Pls enjoy the following article written by CARTER CRAMER.

Mom Jeans. It’s all about Mom Jeans. Laugh as you may, but these much-mocked, high-waisted denim trousers are likely to be part of every stylish girl’s wardrobe come fall.

Don’t believe me? Well, just recall your initial reaction to leggings. “Ew,” you balked, when photos circulated of Sienna Miller and Lindsay Lohan donning the kindergarten staples a couple years back. Now, chances are you — or at least 50 girls you know — own a pair.

And what about the resurrection of Converse Chucks? I know many of you who currently rock the high-tops sneered at their re-debut in the mid-nineties. Today, however, you sneer no more c9 and own a pair in white, green and black.

Yes, indeed, trends are tricky little phenomena. They’re elusive, and it’s hard to tell what’ll fly or flop.

But where do they start? Who “births” what will become the hottest new brand or the season’s must-have hue? Where can one locate the Arbiters of Trends — those very special creatures who serve as precursors to the “Next Big Thing?”

Over the past two decades, an entire sector of the economy has been conceived to answer these very questions. Such corporations call themselves trend-spotting agencies, and their livelihood and mission is predicated upon just that: spotting the latest trend.

Among the first such business venture was The Zandl Group, founded by Irma Zandl, the creator of “trend-spotting.”

Irma began her career by monitoring teens and young adults — the most common demographic early adopters or “alpha consumers,” a term coined by Zandl — as they roamed the streets of Soho and other “hip” New York neighborhoods. She also draws inspiration from what she views on MTV, and from the youth she regularly stops to talk to and “Polaroid” in the streets.

But what do Irma — and other “cool hunters,” as such professionals are known — have to offer the broader market economy? Apparently quite a lot.

With the information and images collected on the streets of New York, Stockholm, London and Tokyo — a few particularly fashion-forward metropolises — trend-spotters compose weekly or monthly trend reports that are subscribed to by major corporations. The Zandl Group’s bi-monthly “Hot Sheet” is purchased by Disney, General Motors and Coca-Cola, to name a few power-players.

These major conglomerates send these reports to their business analysts and marketing and production teams to aid company officials in determining what moves to make next.

The use of trend-forecasting companies has become so popular in recent years that major companies themselves, like Coca-Cola, have created in-house “cool hunting” divisions to garner information about what’s hip and what’s not. The goal, of course, is to predict an upcoming trend before it reaches the mainstream population; if the trend has already been embraced by the masses, then its shelf life has elapsed.

To do the job of prediction-before-proliferation, companies once again look to those innately ahead of their time — most commonly a city-dwelling, teenage demographic. Both major conglomerates and trend-spotting agencies themselves will recruit 14- to 18-year-olds for interviews about what these young-adults are currently consuming.

In some cases, companies might even give the teens a couple hundred dollars, sending them to the streets to buy what they think is “cool.” From these purchased items, further trend forecasting can be made.

This recent emphasis on predicting trends before they’re trends should come as no surprise. With the competitive environment of our current economy, companies must ensure that they are always one step ahead of rivals, churning out the next must-have product while the current one is just now reaching its apex.

And because today’s population — especially teens and young adults — tire of product offerings at an increasingly rapid rate, the trend-spotting industries have been able to thrive.

Moreover, with the rise of the Internet and the plethora of sites devoted to fashion and lifestyle interests, trend-spotting has expanded an even greater deal. Now anyone can visit Web pages like http://TheSartorialist.com or even http://Style.com to read up on the latest covetable crazes.

But don’t expect to see companies like Zandl’s phasing out anytime soon. In a developed nation populated with consumers who have disposable income, the next trend is always rearing its elusive head; it’s just a matter of being the first to see it.

Article Source:
http://media.www.jhunewsletter.com/media/storage/
paper932/news/2007/04/12/Features/
Spotting.Trends.The.New.Business.Trend-2841268.shtml

Tags: Predictions, Trends

The combination of Google and DoubleClick will offer superior tools for targeting, serving and analyzing online ads of all types, significantly benefiting customers and consumers:

• For users, the combined company will deliver an improved experience on the web, by increasing the relevancy and the quality of the ads they see.
• For online publishers, the combination provides access to new advertisers, which creates a powerful opportunity to monetize their inventory more efficiently.
• For agencies and advertisers, Google and DoubleClick will provide an easy and efficient way to manage both search and display ads in one place. They will be able to optimize their ad spending across different online media using a common set of metrics.

“It has been our vision to make Internet advertising better – less intrusive, more effective, and more useful. Together with DoubleClick, Google will make the Internet more efficient for end users, advertisers, and publishers,” said Sergey Brin, Google’s Co-Founder & President, Technology.

“DoubleClick’s technology is widely adopted by leading advertisers, publishers and agencies, and the combination of the two companies will accelerate the adoption of Google’s innovative advances in display advertising,” said Eric Schmidt, Chief Executive Officer of Google.

“This transaction will strengthen our advertising network by expanding our access to publisher inventory and enabling us to serve the needs of a broader set of advertisers and ad agencies,” said Tim Armstrong, Google’s President, Advertising and Commerce, North America.

“Google is the absolute perfect partner for us,” said David Rosenblatt, Chief Executive Officer of DoubleClick. “Combining DoubleClick’s cutting edge digital solutions for both media buyers and sellers with Google’s scale and innovative resources will bring tremendous value to both our employees and clients.”

“When we acquired DoubleClick in July 2005, we saw an opportunity to partner with a great management team to further enhance the company’s capabilities and growth trajectory,” said Philip Hammarskjold, Managing Director of Hellman & Friedman. “This transaction affirms the successful transformation of DoubleClick, positions the firm for the future, and greatly benefits our investors.”

Both companies have approved the transaction, which is subject to customary closing conditions, and is expected to close by the end of the year.

Article Source:
http://home.businesswire.com/portal/site/google/index.jsp?ndmViewId=news_view&newsId=20070413005593&newsLang=en

Tags: Search Engine

Here is a report to confirm my prediction was correct.

Who are the biggest shoppers for Cosmetics? Women. Yes, you are right too, more and more men are buying cosmetics product by bulk. ) Another market to pay attention to.

New market research has found that female beauty consumers are now using the Internet more than the average person, and suggests cosmetic brands should follow three simple steps in order to capitalize on this growing trend.

The report ‘Marketing Beauty With The Internet Beast’, by Mary Beth Kemp of Forrester, shows how the average beauty consumer is now favouring online media portals as the way to view product descriptions for beauty and cosmetic products as opposed to more traditional media.

And with just under half of those browsers taking the step from merely ‘window shopping’ to buying, this news will no doubt be encourage cosmetic manufacturers to step up internet campaigns.

In order to benefit from the increased usage the study encourages the manufacturers to embrace the trend by, advertising and selling online, keeping in regular relationship driven contact with consumers, and to try ‘new’ moves to add value to products.

With 42 per cent of internet beauty buyers allegedly sharing and telling friends about products discovered, the ‘word of mouth’ marketing tool is key to the increased sales of cosmetic products.

The study highlights that in order to reach these particular consumers, brands must become aware that advertising and selling online clearly works, stating that ‘fashion conscious consumers expect to see ‘their’ brands present when they are on the Internet, and welcome the communication.

This is possibly due to the fact that beauty consumers are considered to be commercially aware, and are said to receive more commercial emails and newsletters than the average.

Indeed, these emails are the basis to building a beneficial relationship between the consumer and brand, with up-to-date exclusive news being an enticing content offer for fashion fans.

Enticed by promotional tools more commonly found on Internet sites, such as free product samples and product coupons, 46 per cent of female consumers are apparently more likely to purchase products than if they had they seen the same advertisement in a print publication.

With cosmetic and beauty products being of such significance on the internet, coming in as third behind books and clothing as the most common products researched and bought online in the last three months, it seems that a personal relationship is the key to successful marketing.

 The study advises manufacturers to ‘get to know the online consumer’ by trying new concepts to add value to products and ‘initiating a conversation’.

For example collaborative and interactive decision tools that allow the consumer to relate personally to the site, such as Maybelline’s initiative to allow buyers to upload a photo so they can test the cosmetics.

Many cosmetic giants have already altered their marketing strategies accordingly to captilize on these beneficial browsers, with companies such as CoverGirl from Procter and Gamble offering online chats with beauty consultants.

However, manufacturers are now being advised that, to take their brands further, they need to ‘deepen the dialogue’ and to profit from the female consumers willingness to communicate.

Virtual cosmetic wardrobes are mooted as the way forward, suggesting that they would allow women to ‘try on make up and share’, before ultimately buying the cosmetics brand.
Article Source:
http://www.cosmeticsdesign-europe.com/news/ng.asp?n=75732-procter-internet

Tags: Consumers, Trends

“We have endless silent partner increases ahead,” said Mr. Libey, discussing the first of several monster trends. “If you sell something, print something, publish something, or send something through the mail, you are faced with endless, unsustainable silent partners.”

The silent partners, he said, are the U.S Postal Service, UPS, FedEx and Google.

“Massive postal increases, 13 percent increases for international delivery by UPS, increases by FedEx, fuel surcharges,” he said. “What we have done is abducted our control of our business in direct marketing because we are remote.”

Mr. Libey is president of Libey Inc., Cherry Hill, NJ, and Des Moines, IW, strategic consultants and executive recruiters to CEOs and boards of multichannel direct marketing companies and private equity firms.

Mr. Libey is also a long-time industry futurist, consultant and strategist to CEOs and boards, and the author of eight books on marketing, future change, and the economic and technological influences on the global marketplace. He is the editor of the Libey Economic Outlook, the bi-monthly, in-depth analysis of the economy and its implications for circulation and marketing strategy, published by MeritDirect. Mr. Libey has operated numerous direct marketing, catalog and publishing companies as an owner, director or CEO.

Rate increases are also causing a decline in prospecting, another monster trend, Mr. Libey said.

“Cut back on prospecting and you cut back on the lifeblood of your company,” Mr. Libey said.

Another monster tend is talent absorption in the direct marketing industry.

“Talent absorption is enormous,” he said. “The private equity firms are soaking up all the rainmakers and paying bug bucks. Your work is remarkable… and we need lots more of it.”

A monster trend Mr. Libey is particularly concerned about is net neutrality. He suggested that special interests, lobbyists and politicians are choosing money over equality for the Internet, and that speed and access will cost direct marketers more than postage does today.

“We act together [on this issue] or we die,” he said. “That’s what it is gong to take. We need to be heard. Our interests need to be protected.”

Smaller catalog size is a monster trend too, Mr. Libey said.

“This postal increase is going to create a whole bunch of 68-page catalogs becoming 32-page catalogs becoming 16-page catalogs, and they will feature the very best products and drive people to the Web,” he said. “But, what if you did that? What would happen to your business? I wonder if you would survive.”

He said the move to smaller catalogs is concerning.

“I think any form of retreat in the face of silent partners is tantamount to giving up, and I think we need to find new solutions,” he said. “We need to forge new partnerships. We need to do things that will lead to an expansion of our industry, not a contraction.”

Mr. Libey said another monster trend is online intensity, and it is only going to get more intense.

“We’ve only seen about 10 percent of the ultimate online share of the market basket,” Mr. Libey said. “Expect a near-doubling of online influence and sales over the next three years. “

He said this trend is dangerous because it is moving people away from the basics, such as offers, lists, and response.

“We are embracing technology at a dangerous rate, and we cannot turn away from it, so we must begin to harness it and understand it,” he said.

Another trend Mr. Libey discussed was that the United States is exporting teaching about how to do direct marketing in China, India, and elsewhere. He suggested that these countries may beat the United States in the future, as their economies grow faster than the United States.

“I don’t know if globalization is good or bad,” he said. “I just ask what if.”

The last monster trend Mr. Libey spoke about was the fact that there is enough knowledge and experience now to create the first fully integrated, fully analytic and working enterprise-wide, multichannel, operating system.

“The systems are about to be built, taking this industry to the next level, tying all of the channels together flawlessly,” he said. “Some of you will be there and some of you will be observing, and it’s going to be expensive. Where will you get the money?”

Finally, Mr. Libey said that this is the most exciting time he has even seen in the direct marketing industry.

“It is fraught with challenges,” he said. “It is also separating the players and the also-rans. It embraces new worlds and new channels. It is global. It is expensive. And it is going to be two or three times its size in twenty years. Welcome to the dawning of the new direct marketing.”

Article Source:
http://www.dmnews.com/cms/dm-news/direct-mail/40747.html Tags:direct mailing, direct marketingdirect mailing, direct marketing

Tags: Trends, Internet

Below is the extract from the report. 

Tags: Search Engine

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Its fun to watch all the discussion, hyperbole and hopes associated with Apple TV. Once again Apple has come out with a well designed, functional product. Unfortunately for Apple, it may be too little too late.

Lets face some facts. The era of the desktop PC being the home for exciting change and enhancement are long gone. I wrote this for the first time 2 years ago, and nothing has changed since then.

Then in January of this year, I asked why people are so concerned about getting internet video from PCs to HDTVs , rather than taking traditional video from existing sources and distributing it to PCs. Basically saying that its a lot easier to get from TV to PC via any number of existing DVR and other devices than the other way around.

Yet Apple and others still seem to think that simplifying internet video through a PC to a device to an HDTV is the way to go. Is this the future of home entertainment.

Please. Its shuffling deck chairs on the Titanic. Its a waste of time.

There is an old saying that when you have a hammer, everything looks like a nail. Right now the hammer is internet video and everyone wants to find a way to make it the future. Its old news people. Its a mature product in a mature environment.

Now don’t get me wrong. Youtube, despite its copyright problems that could shut it down (i had to slip that in there , has been a marketing miracle. They have done the completely unexpected and aggregated 10s of millions of monthly users. The same could be same of Myspace. They deserve a ton of credit for what they have accomplished. But the operative word is marketing. Embedded music and video was a catalyst for both. How long has the opportunity to embed videos in an html page been around, 8 years ? No original technology, but a new application of old features is what great ideas and great marketing thrive on.

That is what has made Web 2.0 so interesting. Web 2.0 isnt about technology. Its about ideas implemented around simple applications that have been around for years. The maturity of the technology makes the implementation of ideas simple. That is the key to success in Web 2.0. The technology always works. It may sound crazy to some, but thats the reality. The internet as a connectivity utility and the browser are mature application platforms.

So where will the change come ? What will the be the host for new applications ? Its right in front of our faces, literally. Its the HDTV that you will be buying in the future.

Remember when you would buy a new PC every couple years to keep up and you would buy a new TV every decade ? Well thats about to reverse itself. You no longer feel the need to get the latest and greatest desktop PC, but you are about to get in the habit of upgrading your TV every couple years as new and original features and applications are developed for it.

Dont agree ? Think about the last analog set you bought and what it looked like, could do and cost and compare it to the new HDTV you either just bought or are considering buying. Which has experienced the greatest technological change. The leap from your last analog TV to your next TV or your last PC to your current or next PC ?. The price performance of HDTVs are going to continue at the pace we saw for PCs in the late 90s and early 2000s. In 3 years the mainstream TV will be 70″ and cost less than $1500. In 5 years, it could be 100″ for $2500 dollars . Yes, you will make room for it. You will redesign the family room or your bedroom to make room.

The price performance curve will drive competition for incremental features as well.

We are getting to the point where features that would have been added to PCs in the past will be added to your HDTV. Advances in wireless technology will be more important to your new TV than your desktop PC once your TV has an IP address and internet connectivity, which is right around the corner.

New and unique applications will be developed for your TV ahead of your PC once every HDTV has a browser built in starting in 18 - 24 months.

If you want to see where exciting software is being developed, its not web 2.0. Its being developed for OCAP, Directv and Dish Networks interactive platforms among many. You probably didnt even realize that many of these development platforms are already being built into HDTVs and applications are starting to be released for them.

Its time for everyone to realize that the internet is old news. Its a mature utility, which is the greatest compliment you can give it. The desktop PC is old news. File it next to DVD players: useful and boring with obsolescence right around the corner. Web 2.0 is pleasingly boring.

If the question is “Whats Next “, the answer begins with “Watch TV”.

———————————————————————————

Article Source:
http://www.blogmaverick.com/2007/01/19/computer-to-tv-shouldnt-it-be-the-other-way/
http://www.dmwmedia.com/news/2007/04/11/apple-tv-may-be-too-little-too-late

Tags: TV

Initially this will involve Yahoo! running the advertising for Viacom´s 33 leading websites - including mtv.com and vh1.com - with the expansion onto another 140 websites also possible in the future.

The financial details of the deal have not been publicly disclosed, but it is known the exclusive agreement will last for several years and will take advantage of Yahoo!´s new Panama search marketing system.

“This far reaching partnership brings together world-class content and technology for the benefit of users and advertisers alike. Yahoo! has made impressive strides with its new search marketing system,” said Philippe Dauman, president and chief executive of Viacom.

“As a global leader in content for every screen and platform, we couldn´t be more pleased to have them as a partner and we look forward to growing our relationship even more over time,” he added.

The move to agree exclusive terms has been seen as a boost to Yahoo!, which traditionally has lagged behind its great rival Google in providing search and advertising functions to large companies.

Article Source:
http://www.equimedia.co.uk/Yahoo-and-Viacom-agree-online-ad-deal-2007-04-11.htm

Tags: Search Engine, Online Advertising

Counseling some of the largest marketers in the world, search engine marketing firm iProspect commissioned this study - a first of its kind — in an effort to gain insight on social networking sites for its clients, and to share the insights gained with the online marketing community as a whole. The key findings all speak to the growing importance of social networking sites as an online marketing channel that marketers should assess, monitor, and embrace. Overall, the findings should be of significant interest to both online marketers, as well as the social networking sites themselves, as they speak to a number of opportunities for both constituencies. Search engine marketers, in particular, should take note of the detailed findings and recommendations within the study.

Among its key findings, the iProspect Social Networking User Behavior Study revealed that the most popular social networking sites, including MySpace, YouTube, and Amazon.com, are visited on at least a monthly basis by approximately 25% of the U.S. online adult population. Many sites attract specific “communities” of visitors whose demographic and psychographic characteristics closely match those of specific audiences targeted by marketers. This illustrates a real advantage that these sites can offer marketers: namely, the ability to participate on sites whose frequent visitors share a predominant set of traits that effectively define them as a community. This affords marketers the opportunity to engage with highly targeted communities of users, which is a key benefit not yet available in the major search engines.

“Sure, everyone knows that people are going to social networking sites,” said Robert Murray, President, iProspect, “but this study demonstrates - unequivocally - that social networking sites are not just a cultural fad.” Murray explained, “We’re talking about a potent marketing channel. In the end, that could translate into a lot of potential revenue or lost opportunity. If you’re an online marketer and you haven’t assessed the value of social networking sites, it’s time you ‘got religion’.”

But Murray warned, “While this is a viable channel, marketers need to realize that participation on these sites is not one-size-fits-all.” Murray elaborated, “Like any other channel, each site needs to be assessed for fit. Don’t jump in blind. Marketers need to ask themselves, ‘Does it fit with my target audience? ‘Does it fit with my marketing strategy? Does it fit with my business?’ Ultimately, it’s got to make sense. Business sense.”

Despite the relatively early development of social networking sites, the study also revealed that nearly one third of Internet users report that they are taking advantage of sites containing user generated content, and that their purchase decisions are influenced by visiting these sites.

“It’s human nature — people trust people like themselves,” said Murray. “So when it comes to recommendations, they tend to trust the input of fellow consumers much more than corporate marketing. Given this behavior, it’s easy to understand how such sites are influencing the purchasing decisions for so many of the users who visit them.” Murray explained, “In short, this spells opportunity for marketers. To capitalize on this trend, marketers should identify sites that possess a high level of influence, and find ways to connect with the site’s community. But keep in mind that each of these communities has its own unique culture, along with unwritten rules on what is or isn’t acceptable marketing practices. Marketers must be sensitive to this. Failing to do so could prove disastrous.”

But despite the above findings, social networking sites are far from replacing the major, traditional search engines in terms of quantity and frequency of visits.

“While social networking sites are a growing and important online channel for marketers to leverage, they are still early stage,” noted Murray. “When it comes to quantity and frequency of visits, these sites are not even in the same ballpark as the major search engines. Even MySpace — the most popular of the social networking sites included in this study - is dwarfed by the likes of Google or Yahoo!. Smart marketers will explore social networks, yet continue to invest in being found in the major search engines. The sheer numbers dictate as much.”

The study goes on to address the following findings and their impact on marketers as well:

• Roughly 1 in 5 visitors do not perform a search once they arrive at a social networking site.
• Visitors primarily arrive at social networking sites through direct navigation/bookmarking, Google search, Yahoo! search, and links in emails.
• Internet users who perform a search on social networking sites do so for a variety of reasons including: for entertainment, to connect or network with others, to research a product or service.
• The majority of visitors to social networking sites have not posted comments on those sites.
• The 18-24 year old age group is more prolific at visiting social networking sites and the major search engines weekly, as well as at posting content on social networking sites.

About iProspect
iProspect® is the Original® Search Engine Marketing Firm. The company helps many of the world’s most successful brands maximize their online marketing ROI through natural search engine optimization, paid inclusion management as a Yahoo! Search Submit Certified Ambassador, pay per click advertising management via their own patent-pending bid management agent called iSEBA®, and Web analytics through their own SEM-configured version of WebTrends™.

Article Source:
http://www.prweb.com/releases/2007/04/prweb517241.htm
http://www.iprospect.com/about/
researchstudy_2007_socialnetworkingbehavior.htm

Tags: Social Networks, Social Bookmarking

The New World of Desktop Advertising

Today Microsoft rules the desktop, but Google and Yahoo!, among others, are invading the software giant’s turf as the role of desktop advertising as a unique vehicle for digital marketers continues to grow. This article surveys the current state of online advertising, explains the key concepts behind it, and offers predictions on its increasing influence and impact upon the Web 2.0 economy.

Overview of the Current State of Online Advertising

Most online advertising can be categorized as either (1) Branding or (2) Direct marketing.

Brand advertisers want maximum reach to get their messages out to as many people as possible. These advertisers gravitate to the most trafficked sites on the web such as Yahoo!, MSN and AOL. But as is the case with advertisers who utilize traditional media, brand advertisers on the Internet find that it’s hard to quantify — digital marketing’s specialty — return on investment (ROI). Another problem is that purchasing ad space on many highly trafficked Web sites is expensive.

Advertisers conducting direct marketing campaigns, on the other hand, want to reach buyers at the moment of purchase. Online advertising’s most successful direct marketing vehicle to date is paid search through Google, Yahoo! and other engines. Online advertisers have also traditionally turned to Web sites that focus on specific subjects such as health or finance to reach a target audience potentially interested in their product or service.

Direct marketing still works for many advertisers on non-contextual sites because the Web site has to drop the price and their return is very small. This means that the direct market must work with a large quantity of these sites to obtain any scale which increases overhead and administrative burden. Desktop advertising, which was singled out as “the next step in advertising” by PayPal co-founder Max Levchin, in a September 10, 2006 article in the San Jose Mercury News, not only provides an excellent ROI, but it also allows for a significant scale that allows the direct marketer to focus on.

Desktop advertising has emerged as a highly-effective online advertising vehicle, and is proving to be a strong direct response tactic, but also one with significant and scalable branding opportunities. The earliest concept of desktop advertising was to provide a consumer with some goods or services and then show them a steady stream of ads in exchange for their “eyeballs.” Many of the earliest desktop advertising companies were started at the height of the Internet bubble (late 1990s). Companies such as Free PC and Freei gave away personal computers and Internet connectivity to anyone who promised to view ads.

But there were problems with these early desktop advertising models. First, there was the promise of tracking, but very little was available, so advertisers had no idea if their ads were working or not. Second, the ads were random, not keyword-based, contextual or behavioral. As a result, viewers tended to tune them out. From an economic perspective, this business model simply didn’t work.

After the Internet bubble burst, a few desktop advertising companies turned to software economics. They realized that by purchasing a computer game or utility tool for $50,000, they could maintain a fixed cost structure, whether the software was downloaded one million times or 10 million times. In the desktop advertising instance, the business could leverage an investment in content that consumers want and then give it to them in exchange for ad views.

This new strategy has enabled some desktop advertising companies to survive and position themselves to thrive in the Web 2.0 economy. Today the most successful desktop advertising companies focus on delivering the right message to the right consumer at the right time. In other words, they seek to influence the buyer at the exact moment of potential purchase. This approach is driven by five key concepts:

Concept #1 - Give People What They Want: Valuable Content for Free

Of the accidentialy released web-search data from 650,000 of AOL’s customers last year, researchers found that the most commonly used word in 17.15 million separate searches was “free.” For example, as a Wall Street Journal article stated, people most often search for free pictures and music.

Desktop advertising is built on the simple concept that people want free content. By providing sought-after content for free, desktop advertising can deliver as much value to ad viewers as it provides to advertisers — if it is done correctly. Users love this model because they don’t have to pay for high-quality content. This model also generates a high rate of ROI for advertisers, which allows desktop advertising companies to return more value to the consumer by investing in better content. It’s a win-win for everyone.

Concept #2 - Time Shifted Advertising

In the first generation of desktop advertising, ads were shown at the same time that the consumer viewed or downloaded the content. The new emerging model of desktop advertising has adopted the concept of time-shifting.

With time-shifted advertising, the consumer does not watch ads at the time of download or even when they are playing a game or viewing content. Instead, a small software program is downloaded to their computer after full-disclosed notice and consumer consent. The program waits until the user is in shopping mode and either initiates a search query or browses a Web site with a contextual tie to a relevant keyword.

Then the program displays ads that are relevant to the search or Web site. The biggest advantage of this approach is that the user doesn’t get interrupted while playing their game, viewing a video or downloading a new tool. The advertising doesn’t interrupt the flow of their activities, but rather enhances another activity sometime in the future.

Concept #3 - Deep Linking for Contextual Relevancy

Another problem with the old model of desktop advertising is that it focused on randomly generated banner or pop-up ads that are disconnected from the consumer’s interests. One minute you’re playing a game, and the next minute you’re looking at a message for home mortgages.

The newest generation of desktop advertising not only links ads to user activities, but it also brings up the most “beneficial” page for any given search term or Web site. For example, if a consumer searches on “Bahamas cruise,” they will be brought to the advertiser’s specific Web page with Bahamas cruise offers instead of a general travel home page.

This way the consumer doesn’t have to click through multiple pages to buy or browse for what they want. The web page comes up as a full browser window, so there’s no disruption to the original search screen. This kind of “deep linking” to pages that specifically match a consumer’s interests will lead to a significant increase in sales.

Concept #4 - Discovery and Filtering

Many users want to be able to find unique and interesting information (hence the popularity of search engines), but according to JupiterResearch, less than 25 percent of users are interested in providing personalized information. As such, using usage data to customize and help increase relevant content and advertising’s discovery is critical as the scale of content reaches the massive scale of the Internet.

The key is using technology to filter through the options. Many users prefer to have some amount of anonymous behavioral and usage data tracked (such as a past history of purchases and downloads) so that their future experience is more customized. Consider the Amazon.com strategy of recording a consumer’s past purchases. Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos said in Wired Magazine, January 2005, “We not only help readers find books, we also help books find readers, with personalized recommendations based on the patterns we see.” Smart desktop advertising software may be able to determine the particular likes and dislikes of a given consumer. By filtering on these preferences and then targeting ads to them for similar products, services, content, etc., desktop advertising can offer consumers a new level of personalization on the Internet, while cross-selling for advertisers.

In this way, users will allow companies to use their actual historical behavior. This will be of far more value then the current way advertisers utilize Internet cookies

Concept #5 - Clear Consent and Notice

Today, many consumers are confused about the privacy implications of desktop advertising, just as they viewed browser cookies with suspicion a few years ago. Desktop advertising is fully noticed and consented and it offers users a legitimate trade-off in value — valuable, focused content in exchange for highly relevant keyword, contextual and behavioral ad views. In many ways, the model is similar to network television before the advent of cable and digital video recorders. People agreed to watch TV advertising because they didn’t have to pay for high-quality content. The truth is that people are becoming more sophisticated about the consent issue on the Internet, and they recognize the value they can get out of giving their consent to legitimate advertising. The bottom line: clear notice and consent processes are paramount to the success of a desktop advertising business.

In contrast to desktop advertising is adware and spyware. Adware is fully noticed and consented, but it delivers non-contextual ads in the form of pop-ups or banners. Spyware is an illegitimate and illegal activity that is not consented to by the user.

Predictions

Over the next 12 to 24 months, desktop advertising will have an increasing influence on the recent flood of Web 2.0 businesses. Many of these businesses have attracted millions of users without any clear plans on how to make money. Most Web 2.0 businesses allow users to create, tag, rank, modify, upload and in many other ways effect online content, but few if any have created a model that unifies the interests of advertisers, publishers, content creators and consumers into a true Content Economy. This increasing diversity of content on the Internet will allow desktop advertising companies to sponsor a near unlimited amount of content, increasing consumer access to unique and cool online material.

A second near term prediction is that international advertising on the Internet is going to become more significant. Desktop advertising is well positioned to serve this cross-border market since it offers the ability to serve contextual ads for different languages and products using a single technology infrastructure.

Looking ahead to the next 3-5 years, we can easily imagine a time when people won’t be using traditional search engines or Web browsers anymore. As we spend more of our lives online and as the Internet merges into the computer, the artificial lines between the network and the desktop will be erased. A user will simply type or speak a word or phrase and their computer will automatically search for whatever it is they want. Similarly, desktop advertising will simply become part of the ever-present backdrop of being online.

But to support the development of high-quality software and other content, desktop advertising needs to be valuable, which means maximizing ad-to-purchase conversion opportunity. This leads to my next prediction, which is greater acceptance of privacy-friendly, anonymous tracking of user behavior. Desktop advertising will also layer in new ad formats to increase revenues over time.

Finally, it is easy to see that consumers will have a greater understanding of desktop advertising in the not-so-distant future. The popular media has had a huge influence on this industry segment by scaring people about spyware and other illegitimate models. Let’s not forget that Overture, now Yahoo! Search Marketing, the pioneer of paid search, was condemned in 1998 and 1999 as being bad for consumers and privacy. But just a few short years later, Google capitalized on the eventual consumer acceptance of paid search advertising, and now has market capitalization of more than $100 billion.

About the Author

John Benjamin has 4+ years of online marketing experience, handling the various verticals invovled. Presently working as a Sr. Affiliate Manager, you can visit his blog at http://www.johnbenjamin.net/blog

Tags: Predictions, Online Advertising