#98

Are you a click or a cookie?

Picture yourself at one of those cruise line dinner buffets. Have you ever experienced one of those? They’re wonderful... roast beef, bar-b-qued shish-k-bobs, broiled salmon steaks, steamed shrimp, the pasta dishes, the vegetables -- all kinds of breads and dressings, all steeped in sauces... and cakes, pies and cookies, add fudge with ice cream with fruits and all dripping in chocolate sauce. Pretty soon you don’t feel so well. You excuse yourself.
__ Today’s web media is sort of like one of those buffets. So much to consume, but watch out, there’s some bad feelings just ahead. Few nouveau-web advertisers or advertising agencies know or understand what’s going on -- they push and push and push but don’t see the writing on the wall. They think it’s TV.
__ For years the advertiser has spent ever growing budgets on smoke and mirrors. They never really knew what they were buying -- they could only believe the hype of the ad salesperson. They paid 5, 6, and 7 digits on the belief that all those readers the magazine or TV was delivering represented pairs of eyes. The entire industry ran on CPR (cost-per-reader) but they never really knew for sure. The media sharks became experts at explaining why the ad didn’t work. “Not our fault.”
__
No more excuses.
Today, our online marketing arena is fueled by a buffet of greedy computer industry sharks, hyper-stimulated online media snipers and the ever-hungry big business and government booty hunters -- and they’re stalking YOU. Big media and the advertising industry has bellied up to the buffet and they’ll never push back from the table until they gobble you up. Websites now lusting for more and more web advertising dollars will offer and deliver anything asked for, including YOU. Wait and see.
__ The first nail in the coffin is giving away the store. Putting everything on the buffet is not a good idea. Precise accountability spells trouble for any publisher who has been fat and happy on big-bucks from advertisers. What if the magazine publisher could only charge for the ads that readers actually read? What if the TV industry had to provide actual proof for every single viewer who watched the ad? What is they paid only after having tabulated those viewers at a per-viewer rate? Scary isn’t it? You think I’m kidding, don’t you?
__ One sad advertiser was overheard lamenting that they spent $35,000 for one of those trendy search engine banners and got a whopping 50 click-throughs! What do you suppose was the website media salesman’s excuse this time?
__ The advertiser has now tasted that rare meat on the buffet. The web sharks have been giving them accountability and now it’s backing up on them. They don’t feel so well.
__ Software companies are cashing in on this fat buffet too. We’re beginning to see more and more sophisticated tracking devices. Do you have your cookies turned on? Go ahead. Surf for a few days with your browser set to ASK each time a cookie is sent. You’ll be amazed -- and perhaps a little ill. The sharks are stalking YOU -- where you landed, what you did next, and where you went from there. More sophisticated software discloses how long you were there, stalking you -- learning your moves. Now there’s software that even passes cookies along with you as you surf from site to site. Advertisers will get fatter and fatter.
__ This month’s goodies column mentions a new software package that actually allows you to verify that you saw the ad without leaving the page. “Hmmmmm that ad looks nice, click, yes I was here.” Now the sharks can use your click to validate and prove to the advertiser that their ads are being read. Do YOU click banner ads? Neither did I... but when that ceases to work, they’ll just program intelligent agents to click the spam ads for you --- several hundred times a minute. And did you ever respond “REMOVE” to any of those spam emails? Surprise! You were just counted, and your address verified for use again and again. The Government (FBI, INA, etc) really likes cookies too. But that’s another column. Hmmmmmmm.

Who will be the winner?
People will laugh about this column and call me a kook. But just think about it for a minute. Did you ever read the links to some of those banners? Ever notice how many directories are in line to validate you?

Who will benefit?
The website won’t benefit because with 19 advertisers on the page you still can’t click but one. Yet you’ll be counted for them all because of your “session.” If ad revenue falls will things get better? Nope. They’ll just lower the price and sell more ads. After all, you’re cheap. You cost them nothing -- will things get better? No, they’ll have to work harder to get live leads. We are the ones who will suffer. We’ll have to read more ads to get less content -- it will take you more clicks, higher speed, more bandwidth and longer downloads to get that content. Wait ‘til they start running video and audio ads. It’s already started.
__ Just like the myth of ‘hits’ died, so too will CPR and the myth that the advertiser is buying impressions. Web pages will become more and more automated (lots and lots more code per page) because the advertiser has tasted the treats of the buffet. Now they’re in the driver’s seat, and they’re counting on you.

Thanks for writing.

Fred

Sidebar: A reader responds... "But it doesn't cost me anything"

PS: This was not intended to insult you or make you mad. Remember that our first consideration and obligation is to YOU... not your advertisers. Please write and let us know what you think!

Fred Showker is director of The Design & Publishing Center on the web at http://www.graphic-design.com/, and is a co-founder of both The User Group Forum on America Online, and The User Group Network at http://www.user-groups.net/. He has been a user group activist and supporter since 1984.

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60-Second Windowô is a syndicated column by Fred Showker which appears in various monthly news services and many Macintosh User Group Newsletters around the world, and other computer, graphic arts related publications. 60-Second Window is copyright ©1986 - 1998, All Rights Reserved.

Fred Showker, nationally recognized designer author and speaker, is a 25-year veteran of the graphics industry, with his own firm Showker Graphic Arts & Design. Heís an associate editor for the Mug News Service (MNS) as well as Home & School Mac. You can see Fred in action at any of his Design & Graphics workshops around the country sponsored by Dynamic Graphics Educational Foundation, InHouse Graphics, PrintFest and others. You can chat with him directly on America OnLine, where he is ìAFA Shwkrî, a forum assistant in the User Group Forum (UGF), or in eWorld as co-host of the WORKING SOLO forum.
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