TruEffect Blog

VC claims naming rights to toilet

This one has been amusing and intriguing me all week when I read in the local paper (how antiquated of me!) that local VC luminary Brad Feld had invested $25,000 to have naming rights to a bathroom at CU. http://dailycamera.com/news/2008/jan/25/cu-bathroom-gets-a-namesake/ . As he comments "Sometimes my best ideas have come to me while I'm in the bathroom, sitting on the toilet or taking a shower," Feld said. "It's a good time to reflect. It's a quiet moment."

It's also a good repository for the not so good ideas presented, plans submitted, and the 9 out of 10 that don’t make it post investment. Then I got wise to Mr. Feld’s ruse — VC’s like to get in early on things, they want new ideas that can scale. There is also a trend in web circles to re-position or recapitalize terms — a widget used to be mechanical device, now it’s a little screen item. Is Mr. Feld trying to take stake in Mr. Crapper's domain? Will my children’s children say to each that they have to take a "brad" or someone had the “brad kicked out of them”. Of course not. They’ll use IM where BR is Bathroom and AD is Another Day (Short for ADAD — Another Day Another Dollar). Kind of appropriate really.

Do check out Brad's blog, its pretty good.  http://www.feld.com/blog/

- Martin

Online spending catching up with internet use

There’s good news from the Yankee Group for online advertisers. According to a report released this week, spending on online advertising is slated to double between now and 2011, from $21.7 billion to $50.3 billion. 

The report notes that this is merely Internet advertising catching up with Internet use. Right now, Internet accounts for 20% of all media consumption but only 7.5% of the U.S. ad spend.

So what does this mean for consumers? According to the report, new inventory will begin to open up and we’ll start to see ads more frequently on different online mediums such as video, gaming and virtual worlds. 

For more on the study and the anticipated changes see the full article below. 

Study: Internet Ads Will More Than Double By 2011

-Martin

Google and DoubleClick - It's not over 'till it's over.

An interesting article today in MediaPost EU Continues to Scrutinize Google-DoubleClick Deal, with Consumer Privacy concerns continuing to drive the debate.

- Scott

Reactions to Proposed FTC Regs Run the Gamut

Here's an interesting article that ran recently in DM News this week. Response to FTC Proposed Principles The reporter, Ellen Keohane, gathered a variety of perspectives on the FTC'€™s proposed self-regulatory principles for the online behavioral advertising industry. Although not entirely surprising, the responses to the proposed regulations varied greatly: The advertisers interviewed stated that these standards were already being followed by all of the major players, while the Executive Director for the Center for Digital Democracy said that the guidelines were far too vague and depended on the goodwill of an industry whose first priority is to collect and harvest as much user data [as possible]

This dichotomy of perspectives is just another example of how complex it will be to find a balance between consumer privacy and access to content supported by online advertising.  In a series of forums recently, one very clear point of agreement resonated with me.  Some people may use the technology in an unscrupulous and harmful way and both sides of the debate agree to a great extent what many of those practices include.  Profiling based upon personal health conditions, religious affiliation and sexual preference to name a few, is not acceptable to the vast majority of consumers. Let'€™s look for those areas of agreement and start developing ways to address the truly egregious practices first. In securing some "€œeasy wins"€, we can learn more about how to tackle the gray areas of behavioral targeting more productively.

- Scott