There is no need for pessimism. More than 80% of Internet users react to online advertising. And they do not do it by clicking the ad but by viewing the advertised product. This is the result of a study in the UK, conducted by market research institute E-Hauck on behalf of Starcom, the media planners.

Here are the figures:
• 38% of the people surveyed, between 16 and 45 years of age, have used a banner  to search for product information on the Web at least once
• 34% have already shopped online and
• 24% have registered for a service.

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Everybody is talking about cross-media. And in the debate, some people tend to forget the advantages that online advertising offers. A recent study in the UK shows that pure online campaigns can also be very successful. Dynamic Logic created the brand "YesSirNoSir" with the sole purpose of analysing the branding effectiveness of a pure online campaign.

The idea:
The test focused on "YesSirNoSir" as the brand of a fictitious British service provider. The brand was introduced exclusively on the sites of iVillage.com and FTMarket - Watch.com.
On these sites, more than 2 million banner impressions were registered between May
and the beginning of June 2001. DynamicLogic analysed branding metrics such as brand awareness, banner awareness and purchase intent. Apart from the target group there was
a control group that was not exposed to the banners.

The results:
• During the campaign, both the target and the control group showed a favourable attitude towards the new brand (measured via questionnaires)

• Brand awareness increased both in the target and in the control group. The control group showed a brand awareness of 4%, versus 11% for the target group which means an increase of 175%. An even more detailed analysis showed that brand awareness among the male target audience lifted by 429%

Source: DynamicLogic, 2001

• The target group was able to link the banner to the advertised brand

• The effectiveness of online advertising grows in proportion to the number of banners, i.e.  the more banners are used and the more often they are placed on a site, the higher is the  branding effectiveness.

For more information go to:
http://www.yessirnosir.net/result.html

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The online market is changing - and as new technology and fresh thinking push the industry forward, it will continue to do so. DoubleClick works with increasingly sophisticated marketers today who have two main objectives
• To partner with respected brands, and
• To maximise their potential reach across a qualified audience

Recognising that these goals are not mutually exclusive, DoubleClick has introduced an innovative new approach to its media network to help marketers achieve their dual objectives more effectively and seamlessly than ever before. Under the new structure, DoubleClick provides two complementary networks - the Brand and Audience Networks - along with more tailored, flexible solutions for targeting, creative implementation, pricing, optimisation and branding.

Marketers now have the opportunity to achieve both contextual and audience targeting across the two networks, using customised media buying approaches that include site specific, run of affinity buys, run of network buys …. AND any other Brand / Audience Combination.

The Brand Network
The Brand Network aims to satisfy marketers needs for content association. The sites on this network represent high profile brands that are easily recognised, generate significant levels of traffic, have respected content and trusted interaction with their unique user base. Integrated content sponsorships and enhanced advertising formats on brand sites further reinforce strong associations created by being on such a site.

The Audience Network
In this part of the Network, marketers can realise their reach objectives via an expanded, unduplicated audience base. Sites on the Audience Network cover the most popular content categories (including Entertainment, Business & Finance and Auto) and provide flexible opportunities for targeting and optimisation using DoubleClick's DART technology.

How will this structure benefit online publishers and advertising customers? Here is an overview:

Advantages for online publishers:
• Web sites can contribute a percentage of their unsold inventory to the Audience Network - by combining with similar content from other Web sites, marketing effectiveness is increased. The opportunity works well for large Web sites not able to sell all of their inventory, and for sites with a specific audience whose brand name is not well known.
The objectives: higher revenue, larger reach.

• Previously, DoubleClick represented sites exclusively; now, DoubleClick offers a non-exclusive option which is available to all sites regardless of their current sales solution. This allows DoubleClick to better respond to the individual needs of site owners

• Publishers benefit from DoubleClick's relationships with top advertisers worldwide.

• Dedicated account management in both Brand and Audience Networks.

Advantages for advertising customers:
• Greater reach via a larger audience base and variety of content categories.

• The technical infrastructure built to support the two networks ensures that advertisers achieve greater unduplicated reach across European markets.

• DART features that allow for precise targeting and optimisation

• By offering greater flexibility for advertisers, we enable our customers to create "advertising packages" that fit their specific needs, both with regard to targeting and pricing.

For more detailed information go to:
http://www.doubleclick.net

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Bruce Dalziel is DoubleClick's new Acting Chief Financial Officer. Dalziel took over from Stephen Collins who stepped down from his office on August 10, 2001, in order to focus
on some of DoubleClick's strategic initiatives. Dalziel had previously been the company's Vice President of Finance and Operations for the Technology, Data & Research businesses.

For more information go to:
http://www.doubleclick.net/us/corporate/presskit/press-releases.asp?asp_object_1=&press%5Frelease%5Fid=2539

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Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios, Clearing House, Excite UK, National Post online, Harvard Business School Publishing and AutoTrader.com have all turned to DARTmail, DoubleClick's e-mail marketing solution, since May 2001. With these leading marketers
and publishers, DARTmail has increased its customer base to more than 250. In the second quarter of 2001, DoubleClick's DARTmail platform delivered nearly 2 billion e-mails on behalf of their customers.

For more information go to:
http://www.doubleclick.net/us/corporate/presskit/press-releases.asp?asp_object_1=&press%5Frelease%5Fid=2535

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Rich media has become an increasingly popular tool for online marketing. It offers interaction, advanced animations and audio/video elements that give marketers improved opportunities to gain the attention of users. And these advantages can also be measured.
A variety of studies have shown that rich media can be very effective both in building brand measures and in driving response.

Millward Brown found that rich media banners achieve click-through rates that are 340% (!) above average. A Diameter study showed that Flash banners were 67% above average in brand measures.These figures mean that rich media can be used in order to reach a variety of marketing objectives, because the technology achieves high response rates and, at the same time, has an excellent impact on objectives such as brand awareness, purchase impulse, etc.

Although the advantages of rich media are obvious, the technology is still not widely used. According to a Jupiter study, 96% of all online marketers have used rich media in their campaigns. However, the technology's share of the overall market is anything but huge -
only 2% of online ads are built with rich media according to the IAB (Interactive Advertising Bureau).

Last year, rich media banners accounted for 14% of all impressions in the DoubleClick Network. Nate Elliot, DoubleClick's Rich Media Manager, says that everyone wants to see this figure increase in 2001, the reason being simple: The more marketing clients who use rich media, the more successful their campaigns. To help marketers learn more about rich media, DoubleClick has set up an entire section of their website dedicated to the topic, at http://richmedia.doubleclick.net.

We will also be including a regular column in this newsletter to help marketers find easy ways to use rich media more effectively. This month we start in the most common of places: the Banner.

Building Banners and SkyScrapers as Rich Media
The simplest way is to start with rich media is to try it on the popular 468x60 banner. This
is easiest because most marketers are already running banners. DoubleClick's research shows that High quality Flash animations have the biggest impact: in our recent Ad Effectiveness study, use of Flash increased brand measures by 71%. Apart from Flash, other interactive technologies have also demonstrated improvements in brand metrics ,
for example Enliven, BlueStreak and VidoBanner. The effect: higher levels of attention,
higher click-through rates and higher brand metrics.

But the best news about Rich media banners is that they are increasingly easy to build. Technically speaking, rich media can be implemented with Java applets, for example. Java applets are fast and are only downloaded if and when they are really needed. Today, almost every agency offers animated Flash banners. And although building rich media banners are a little more expensive than using "normal" banners, advertisers need to take into account that the new technology is also radically more effective.

And of course, rich media can also be effectively used with new online banners such as skyscrapers or rectangles.

• Hewlett Packard: Java banner (created by Freestyle Interactive)
• British Airways: Flash rectangular ad
• Homestore.com: Flash skyscraper

For more information about rich media ads go to:
http://richmedia.doubleclick.net

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According to an article on Silicon.com, the World Wide Web (WWW) was 10 years old on the 6 August 2001. It was on that day that Berners-Lee and Cailliau first published their idea of a hypertext system, which would allow information in any language or form to be shared across the world. Some feel that, in the intervening 10 years, that openness has gone too far with individual privacy being compromised, particularly in the area of the commercialisation of the WWW. Two distinct approaches to protecting privacy have developed - self-regulation versus legislation enforced by an independent regulatory authority. But is there a third way?

The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) was created in 1994 to "lead the World Wide Web to its full potential by developing common protocols that promote its evolution and ensure its interoperability" (see www.w3.org). As part of that mission, W3C has developed P3P (Platform for Privacy Preferences) which is intended to be an industry standard enabling websites to express their privacy policies in a machine-readable language which can be read by the visitor's browser. The intention is that website visitors can set their privacy preferences before they start surfing the WWW and their browser will match those preferences against the privacy policy of the sites visited. In order for this to be done, browsers need to have the ability to read P3P policies - and this has been built into Internet Explorer Version 6 by Microsoft which is due to be launched in late August 2001. This means that, over time, websites will need to ensure that their privacy policies can be "read" by visitors using IE6.

In order to prepare for this, website owners should be following these steps:
1. Audit what happens on each page of their website and understand what (personal) data are collected directly and indirectly (for example via cookies) from or about visitors

2. Ensure that those practices are explained clearly and accurately in the site's privacy policy

3. Choose a P3P generator (see http://www.w3.org/P3P/details.html#2) and answer the questions in the generator as accurately and fully as possible

4. Use the generator to check that everything is correct before posting on your website.

DoubleClick technicians have worked with the DoubleClick Privacy Department in the US to ensure that DoubleClick's privacy policy is one of the first to be translated into a P3P policy that can be read by IE6 browsers.

For more information go to:
http://www.doubleclick.net
http://www.w3.org

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Customers of Sonera Zed in Germany will soon be rewarded with logos, ring tones, games and special services. They only have to collect enough SMS advertising messages on their cell phones. The principle is simple: Cell phone owners receive SMS ads and then get bonus points added to a special account. For each SMS ad, they get bonus points worth about 5 cents. These electronic vouchers can then be exchanged for the prizes. Sonera Zed Germany operates an SMS fun and info service.

Source:
http://www.emar.de

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The situation of Internet retailers in Europe seems to be much better than what most people think. Analysts from Forrester Research say that the industry will raise their turnover to $136 billion (€152 billion) within the next five years. Annual gross profits will rise from $3.5 billion (€3.9 billion) to $31.3 billion (€35 billion) in the same time period.

Market researchers say that the sectors of health care and cosmetics offer a particular potential for growth. The CD and books sector, however, will probably not grow any longer. Forrester expect further market adjustments in this sector. For 2006, analysts predict the online share of retail turnover in Germany, Switzerland, Great Britain and Scandinavian countries will be above 8%.

Source:
http://www.forrester.com

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Rumour has it that a park bench in Bury St. Edmonds, a small town in the south of England, is the first of its kind to offer Internet access. People going for a stroll can connect their laptops to the bench and access the Internet under the blue sky. At first glance, the wooden bench in the "Abbey gardens" just seems to be another ordinary park bench, but under each of its two armrests, there are two hidden telephone plugs. MSN, the British online branch of Microsoft, will pay the phone bill during a trial period of three months. Once that trial period
is over, the town council will have to decide whether they want to maintain and pay for the online bench.

Source:
http://www.emar.de

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