Don't forget to register for the MIXX 2.8 Conference & Expo today.

Last week the IAB hosted a Leadership Forum on Mobile Advertising that brought together marketers, agencies, publishers and technology vendors from across the interactive advertising ecosystem to explore the opportunities and innovations in this dynamic medium. Released at the event was "A Mobile Advertising Overview" a document that demystifies the mobile platform and showcases mobile as a vital and growing medium for interactive advertising. Read the liveblog to get highlights from the event including marketing success stories, case studies, fireside chats, and much more. 

Randall Rothernberg, President and CEO of the IAB announced that now is the time to better comprehend the form and structure of this emerged new reality. Mobile has matured to the point where it cannot be ignored any longer.

The IAB also announced that the MIXX Awards submissions hit record levels, surpassing 2007's entries by 40%.

“The sheer quantity of submissions and the caliber of the marketers and agencies represented is a testament to the increasingly critical role that interactive advertising plays in marketers’ media plans,” said Randall Rothenberg, president and CEO of the IAB

Lastly, on July 24th the IAB issued the Ad Campaign Measurement Process Guidelines for public comment. A document that addresses the process of a publisher’s or advertising agency’s use of a third-party ad server and its application service provider.

What's up next?
MIXX Conference and Expo 2.8 September 22-23, 2008

Linda Barrabee, Program Manager, Consumer Research, Mobile Entertainment, Yankee Group, led the final panel of the day called a Fireside Chat, Research and the Future, Truth or Dare.

The last panel of the day was in many ways a wrap up of all of the very conversations held at the IAB Mobile Leadership Forum. Led by Linda Barrabee, Program Manager, Consumer Research, Mobile Entertainment, Yankee Group, the panel called a Fireside Chat, Research and the Future, Truth or Dare began with the most persistent question of the day: “Where are we in respect to engagement beyond voice on the cellphone; what are consumers doing on their phone?” Barrabee asked.

Eric Neufeld, Vice President and Senior Analyst at comScore, said that the biggest challenge hindering the development of the mobile ad marketplace is getting more people to go beyond plain vanilla voice communications on their cell phone.

Eric Neufeld, Vice President and Senior Analyst at comScore, said that we’re running out of people to sell phones to, but the vast majority don’t do anything beyond voice. The percentage of people who browse and get email on cell phones shows good growth relative to where this number started, “but when you look at the total of user population, it’s still not enough,” said Neufeld.

John Burbank, Chief Marketing Officer of Nielsen Co., said that the most important metric that advertisers want is to be shown where mobile ads work.

John Burbank, Chief Marketing Officer of Nielsen Company, echoed this belief but took it one provocative step further. “Mobile advertising is not a material player for advertisers,” he said. “Maybe for MySpace and Facebook and maybe for ringtones. But not much else.”

So what will take for the mobile advertising marketing, which has been described throughout the day as finally evolving and ready to burst forth, actually live up to its significant promise? For one thing, said Neufeld more phones in the marketplace with smart capabilities and leading edge features that provide advertisers with real opportunities to present their commercials in an engaging, interactive, personalized and customized way.

Indeed, the price of cell phones or phone plans is not a deterrent, it is just the ability to provide valuable advertising content that will determine how quickly mobile advertising takes off, Burbank said. And the ability to provide more valuable advertising content will come about as better content drives people to their cell phones for more than just voice services. “More valuable material will have more people willing to pay the price for data services,” Burbank said.

Neufeld added that in the advertising world complexity is bad and without standards complexity is rife – and that makes it hard to get companies to run mobile ads.

As for the metrics that mobile advertisers want, metrics that still are not yet available, there is really only one, said Burbank: “Can you can you show me where it works. If you show them that, they’ll be there.”

Carriers and the Mobile Marketing Ecosystem: Accelerating Access - 5:52 p.m.

Randy Zadra, visiting fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Media Lab, moderated the panel on Carriers and the Mobile Marketing Ecosystem: Accelerating Access.

Randy Zadra, visiting fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Media Lab, led the panel on Carriers and the Mobile Marketing Ecosystem: Accelerating Access at the IAB Mobile Leadership Forum. He posited initially that bound by their size and tradition, telephone carriers were long staid, nearly immovable organizations. Thanks to mobile marketing, though, they currently stand at the headwaters of cultural and commercial change, both within their own organizations and society at large.

Jordan Berman, Executive Director of Media Innovation at AT&T Mobility, spoke about a company and industry transformed by the iPhone.

Jordan Berman, Executive Director of Media Innovation at AT&T Mobility, describes carriers as organizations suddenly serving two masters: consistency, that old standby, and innovation, the new imperative.

“What do consumers want when they buy a phone?” he asked, as excited crowds were still lined up to buy record numbers of iPhones. “First and foremost, connect my phone. Don’t drop it. Do no harm is the first rule.”

But as sure as they want consistency, those crowds eager to sign up for AT&T services simultaneously want to be surprised and inspired by the features at their fingertips.

Scott Kelliher, Director of Mobile Advertising, Virgin Mobile USA, described life at a smaller, innovative carrier.

“We have to provide them with moments of wow,” echoed Scott Kelliher, Director of Mobile Advertising, Virgin Mobile USA.

Toward this end, carriers are working with their customers, as they always had, to figure out their preferences, but under a new mindset are also dealing with advertisers and all manner of other new partners.

“For the first time we are dealing with Chief Technology Officers and Chief Information Officers,” Berman said.

As a matter of course, carriers now seek to leverage popular culture in mobile marketing campaigns. AT&T did so many promotions with American Idol that Berman was not far off in declaring Clay Aiken “the father of text messaging.” Virgin, for its part, does promotions at rock concerts text messaging VIP ticket upgrades to those who carpooled.

The latest word in promotion using mobile coupons, sweepstakes, videos and games has become a prime goal for the carriers and options abound, even as issues of privacy might, to Berman’s eye, slow progress down to an appropriately safe speed.

“We don’t want to mess up and poison the ecosystem before it totally grows,” he said. “We are at the very first inning of a very long baseball game.

Location based services, the pair agreed, might be the so-called “killer app” for the carriers, perhaps sending customers coupons for one store as they walk past a competitor’s.

It is, Berman said, an example of the carrier’s new currency: “special sauce.”

“And sauce is good,” Kelliher agreed.

“Sauce is darn good.”

David Doty, the senior vice president of Thought Leadership and Marketing for the Interactive Advertising Bureau, speaking at the IAB Mobile Leadership Forum.

3:50 p.m.

David Doty, the senior vice president of Thought Leadership and Marketing for the Interactive Advertising Bureau, invited attendees at the IAB Mobile Leadership Forum to hear succinct five-minute presentations from a rotating series of mobile solutions providers. The day encompassed many long-form panels, but here several dozen firms from Microsoft Mobile Advertising to Nokia were to present the essence of their offerings in what amounted to a business version of speed dating. Said Doty: “No fluff, all meat, all meaning.”

Meet The Publishers - 3:48 p.m.

Mickey Alam Kham, editor in chief of Mobile Marketer, moderated a panel called Meet the Publishers at the IAB Mobile Leadership Forum.

Mickey Alam Kham, editor in chief of Mobile Marketer, led a panel called Meet the Publishers at the IAB Mobile Leadership Forum, which explored what role mobile advertising is playing in content publishing. All of the panelists – each participant from a major content publisher – agreed that some of the most exciting advertising activities are coming through the mobile channel. But there are serious challenges that must be overcome.

Sophia Stuart, Mobile Director, Hearst Magazines Digital Media, said that as mobile user costs drop advertisers will rush to the marketplace more.

For one thing, said Sophia Stuart, Mobile Director, Hearst Magazines Digital Media, mobile needs to become cheaper for people to use. Without that, there won’t be a sufficient number of consumers to reach for major advertisers.

Jeffrey Litvack, Global Director, New Media Markets, AP Digital, heads up a mobile news network.

Jeffrey Litvack, Global Director, New Media Markets, AP Digital, added that the consumer wants to get content and advertising targeted at their preferences. Advertisers, like content providers, must deliver personalization. In other words, Litvack said, “more than a banner ad.”

Larry Shapiro, Executive Vice President, Business Development and Operations, General Manager, North American Mobile, Walt Disney Internet Group, said that Disney is fortunate to have the most active mobile customers in its sweet spot -- the tweens.

Also essential, said Larry Shapiro, Executive Vice President, Business Development and Operations, General Manager, North American Mobile, Walt Disney Internet Group, are better global standards. With so many different types of handsets and different browsers, the fact that certain phones don’t allow video, “it is almost impossible to have a consistent user experience to offer people. It takes a focused juggling act to enable you to represent your property and your assets to consumers.”

Nonetheless, even with the obstacles, Shapiro added, mobile advertising is a market just ready to burst. “I call it mobilewillbebig 3.0,” he added.

Sophia Stuart, Mobile Director, Hearst Magazines, Digital Media, said that by being creative advertisers can seize individuals when they are most interested. For example, Good Housekeeping Magazine found that at 4:00 in the afternoon, most women don’t know what they are cooking for dinner. What better time, she asked, then that to send women via cell phone recipes linked to advertising?

At this session, the AP announced that 728 AP newspapers have joined its Mobile News Network -- a 580 percent jump in media participation – since its launch in May. Leveraging this network, said Litvack, marketers can build integrated campaigns at the neighborhood level both in mobile and print, and mobile users can access their local sources of information wherever and whenever they want.

Bruce Stewart, Vice President and General Manager for Connected Life Americas Yahoo! Inc., said that Asia and India offer the greatest opportunities.

Added Bruce Stewart, Vice President and General Manager for Connected Life Americas
Yahoo! Inc., the best global opportunities are in Asian and Indian markets, where mobile activity has flourished first.

Toward the end of the session, Disney’s Shapiro, spoke about how powerful the mobile phone is to the “tweens” audience that his company reaches so well. This group spends so much time text messaging that linking the mobile phone to campaigns for Hannah Montana and High School Musical as well as to advertising related to this shows is almost like picking low hanging fruit.

All of the publishers said that media buyers interested in advertising in mobile channels can find at their companies experts focused solely on developing these promotional efforts. They can call publishers and brainstorm ideas as well as collaborate in the creation of new campaigns.

Mobile as Unique Marketing Platform for Traditional Media - 1:30 p.m.

Gary Schwartz, President and CEO of Impact Mobile and the head of IAB's Mobile Marketing Committee, headed the panel on Mobile as Unique Marketing Platform for Traditional Media at the IAB Mobile Leadership Forum.

Gary Schwartz, President and CEO of Impact Mobile, kicked off the Mobile as Unique Marketing Platform for Traditional Media panel at the IAB Mobile Leadership Forum by asserting that the cell phone can be viewed as a mouse, a clickable device that connects consumers directly to a more traditional Internet-based or offline advertising campaign.

The multi-platform campaigns discussed by the panel:

Mike Anderson, Lead Consultant, Live Nation’s ConcertVision program, spoke about how his company reaches concert goers via mobile phone.

Mike Anderson, Lead Consultant, Live Nation’s ConcertVision program, said that Live Nation kept in constant touch with hundreds of thousands of concertgoers by giving them a number to call on their mobile phone allowing them to send personalized notes to the screen at a concert event (inviting a friend out to dinner after the show, for instance) or to anytime get additional information about artists, sponsors, venues and future shows. Using the connection with a music lover gained from this “pull” campaign (and the cellphone number that came with it), Live Nation then does “push” campaigns via mobile phone to these individuals, telling them about how to get tickets to future shows by performers that these individuals have previously expressed interest in.

John Haegele, CEO, Van Wagner Sports Group, unveiled details of a mobile advertising campaign that targets sports fans.

John Haegele, CEO, Van Wagner Sports Group, gave an example of a sports venue campaign to compel fans to turn their attention more often to stadium Jumbotrons (and of course the advertisements on the big boards). In this campaign, pictures of hundreds of fans were taken as they entered the stadium. Van Wagner staff whittled this treasure trove down to three or fan pictures and put them on the Jumbotron, asking people in the crowd to vote via mobile phones for which fan is their favorite.

Rich Begert, President and CEO of SinglePoint, explained how networks are linking TV shows to cell phones to promote their productions.

Rich Begert, President and CEO of SinglePoint, offered a TV-related concept in which networks from NBC to BET ask a question of the audience during a television show related to the program. When viewers respond via cell phone text messages they receive in return video clips along with brief commercials.

Eric Harber, President and COO of HipCricket, showed how businesses as small as home cleaning services can take advantage of the cell phone to attract customers.

Eric Harber, President and COO of HipCricket, recounted a mobile campaign for a local home cleaning company based in Salt Lake City, Utah in which people who dialed in via cell phones could win tickets to a Brad Paisley concert. Eighty percent of those who responded also asked for housecleaning services.

Skip Brand, Chief Revenue Officer of Pudding Media, shared the details of a mobile phone calling card campaign.

Skip Brand, Chief Revenue Officer of Pudding Media, spoke about a new campaign for an old product: calling cards. A hefty call discount of 50 percent is offered in exchange for the caller listening to a targeted seven second advertisement. For example, someone from New York calling Manila, speaking in a Phillipine accent, may get a commercial for an airline ticket.

While all of these innovative campaigns have produced excellent results, panel members pointed out that there still is much more supply than demand – that is, more cell phone bandwidth and not enough advertisers yet – principally because for individual campaigns there are few metrics to monitor how well these promotional efforts are doing. But for brands that have multiple platforms from which to view consumers, these campaigns offer advertisers a vast amount of insight into consumer choices and it offers consumers a valuable and simple way to connect more closely to the products and brands that they prefer. The main thing, though, says Anderson at LiveNation, is product providers must present valuable content to consumers.

Mobile Marketing Success Stories - 11:47 a.m.

With the mobile ecosystem evolving quickly and mobile advertising budgets on the rise, many ad campaigns have met with remarkable success. Several common threads can be pulled from these case studies with the overriding one: success has come in areas that might surprise those with rigid, pre-set assumptions.

Julie Ask, researcher director at JupiterResearch, led the Mobile Marketing Success Story panel at the IAB Mobile Leadership Forum.

Vladimir Edelman, Chief Executive Officer of Ansible Mobile, provided insight into a mobile ad program developed from a well-established Internet site for pregnant women.

Edelman also showcased a mobile promotion done in partnership with Verizon at the Tribeca Family Festival. Created in a special studio, children were spliced into their favorite cartoon adventures, with the results sent to mom and dad’s phone (soon friends and grandparents too) all within 3 minutes. The same thing was repeated at ballgames, with fans inserted into highlight reels in a campaign that had far greater impact than any “brought to you by” announcement.

Eric Bader, Managing Partner of Brand in Hand, offered examples of mobile marketing campaigns that ran from Nascar to dog food.

Eric Bader, Managing Partner of Brand in Hand, walked the audience through a Vicks DayQuil campaign that came harnessed to mobile weather reports, a Gillette sponsored voting program for a NASCAR event, mobile shopping lists organized by Pringle and dog bark ring tones that came in conjunction with—you guessed it—a dog food producer. He urged the audience to not neglect Hispanic audiences, who are using mobile for Internet access in more and more substantial numbers.

Jeff Arbour, vice president of Mobile Integration at The Hyperfactory, spoke about his work targeting different types of demographics.

Maria Mandel, Senior Partner, executive director of digital innovation, Ogilvy - 11:19 a.m.

Maria Mandel’s theme throughout the keynote address at the IAB Mobile Leadership Forum was that mobile has the greatest possibilities as an advertising channel because mobile devices – particularly, the cell phone but also Blackberrys and interactive PDAs – are the most important devices that people have in their lives. Next to their keys, people always carry their cell phones and other mobile devices and this equipment is virtually always on.

Ms. Mandel supported this notion with compelling statistics: More than 60 percent of people use text messages; the number one way that people access the Internet globally is through mobile devices. More convincing data: according to researchers, advertisers will spend $1.7 billion in the mobile channel this year and this will increase to $12 billion over the next five years. In addition, Ms. Mandel said, there are 1 billion more cell phones than PCs. Before long, more people will be viewing content on cell phone devices than TVs. And about 60 pct of people who purchase the IPhone buy it because of its Wi-Fi applications.

There are five ways for advertisers to leverage this rapidly growing marketplace, Ms. Mandel said:

1. The simplest is sending text messages to consumers engaging them with quizzes, sweepstakes and polls.
2. When people are surfing the mobile Internet, interact with consumers through banner ads or by driving them to another Internet website.
3. Video is still in the nascent stage but some companies are beginning to tap this channel. Important that video content produced for mobile devices performs better when it is different from the content presented on television or the computer-based Internet. In other words, if it is video, be unique and engaging – give people information that they are looking for or entertainment that attracts them.
4. People take a picture of a “code” on a printed page with their mobile device and automatically data, video, information, coupons, among many other things is automatically sent to them via the handset.
5. Create a positive experience for consumers with an application loaded on their mobile devices. Ms. Mandel provided a fascinating example of a digital personal assistant that can help young users find the hottest bars and clubs to go to and even view these locations on their mobile devices via Webcams; or book a limo or buy a gift. This application, offered by Johnnie Walker, gives users a continuous relationship with the products made by the company. Of course, the gifts the digital assistant will offer will be Johnnie Walker liquor.

Typical push applications are banner ads and text links. The average click thru rate, she noted, is a remarkable 2 percent, compared to only. 2 percent for online push advertising.

Pull applications such as ask a question on a billboard and ask consumers to use their mobile devices to call an 800 number with the answer. Another involved having people take pictures of themselves with their mobile devices at a Hong Kong airport, send them to Motorola, who then posted these pictures – good bye photos for friends and families – on a large video screen. During one recent ad campaign, Ms. Mandel said, the mobile channel had 7 times the response rate of an 800 number.

1. Integration – leverage all channels to support the campaign, everything from the basic Internet and TV to mobile.
2. Make sure the ad is a clear call to action. Don’t let the marketing message get lost in the cool factor of mobile.
3. Test the ad carefully to make sure that it does not go over the target’s head.
4. Measure response with analytics.
5. Built the list. Mobile lists are precious and often wasted.
6. Consider the viral aspects of mobile. Incorporate the ability for users to pass along the campaign to others.

Randall Rothenberg, President and CEO of the Interactive Advertising Bureau, welcome participants at the IAB Mobile Leadership Forum with the message that mobile advertising has matured to the point that the opportunities cannot be ignored any longer.

Randall Rothenberg, President and CEO of the Interactive Advertising Bureau, opened the IAB Mobile Leadership Forum with a provocative notion: the mobile advertising marketplace has finally come of age. He pointed out that the cliché that has predominated for the last ten years is that we have heard that mobile is the next big thing. When will it happen? Well, it has happened, Rothenberg said. And that is what will be revealed at the IAB Mobile Leadership Forum. Indeed, Rothenberg said, we are moving to a three screen universe. And that means that marketers and agencies are able to reach increasingly mobile consumers, giving them information when they want and where they want– this is no longer the future but the here and now. The third screen is mainstream. Now is the time to better comprehend the form and structure of this emerged new reality. “To understand,” said Rothberg, “the 3 in 3G, the Wi in Wi-Fi.”

Photos by DougGoodman.com

What's next? Building on the expertise and credibility that the IAB has achieved in creating a common ground for advancing growth in the interactive marketplace, we developed with The Laredo Group a Professional Development training course in interactive sales taking place on June 11. Register today and capture the best there is in technical sales training for you and your sales team.

Reminder: The MIXX Awards are open for entry!

"To our knowledge, this is the first time agencies, publishers and marketers have come together to referee a major advertising awards program," said Randall Rothenberg, president and CEO of the IAB.

So don't forget to submit your best interactive campaign today.

Pete Blackshaw asks the panel to discuss the good and bad of interruption.



Cristian Cussen says the if brands are not comfortable hearing objectionable content from their user base, they may not be read to step into the social marketing space.


Brian Cusack believes the goal is to keep users on the site, watching as much video as possible in order to create additional marketing opportunities.


Brandon Evans expresses how conversational marketing can not be fed from the top down.




Jory Des Jardins lets the audience know that bloggers hate being told what to say.Blogging can be used to generate word of mouth, but it is not word of mouth in itself.

Chad Stoller say social media works really well when you’re looking to engage with a consumer, not when you try to assign metrics to it.

Rich LeFurgy asks if click-through rates are something that should be focused on moving forward.



Seth Goldstein speaks about how there is already a very robust system for monetization available to developers.



Tim Kendall points out that social media is not in the business of demand fulfillment, it's in the business of demand generation.


Brett Keitnz believes the power of the social graph for a marketer is that it allows word of mouth marketing to happen at a much greater scale.


Ro Choy says that you need to have contextual content around display ads in applications or else you are going to suffer from low click-through rates.

• Jeremy, 26, likes honesty in advertisers and wants them to hear what he has to say. He would love to be able to create advertising channels relevant to what he needs at the time - a Pandora of advertising was his analogy.
  
• Kelly, 38, likes how the advertising on Facebook is not intrusive to what she's doing online. She started using Facebook to spy on her son online.
  
• Corey, 27, wants ads specifically tailored to his needs, right now to the local level in his neighborhood. He's love to see a "friend vacation getaway" where he and his friends are all targeted at once for a vacation deal.
  
• James, 17, wants ads that show off the community that he's participating in, not just the product and would like to see more interconnectivity with other social media.
• Lynn, 62, like the recommendations she gets from Google and Amazon and wants to see more of that.

Cam Balzer talks about the microtargeting capabilities of profile targeting and its tremendous potential.


Terri Walter believes the highest success rate happens when you find something that connects strongly to a particular audience.


Rob Crumpler points out that much of the information is now out in the open. It's discussion that gives the opportunity for conversational targeting.




Alistair Sutcliffe believes that for every single vertical, there is a story to tell and it's all about defining small goals along the way.

• The Consumer Is Always Right- Cross Demographic Panel
• The Future Is Now- What's here, what's next and what's in the way?
• Wikis & Widgets, Blogs & Tweets: Defining User-Generated Content & Social Media

On May 15 the IAB and PWC announced that the 2007 Internet Advertising Revenue Report shows internet advertising revenues in the U.S. continued to soar.

"This achievement is testament to the continued vitality of interactive" said Randall Rothenberg, president and CEO of the IAB.

On May 22 Campaign Setup Best Practices was released as part of a long term initiative designed to improve operational efficiency in interactive advertising.

“This document is instrumental in helping online agencies and publishers increase the efficiency of the online ad buying process which is a real win for our clients,” said Will Restrepo, campaign management supervisor of Horizon Interactive, and one of a number of agency representatives who participated in the creation of the document.

Ad Unit and Rich Media Creative Guidelines are still out for public comment until June 6. Members of the industry (advertising agencies, advertisers, online publishers and technology vendors) are encouraged to read the proposed guidelines and submit comments on the IAB site.

Don't forget MIXX Awards Submissions are up! Enter your campaign today.

On Monday the IAB held the annual Digital Video Leadership Forum educating marketers, agencies and publishers on one of the hottest topics in the marketplace. Visit our event recap to see what you missed. The IAB released the highly anticipated Digital Video In-Stream Ad Format Guidelines and Digital Video Ad Format Compliance Seal at the event.

Then on Thursday, the IAB announced the Revised Ad Unit and Rich Media Creative Guidelines for Public Comment. Please take a moment to review the proposed guidelines and leave your comments.

On the horizon are the highly anticipated IAB Leadership Forum: User-Generated Content & Social Media, IAB Professional Development training on interactive advertising sales and more!  Please visit the events section of the IAB website for more information.

Read More:

IAB Leadership Forum: Digital Video Live Blog

Digital Video Event Recap

Digital Video In-Stream Ad Format Guidelines and Digital Video Ad Format Compliance Seal

Revised Ad Unit and Rich Media Creative Guidelines for Public Comment 

IAB Leadership Forum: User-Generated Content & Social Media

IAB Professional Development Sales Training

Via Beet.TV

Perhaps the scariest term in business today is "behavioral targeting." It also turns out to be one of the best practices around to assure the combination of consumer choice and marketing effectiveness on the Internet. And in that gap lies a dilemma for the marketing and media industries - and, indeed, for all citizens. For if fear overtakes reality, it could dramatically limit the accessibility and diversity of the Web.

Here are just a few of the blogs talking about it:

Wall Street Journal All Things Digital

AgencySPY

Defamer

Marked

The emergence of elaborated companion banners, animated overlays, repurposed text or product feeds and the ability to run non-video creative are just a few of the more recent innovations.

Video Advertising: A Performance Medium by Any Measure by Bill Todd.

Personalizing your creative video messages are also key in maximizing this technology. 

Not only can you optimize with video, but it is important to keep up to date with search as well. Max Kalehoff reminds us how to do so in this captivating blog post reminding us that we are nothing without a link.

Read More:

Video Advertising: A Performance Medium by Any Measure by Bill Todd

Making Video Personal by Phil Leggiere

You're Nothing Without a Link by Max Kalehoff

And the scary thing is: They are succeeding. I’ve detailed this “break-the-Web” effort in an article in yesterday’s Huffington Post. I urge you to print it out, circulate it, and oppose the forces that would force you under. (More on that later.)

Because virtually all of you reading this are scrambling to build your businesses in the face of a looming recession, you’ve probably been too busy to notice that a drive is underway to goad the Federal and State governments to regulate the core processes and technologies that underlie the operations of the Internet. The anti-Internet coalition’s proposals hide under the cover of very real, very legitimate concerns that citizens have over their personal privacy. But rather than focus on the real privacy dangers – loose data security policies, identity theft, Government intrusions into citizens’ phone and email records – these groups aim to shut down “advertising networks” and “third party entities,” including those central to the infrastructure of interactive media and advertising.

Hatred for Consumerism

If it were merely technological ignorance that’s driving them, it would be correctable. But even a casual read shows these groups are actually opposed to the consumer economy itself. And in their hatred for consumerism, they have drafted recommendations so breathtakingly broad that, if they stand, many sites will go under. Particularly vulnerable are the small, ad-supported sites that serve niche interests – the political blogs, ethnic dot-coms, and hobbyist Web sites that depend on ad networks to sell and place their ads. (I identified some of the potential victims in a Business Week article last week: Web communities like Disaboom.com, an ad-supported site for people with disabilities, run by Dr. Glen House, himself a quadriplegic.) Right behind them are the newspaper and magazine companies that are building vertical ad networks to extend their audience reach on the Web.

Here’s a sampling of some of the proposals gaining traction in Washington and State capitals:

• The Connecticut state assembly is likely to pass a bill that labels standard interactive advertising practices “unscrupulous,” and would, for the first time in the U.S., regulate the Web by creating inflexible controls on how any third party involved in Internet advertising collects and uses anonymized data.
• A New York State legislator has introduced a bill that would allow consumers to pull non-identifying information out of aggregated databases and regulate the companies that deliver 90 percent of the ads on the Web.
• Under the implicit threat of formal regulation, the Federal Trade Commission has issued guidelines that would prevent media, agencies, and marketers from using non-identifying data to make ads more relevant and products more effective for consumers. The FTC would require Web site operators to obtain permission from users for any changes in their privacy policies – paradoxically, even if the sites have no information identifying those users or means of getting in touch with them.
• In a signed editorial, The New York Times asked the Federal government to regulate the collection of the types of demographic information marketers have routinely gathered for decades, and recommended that all online data collection, including the measurement of Web traffic, be banned unless users explicitly provide permission.

Let’s be very, very clear: The IAB is utterly committed to protecting citizens’ privacy. Peoples’ names, addresses, Social Security numbers, financial and health records, and anything that can be associated with their identity ought to be under lock and seal, if that’s what they desire. All the major interactive media companies are equally unswerving in their commitment; they know (and have expressed repeatedly) that violating consumer privacy expectations is virtually an invitation to users to flee their sites for friendlier environments. We favor (and are working with other major marketing, media, and consumer associations toward) meaningful self-regulation of consumer privacy online.

But let’s be equally clear that these anti-consumerist efforts are not about protecting peoples’ identities. They are about shutting down consumer marketing – and limiting consumer choice in communications and consumption. Jeff Chester, the frequently quoted proprietor of the Center for Digital Democracy and one of the FTC’s favorite anti-Internet witnesses, has increasingly come clean on his real motivation. He opposes practices “to get individual consumers to behave or act in ways that favor or reflect the marketer’s goals,” he wrote in his blog on April 11. He went at it again this week, writing to Business Week that the Internet is “a commercial surveillance system that rivals the NSA… all so we can be encouraged to behave favorably to some marketing message.”