs as mor and mor contnt bcoms availabl onlin and onlin advrtising provids thm with a mans by which thy can build thir businss modl for th futur without having to turn to radrs for significant subscription contributions. Howvr, random advrtising, whrby usrs s an advrt that may b ntirly irrlvant to thm is unlikly to provid th rsourcs

8 ndd as such markting is unlikly to show rturns in tak up in th srvic or product and, thrfor, cannot justify significant cost to thos purchasing advrtising spac. Onlin Bhavioural Advrtising provids an advrt which is significantly mor likly to b clickd on and to gnrat th intrst of a usr givn it is of mor dirct rlvanc to that usr. Onlin Bhavioural Advrtising is a prmium advrtising tchnology and gnrats, in rturn, highr rvnus for publishrs as usrs ar mor likly to b intrstd in following up on srvics and products advrtisd. It also nsurs high quality offrings onlin and provids usrs with information on products and srvics of intrst to thm. As long as usrs ar proprly informd and can xrcis thir choics, w should not limit such forms of advrtising as thy will b a significant rsourc for any sctors of th businss world. Th onlin advrtising industry is stpping up its fforts to provid usrs with th tools to bttr undrstand Onlin Bhavioural Advrtising, xrcis choics and gt th most out of th Intrnt and with a rsponsibl approach to such advrtising its potntial for incrasing growth in Europan businsss should b harnssd and not killd in its infancy. 71