ChoiceStream

Behavioral targeting, loosely defined as targeting an online ad to consumers based on their online behavior, is really not a new concept. Traditional marketers at big box retailers, grocery stores and banks have relied on the tactic for years. It’s called targeting consumers with ads through direct mail. So why is the subject of BT so hard to talk about for many marketers and retail execs. Read the full article

In what could be a breakthrough in online display advertising security, AdSafe Media has deployed what it claims to be the first system that can protect brands from having their ads appear on Web pages featuring unsavory content before the fact. The new system, dubbed a “brand protection firewall,” literally filters every Web page based on industry standard content ratings, as well as a brand’s own content criteria, before its ads are served onto those pages. Read the full article

Online retail is highly profitable. You need not look any further than Amazon.com for confirmation of this fact. Yet so many retailers seem to be missing the boat on this lucrative piece of the retail pie. Real estate is expensive, making online sales vital to the success of any retailer. I’m sure you’ve heard this speech many times, but you probably aren’t familiar with the term "online sales ratio." Essentially, it’s a retailer’s online sales growth in any given period added to online sales as a percentage of total sales. The end sum should be as high as possible. Read the full article

Some retailers are finding ways to profit even in the face of declining sales. Earlier this week Saks and Target both reported better than expected quarterly earnings though both stores did report declines in stores open for a year and cautioned that the this quarter – which contains the all important holiday shopping season – could also see weak in-store sales. Their concerns about holiday sales echo other stores across the spectrum of price and location. In particular, retailers are watching for how many shoppers they can lure in the doors around Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, which in flush years has kicked off a holiday shop-a-thon. “The fourth quarter will be decided by the two days after Thanksgiving and the two days before Christmas,” Target Chief Executive Greg Steinhafel said. However, this year more retailers are prepared for smart shoppers who’ll be fighting for deep discounts. Retailers had much more time this year to strategize and tighter inventories should mean they won’t be faced with an overhang of merchandise, in contrast to last year. They also have stocked up on lower-cost gods to offer planned discounts. Stay tuned. Read the full article at The Wall Street Journal

Web companies have earned more than $1.4 billion in the last 10 years by duping millions of online shoppers into paying monthly fees for services they didn’t want, according to a new Senate report. “We’ve all heard of these companies, and we’ve probably shopped at some of their Web sites,” said Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.), who spearheaded the investigation. Read the full article

Marketers often cite cutting through the clutter as the goal of a new campaign — but how many of those messages are perceived as clutter themselves by consumers? According to a poll from the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) Council and InfoPrint Solutions Company, 41% of consumers say they would consider ending a brand relationship due to irrelevant promotions, and another 22% say they would definitely defect from the brand for that reason. Read the full article at DM News

The power of online brand interaction is not to be denied: A solid majority of connected consumers have had their opinion of a brand swayed, either positively or negatively, by an online experience. And more than 97% said that experience influenced whether they purchased a product or service from that brand. Razorfish’s “2009 FEED” survey polled US broadband users who had visited a community site, consumed or created digital media, and spent at least $150 online in the past six months. These connected consumers were also connected to brands via social media applications like Facebook and Twitter to name a few. Read the full article

SearchEngineLand contributor Daniel Waisberg notes “In the last two years, marketers, analysts and executives have started to understand that customers should get what they want without having to ask for it. That’s what behavioral targeting is all about: delivering the right content to each visitor to a website. It moves the current focus on overall results to segment results. It enables the website owner to understand which visitors are struggling and which are succeeding with their objectives. It helps marketers build more relevant campaigns to target the right market, be it through search, content, media, or emails.” Read the full article

Contributor Rob Graham contributes to ClickZ with an interesting article about the need for modern marketers to get just-in-time target marketing right. As Graham notes, the rallying cry “Get the right message to the right consumer at the right time” has long been a mantra among modern marketers. “Regardless of what we want our campaigns to do, nothing really matters unless we can get the right message in front of the right person at a time that’s relevant and meaningful to them...personally. In truth, this has been the goal of all advertising since the dawn of time (it’s just been harder to implement until recently). With today’s behavioral targeting tools and methodologies, advertisers can not only do a better job of identifying their target audiences, but can also take greater measures to ensure their messages are aimed specifically at that audience.” Read the full article

Reflecting a shift being pushed by Madison Avenue, the online display ad marketplace is becoming more “audience-driven.” That’s one of the major takeaways from the latest edition of Rubicon Project’s quarterly online display marketplace tracking studies. “With more publishers tapping into yield management and optimization technology, the race to deliver exact and precise audiences to advertisers - as opposed to traditional online targeting tactics, which substituted content and context as proxies for audience - is on,” touts “Rubicon’s Q3 Online Advertising Market Report,“ Read the full article