Online Advertising Innovations
&
The Illusion of Anonymity
DoubleClick, Incorporated
the birth of a company
• Created in January 1996 by Kevin
O’Conner (now 42 and Chairman)
• Started with the help of interactive
advertising leader, Poppe Tyson [2]
• $2mil in seed money from Poppe Tyson’s
parent company, Bozell Jacobs [2]
What does DoubleClick do?
official purpose statement
“We are a leading provider of products and
services used by direct marketers, Web
publishers and advertisers to plan, execute
and analyze their marketing programs.
Combining marketing technology and data
expertise, our products and services help our
customers optimize their advertising and
marketing campaigns online and through
direct mail. “ [3]
E-Ads Innovation
the DoubleClick Network
• First advertising network on the
Internet – now over 1,500 high-traffic
sites [2]
• B2B model, no physical products – they
don’t create, market, or sell content,
but rather just the 1s and 0s of ads
(and provide related services) [1,4]
Stiff Competition
innovating to stand out
• Lots of competitors: ValueClick, Engage,
Google, Yahoo!, 24/7, FlyCast, Unicast,
Eyeblaster, aQuantive [2,5]
• DoubleClick’s edge: array of services,
building up widespread network, and
acquisition of consumer information
[2,3,5]
DART: Dynamic, Advertising,
Reporting and Targeting
• DART uses cookies to monitor activity
• Info recorded in databases of users’
personal preferences (user profiling)
• DART is now the industry standard for
managing online advertising [2] –
example of DoubleClick innovation
Rapid Success
record-setting growth
• Entered a nascent market in online ads
and providing related services – tracking
“click-throughs”, targeting ads to
specific areas of interest…
• Feb. ’96 – predict they will hit 10 million
unique users by mid-Sept. (succeeded
six weeks ahead of schedule) [6]
Mergers and Growth
DoubleClick buys up the market
• The company has acquired about 20
companies to date
• Key acquisition – Abacus [2,7]
• Abacus: consumer information database
for over 90 million U.S. households
• Link online and offline consumer data?
“I Will Not Be Targeted!”
privacy vs. personalization
• Center for Democracy & Technology
launches a “websit” in 2000 to protest
DoubleClick’s invasion of privacy [9]
Making amends
online public education campaign
•
•
•
•
“Internet Privacy Education Campaign”
www.privacychoices.org
Option to opt-out of DoubleClick
Effort by company puts out over 100
million ad impressions, sends over
150,000 unique visitors to web site [10]
Privacy fears subside
business as usual
• Privacy advocates declare victory
• Main casualty – O’Conner steps down as
CEO, assumes Chairman position [2]
• Stock ~$135 before outcry, rebounds
to ~$95 after issue settled [11]
• More privacy issues on horizon as the
company tries to expand online ads…
When Web Bugs Attack
transparent gifs
<IMG SRC = http://doubleclick.net/activity HEIGHT=1 WIDTH=1 BORDER=0>
• “Online ad company DoubleClick, for example,
used Web bugs that could communicate with
cookies from its Web site. The cookies then
revealed past online behavior, even home
addresses, IP addresses, and phone numbers
to the bugs, and the bugs sent that
information straight back to DoubleClick.”
[12]
Ingenious or Fraudulent?
a new class-action lawsuit
• Latest controversy – fraudulent ads
• Ads that appear to be system warnings or
error messages – entire surface is actually a
hyperlink to another web site
• Users confused and fooled into clicking [13]
eBay tie-in
a sizable ad agreement
• Global, multi-year deal for DoubleClick
• Adding new features to eBay – “bid-perclick” keyword advertising
• Will enhance efficiency of eBay’s online
advertising programs [14]
DART Motif
rich media advertising
• A new area of online advertising that
already accounts for over 25% of all
online ads [15]
• Partnership with Macromedia to capture
rich media ad market – new product is
DART Motif (using Flash) [15]
• Innovation again – ease & speed of use
And in conclusion…
DoubleClick’s future is stable
• Recent profitability suggests that the
company is here to stay [16]
• Shift from selling a technology to
providing a service ensures market
share now and in the future – advantage
over diverse field of competitors
References
[01]
[02]
[03]
[04]
[05]
[06]
[07]
[09]
[10]
[11]
[12]
[13]
[14]
[15]
[16]
doubleclick.com
jobcircle.com
cbs.marketwatch.com
Toronto Star [lexis-nexis]
channelseven.com
DoubleClick Press Release [lexis-nexis]
news.com.com
ecommercetimes.com
Business Wire [lexis-nexis]
wired.com
cnet.com
ferencelaw.com
DoubleClick Press Release [lexis-nexis]
internetnews.com
internetnews.com