Your Internet-service provider often knows other information about you, such as your name, your location, your age, and your income ranges, which can be very valuable to potential advertisers, especially when combined with your Web browsing habits. "Some of these [Internet equipment] guys are traveling in dangerous territory," says Emily Riley, an advertising analyst with Jupiter Research. "Should one company have all of that data in one place? It's a little troubling."

Privacy advocates keep saying transparency is key. "Consumers need to know exactly what is going on and they need to know it at all times," says John Palfrey, executive director of the Berkman Center for the Internet and Society at Harvard University. "Today they say they are using consumer information for ads, but it could be something completely different tomorrow. The ISPs and the companies they are working with need to share as much information as possible."

The use of the new networking gear to observe online behavior -- while currently nascent -- is growing. Zachary Britton, FrontPorch's chief executive, told WSJ that his company's advertising business generated $15 million in the first nine months of the year, up 187% from the year-earlier period. The company has signed up 202 new customers for its deep packet inspection boxes this year.

Meanwhile, NebuAd is expecting revenue of $100 million in 2008 based on sales of its advertising equipment. NebuAd Chief Executive Bob Dykes says the company has signed up more than 30 new customers, mostly Internet access providers, since it started.

For CenturyTel, the new business has already turned into a healthy sideline. The company estimates it will see a 5% to 10% boost in average revenue per user for its high-speed Internet business, with extra revenue totaling around $2 million a quarter. "We need new revenue streams to survive," says Chris Mangum, vice president of strategic planning of CenturyTel, which notifies its consumers of the behavioral targeting in an online fact sheet and allows them to opt out.

Of course your ISP isn't the only one sniffing around in your underwear drawer. It seems Adobe and Apple are feeding information from their product users to analytics titan Omniture to determine what aspects of their software are being most used by their customers (and to detect who might be running pirated versions of said software.)

Yahoo, MSN and AOL are doing behavioral targeting. Google, even if they are denying it, is already targeting you. Certainly Google is watching your behavior over many sessions, so after a while they notice many search queries that bring up your ads, and they notice you don't click, so they stop showing ads you appear not to be interested in. This is pretty sophisticated stuff, but it's going to become even more invasive as time goes on. Apparently Google can remember what "You like."

Behavioral Targeting targets website visitors based on their past on-site behavior. Past behavior could range from the very first action a visitor took on the site to the most recent action that a user took in their latest session. All these actions are tracked via web analytics data. Web analytics provides the intelligence for behavioral targeting and web analytics is what measures behavioral targeting success.

Behavioral Targeting cannot exist in isolation according to BT guru Anil Batra. According to Mr. Batra, "Web Analytics provides insight into visitors' behavior. But insights are only as good as the actions that come out of them. Behavioral Targeting is one of the (better) ways to make those insights actionable. Marketer segment visitors based on the insights provides by a web analytics data and on the business goals. These segments of visitors can then be to target customer with the right Ad/Message/Content/Product (Behavioral Targeting)".

As we get deeper and deeper into the development cycles of NeoAdNet 1.0 at IAPIA, I am learning more and more about these undercover sciences that are changing the landscape of advertising. Every day something new comes into play.

For those of you who are happy sitting back on your Clio Awards and swilling down your Martinis, I sincerely wish you the best of luck with that. But for those who intend to stick around for awhile, I defiantly suggest you get off your ass and go down to the basement with your flashlight and have a look around.

Think About It.

Comment on this story on the new MadAve blog

WEDNESDAY
October 14, 2008
ISSUE 217

ABOUT ME

ARCHIVE

CONTACT ME

AGENDA

MOST READ

MAD002
The Journey
to Great

MAD009
The Death of
Advertising

MAD023
The Boy Who
Broke My Heart

MAD025
Too Busy for
Temptation

MAD072
The Rise and
Fall of the
Creative Class

MAD006
The Battle for
Coca-Cola
Rages On

MAD059
Happy Birthday
to Me

MAD060
The City that
Spawned the
Age of
Advertising

MAD066
The True Cool

MAD095
The Creeping
Influence Of All
Things Emo.

MAD015
The Four Great
Myths of Global
Branding

MAD026
The One True
Thing

MAD030
The Lost Art of
Persuasion

MAD021
Dare To Be
Great: The Mad
Genius of The
"Matrix"

MAD071
Boomers
Downshift
To Neutral

MAD092
Advertising
Immunity. Can
It Be Cured In
Our Lifetime?

MAD100
Breathing New
Life Into
American
Business

LINKS WE LIKE

HarryWebber.com

BrandedFilm.com

TheGaspCompany.com

Addcoachinggroup.com

BrAnswers.com

POWER BLOGS

Hollwood-Elsewhere

AdRants

Adland

Ads Of The World

Ad Goodness

Beyond Madison Av

Jaffe Juice

Make The Logo
Bigger

Random Culture

Entrepreneur Success Blog

American Copywriter

Digital Axle

Adgabber.com

RECENT
ARCHIVES

MAD 215
The Sky Is not Falling. Are You?

MAD 214
A Word From Our
Sponsor.

MAD 213
What If Obama
Worked For Them?

MAD 212
Kicking And Screaming Into Web 2.0.

MAD 211
A Word On Words

MAD 210
Creative Is As Creative Does.

MAD 209
School Daze

MAD 208
Fuel For The Brain.

MAD 207
The Truth Hurts

MAD 206
Changing the World
One Ad at a Time .

MAD 205
The Transformational
Idea, Is The Idea.

MAD 204
The Client Is The Audience.

MAD 203
Brand New Brands.

MAD 202
What's The Plan, Stan? .
MAD 201
Less Is Now More.

MAD 200
The Dinner That Changed Everything.

MAD 199
The Things That
Matter.

MAD 198
The Other Harry Webber

MAD 197
And The Band
Played On

MAD 196
NeoAdvertising 7

MAD 195
NeoAdvertising 6

MAD 194
NeoAdvertising 5

MAD 193
NeoAdvertising 4

MAD 192
NeoAdvertising 3

MAD 191
NeoAdvertising 2

MAD 190
NeoAdvertising 1

MAD 189
The Purpose of Creativity

MAD 188
A Moment of Silence

MAD 187
Back To Basics .

MAD 186
The Right Man's Burden.

MAD 185
The End of Advertising As Usual.

MAD 184
The Beauty That Never Fades.

MAD 183
Be Careful To Always Think Twice.

MAD 182
"Yes. And No."

MAD 181
Big, Friggin'. Scary Idea.

MAD 180
Building A Company
Cult-ure .

MAD 179
Doing Whatever It Takes.

MAD 178
The Art Of Our Science

MAD 177
NeoInflation Creation

MAD 176
Can Lean Advertising
Become Lean-Forward
Advertising?

MAD 175
The Lean Advertising
Network: Learning
What We Already Know

MAD 174
Relentless
Creativity.

MAD 173
Constant Change
For The Better.

MAD 172
Lean On This.

MAD 171
Take The Red Pill

MAD 170
And Now, Lean
Advertising

MAD 169
The Lost Art Of
Art Direction

MAD 168
Reality Check

MAD 167
Making Your Own
Dreams Come True

MAD 166
Gracias Por Todo

MAD 165
Buzz Off

MAD 164
The Future of Branding

MAD 163
Me, Unmasked

MAD 162
Nobody Knows
Nothin'

MAD 161
Behind the
8 Ball. Ahead
Of The Curve.

MAD 160
What Do We
Think We're
Doing?

MAD 159
Engagement
Ring

MAD 158
Ma(Duh!)son
Avenue

MAD 157
Funnel
Cloud
Heading
Our Way

MAD 156
Adaptive
Branding
Hit The
Road

MAD 155
How To Sing
The Blues

MAD 154
How to Pitch
In 2007

MAD153
Joost:
Television
Perfected

MAD152
What If gods
Were One
Of Us?

MAD151
Are We Smart
Enough?

MAD150
The Ultimate
Lie.

MAD149
The Art Of
Self Defense.

MAD148
In Praise
(And Dread)
Of Creative
Collaboration

MAD147
Adaptive
Branding And
The Millennials.

MAD146
Heard Any
Good Brand
Stories
Lately?

MAD145
Terms Of
Engagement.

MAD144
The Next
Generation
Of Trouble
Makers.

MAD143
What Are
You Hiding
From?

MAD142
Help Wanted:
No Excellence
Neccesary.

MAD141
The New
Creativity:
Building
Brands That
Matter.

MAD140
The Client's
God-Given
Right To Say
Drop Dead.

MAD139
Ladies And
Gentlemen
I Give You
The Audience.

MAD138
Change Or
Die: The
Adaptive
Brand Lives.

MAD137
Clients Kick
IT UP A Notch.

MAD136
Money For
Nothing And
The Kicks
For Free.

MAD135
Too Cool To
Care.

MAD134
Pimp My
Life.

MAD133
Why Don't You
Get Youself
A Real Job.

MAD132
What Would
You Do If
You Had To
Start Over
From Scratch?

MAD131
The Dance Heard
Round The World.

MAD130
Why Brand
Character
Matters Now
More Than
Ever.