V O L U M E 2 7 , I S S U E 4 , D E C E M B E R 3 1 , 2 0 1 2S Z A B O A S S O C I A T E S , I N C .

1

As we reported in our last issue,media can look forward to a rise inadvertising spending in 2013, largelydue to the continuing surge in newmedia. Internet advertising in 2013,particularly in mobile and socialmedia, is expected to grow morethan 18%, the strongest growth ratein at least four years.

While the new digital landscapepresents a myriad of opportunitiesfor media, it also comes with abucketload of challenges for eachdepartment and the organizationas a whole. Credit and collectionmanagers can help position theirorganizations to take advantage ofthese opportunities by establishinga base of knowledge about digitalproducts, pricing, measurement,and privacy issues. Additionally,they should maintain active lines ofcommunication between sales andcredit in order to keep abreast ofchanges in the fast-evolving digitalmarketplace.

Countless books have beenwritten on the subject of internetadvertising. It would be impossibleto provide in a single article theinformation necessary to become aplayer in the internet arena. Wewould like, however, to expand ourlast issue’s discussion on some pop-ular types of internet advertising,which may enable further explora-tion into media options relevant toyour organization and provide infor-mation on new media your customersmay be considering as part of anintegrated marketing plan.

Products. Internet advertising prod-ucts continue to evolve and, withthis evolution, comes a whole new

lexicon related to the platform,style, and delivery of ads. Amongthe most common categories ofinternet advertising are display,search, mobile and social advertising.

Display advertising is a broadcategory of ads, which can appearon web pages in various formsand sizes. Standard display adsmay contain static (fixed) imagesor images that are animated withtools such as Flash. Generally,they allow only one interaction,which takes the user to a destina-tion site. A more complex (andmany would say, more effective)display is a “rich media” ad, whichoffers greater opportunities forinteractive content. Rich mediaemploys advanced technology suchas streaming video, downloadedapplets (small programs) thatinteract instantly with the user,and ads that change as the user’smouse moves over it.

Search-engine advertisingtakes advantage of users’ typed-inkeywords in the search box. Theengine’s formulas determine the“organic” search results, the selec-tion and order of page links onthe list. If the user types in“meningitis outbreak,” severalnewspapers’ websites appear onthe list. If the user clicks on one ofthese links, that newspaper has anopportunity to serve an ad to theuser. In order to take betteradvantage of organic searches,marketers sometimes hire searchengine optimization (SEO) firms,which understand the searchengine’s rules, to raise their visibili-ty on the list. Another approach is“paid-search” advertising, a process

—continued on page 2

The Do Not Track (DNT) systemis completely voluntary, with nolegal or technological require-ments for its use; therefore, notall websites and advertisers honorthe request by users. WhenMicrosoft announced its plans toenable the DNT feature by defaultin its newest Internet Explorer 10browser, the company facedprotests from numerous advertis-ing industry groups, including theDigital Advertising Alliance (DAA),Interactive Advertising Bureau(IAB), and Association of NationalAdvertisers (ANA). Stating thatthe default mechanism “offersconsumers and businesses incon-sistencies and confusion insteadof comfort and security,” the DAAdoes not require companies tohonor DNT signals fixed by thebrowser manufacturers.

According to Peter Klein in anOctober article in Advertising Age,some form of anti-tracking

legislation is inevitable, and thisinevitability should encourage theindustry to continually innovate andmarketers to take a hard look attheir own actions. Says Klein,“organizations like the IAB, DAA,and Performance MarketingAssociation have pushed forstronger industry self-regulation toward off anti-tracking regulations.”

Internal and external communication.Keeping abreast of new technologyand developments and sharing infor-mation within your media organiza-tion are essential to avoid being out-paced by competition in this dynamicenvironment. Credit and collectionmanagers and their staff must stayconstantly in the loop with their salesdepartments to fully understand justwhat is being sold and how theseproducts are structured.

Effective, consistent communica-tion offers its own set of challenges,particularly in large organizations andthose with shared service centers.Again, we can look to technologyto help meet these challenges.

©Szabo Associates, Inc. 2012. Allrights reserved. Materials may notbe reproduced or transmittedwithout written permission.

PRESORTEDSTANDARDU.S. Postage

PAIDAtlanta, GA

Permit No. 747Collective Wisdom® is a publication of Media Collection Professionals,3355 Lenox Rd. NE, Suite 945, Atlanta, Georgia 30326Tel: 404/266-2464, Fax: 404/266-2165Website: www.szabo.come-mail: info@szabo.com

4

For example, tools to create“social enterprises,” or internalsocial networks, have alreadybeen developed by technologyproviders such as Microsoft, Cisco,and SalesForce. Like a businessversion of Facebook, social enter-prises hold much promise to helpbusiness colleagues collaborate inreal time to better share informa-tion, support customers, developprospects, and save time.

As in so many endeavors,knowledge and communicationare of paramount importance ifmedia organizations are to developnew opportunities and boost prof-its in the digital arena. Seminarsand trade organizations, several ofwhich we have mentioned in thisarticle, can provide a wealth ofinformation on new innovationsand issues. What better NewYear’s resolution than learning allyou can and sharing what youknow in this ever-changing digitalmarketplace! �

Surging Ahead——continued from page 3

Surging Aheadin the Digital Marketplace

Dear Friends:

It seems we can’t go anywheretoday without seeing some formof new media. This is truly anera of “being connected” in some way, 24 hours per day formany of us. The growth andmaturation of internet marketingand advertising offer a wealth ofopportunity for media, alongwith challenges—one of the mostformidable being the challenge of keeping up with continuingadvances in the digital market-place. This issue broadens ourdiscussion on new media, includ-ing products, pricing, measure-ment, and privacy issues.

Our winter agenda includesthe Media Financial Management(MFM) CFO Summit on February21-22 in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida.Szabo is pleased to sponsor theopening breakfast on the 21st.

All of us at Szabo Associates hope that 2013 will be a year ofabundance and joy for all of you.

Robin Szabo, PresidentSzabo Associates, Inc.

2

that requires advertisers to bid onwords that users type into thesearch box. The search enginechooses the winner based on acombination of factors, including,but not limited to, the bidamount. Also known as “spon-sored search,” the ads are displayedeither under the “Sponsored Sites”header at the top of the searchresults page or along the sides ofthe results page.

As we reported in our last issue,mobile advertising is positionedto experience the greatest surge in2013. Because the smart mobiledevice is still a relatively newinnovation, mobile advertisinghas much room to expand, andthe golden age of mobile is still tocome. A significant challenge tomobile advertisers is the complexitycreated by the diversity amongcarrier networks and devices. Themobile ecosystem has numerousplayers. On the advertiser side,there are the agency, ad network,and ad server; on the media side,there are the content publisher(the entity that produces ordistributes news, entertainment,educational, or other informationaldata), content enabler, and carrier(portal); on the delivery side,there are the carrier (network),handset, and consumer. Navigatingthrough the complexity of mobileadvertising can be worth it, however,because of the many opportunitiesfor advertisers to reach consumers,including text messaging, ringtoneand wallpaper downloads, mobilevideo, and mobile display advertis-ing. On-device display ads aredelivered to the device itself, inthe form of text ads, banners,video prerolls, or traditional TVcommercials. Alternatively, off-device display ads (outdoor, liveevent, television, etc.) can beaccessed through the interactivecapability of the mobile deviceand may feature a mobile call-to-action (sending information viatext messaging).

New business models and tech-nology innovations will continue

Surging Ahead——continued from page 1

to change the landscape of mobilemedia, according to the InteractiveAdvertising Bureau (IAB), the tradeassociation for sellers of interactivemedia. In its Mobile AdvertisingOverview, the organization foreseesfaster data connections, improveddevices, improved embedded soft-ware, more content, and enhanced“discoverability” through improve-ments in mobile search.

Social is set to take secondplace in internet advertising growthin 2013. In its publication SocialAdvertising Best Practices, theIAB defines a social ad as “anonline ad that incorporates userinteractions that the consumer hasagreed to display and be shared.The resulting ad displays theseinteractions along with the user’spersona (picture and/or name)within the ad content.”

Social advertising is a type ofpaid media. A major advantage ofsocial advertising is its uniquemethod of targeting its audience.Unlike other internet media, whichlargely target consumers basedon their online behavior, socialincorporates user interactions andpersona into the ad content, whichis then delivered to friends withintheir social graph. Social mediacompanies, such as Facebook,continually develop ways toenhance the connections betweenbrands’ advertising messages andsocial recommendations. As anexample of its expanded PremiumAd offering, Facebook showcased anad in which a user’s friend “liked” arecently released movie. Beneaththe recommendation, appearedthe originally sponsored content,a post on the movie’s fan pagecalling attention to a rave reviewin Rolling Stone.

An emerging category of onlineadvertising is “branded content,”in which publishers help adver-tisers create content around a topicrelevant to the brand. The goalof branded content is to enticereaders to pass along the informa-tion via social media. An exampleof branded content is the recentrollout of General Mills’LiveBetterAmerica.aol.com, awebsite built on the HuffingtonPost technology platform.

A relative of branded content is“brand-led” original program-ming, with marketers producingand distributing content withoutthe active support of a mediacompany. As reported by ShivSingh in Advertising Age, Nike,Virgin, American Express, andIntel are moving aggressively inthis direction.

Pricing. Some publishers offerspace on a cost-per-click (CPC)basis, in which the advertiser paysonly if a visitor to the websiteclicks on the ad. On a cost-per-action (CPA) basis, the visitor musttake a subsequent action, such ascontacting the company or buyingits product. Most publishers, however, sell space on a cost-per-thousand-impressions (CPM) basis,with an impression defined as abasic advertising unit delivered toa computer. With CPM-basedadvertising, the advertiser payseach time the advertisement loadsonto a user’s screen, regardless ofwhether or not the user clicks onthe ad. Obviously, the prices forCPC- and CPA-based advertisingare much higher than for CPM,since the percentage of visitorsthat actually click on ads is usuallyless than 1%.

Prices vary among publishersdepending on the perceived valueof their websites by advertisers,with “premium” publishers able todemand higher prices. Also, pub-lishers may charge higher rates byoffering advertisers the specificaudience segments they want. Thistargeting can be done by a varietyof methods that involve gatheringvisitors’ personal data, includinginterests and even personality pro-files based on what they view.Publishers can send pieces of datacalled “cookies” to visitors’ webbrowsers to collect information ontheir subsequent browsing andtransactional activity. When the vis-itor later returns to the publisher’swebsite, the information collectedbetween visits can be retrieved.Analytics firms are hired to analyzethe information, which publisherscan then use to show advertisersthe quality of the audience and,therefore, to demand higher prices.

Online advertising networks arecompanies designed to connectadvertisers to websites that wantto host advertisements by aggre-gating ad space supply and match-ing it with advertiser demand.The ad space can come in manydifferent forms, including space onwebsites, in RSS feeds, on blogs, ininstant messaging applications inemails, adware (such as pop-ups),and other sources. Networksemploy ad servers to deliver theads to consumers and to target,track, and report impressions.First-tier networks, which includemajor search engines such asGoogle and Yahoo, have a largenumber of their own advertisersand publishers as well as high-quality traffic. They serve ads andtraffic to second-tier networks,which may have some of their ownadvertisers and publishers, butwhich get most revenue from syn-dicating ads from other networks.

If ad networks seem complicated,ad exchanges add yet another levelof complexity. These centralizedmarkets (actually, technologyplatforms) facilitate bidded buyingand selling of online display adver-tising inventory from multiple adnetworks. Much like the stockmarket, there are three entities

3

involved in a real-time bidding (RTB)transaction: the buyers and systemsthey use (Demand Side Platforms, orDSP), sellers and systems they use(Supply Side Platforms, or SSP), andthe real-time ad exchanges (such asAdbrite or DoubleClick), whichprovide the platform technology.Basically, here’s how it works: Anadvertiser chooses targeting settingsand a maximum bid for what theywould pay for an impression thatmeets those parameters; a user goesto a page on a publisher’s website;the publisher sends a bid request(generally on a CPM basis) to thou-sands of potential advertisers, alongwith a personal profile of the user(for example, a 25-year-old female,Dallas, Texas, recently searched forhotel information in New YorkCity); the publisher receives bids,the highest bidder is informed, andthe advertiser can place its ad onthe page. The entire transactiontakes place in 300-500 milliseconds,with no apparent delay to the user.

Measurement methods. Since theinception of digital advertising,advertisers and agencies have hadconcerns about the lack of standard-ized methods to measure ad effec-tiveness. Additionally, according tothe IAB, discrepancies have occurred

as a result of different countingmethodologies used by thevarious ad serving technologiesas well as the complexity of thesetechnologies. For these reasons,many marketers have been reluc-tant to commit money for inter-active advertising.

In 2003, the American Associa-tion of Advertising Agencies(AAAA) and the Association ofNational Advertisers (ANA) askedthe IAB to develop a plan toresolve the issue. The organi-zation created a task force com-posed of publishers, technologyproviders, networks, and vendorsto research, refine, and approveguidelines for measuring impres-sions related to interactive displayadvertising. Since then, the IABand the industry have continued toissue updates to include additionalmedia and metrics as they develop.The IAB, with the strong supportof AAAA and other members of thebuying community, recommendsall ad-serving applications used inthe buying and selling process tobe certified, at minimum annually,as compliant with the guidelines.These guidelines and updates areavailable for review on the IABwebsite (www.iab.net).

Privacy issues. If some of thissounds a bit Orwellian (“BigBrother is watching you”), youare not alone with your concerns.According to the Pew ResearchCenter in its State of the NewsMedia 2012 report, “there hasalways existed a tension betweenthe services that technology com-panies provide and the data aboutconsumers they gather and thenleverage for financial gain.”

In December 2010, the FederalTrade Commission issued a privacyreport that called for a “do nottrack” system that would enablepeople to avoid having theiractions monitored online. Do NotTrack technology, which is nowbuilt into new browsers fromevery major maker, was developedto enable users to opt out oftracking by websites they do notvisit, including analytics services,advertising networks, and socialplatforms.

—continued on page 4

“So the advertiser pays on the basis of CPCs, CPAs, or CPMs, or he doesRTB with the DSP buying from the SSP through the RT exchange. This iswhat you came back with from that internet advertising seminar?”

2

that requires advertisers to bid onwords that users type into thesearch box. The search enginechooses the winner based on acombination of factors, including,but not limited to, the bidamount. Also known as “spon-sored search,” the ads are displayedeither under the “Sponsored Sites”header at the top of the searchresults page or along the sides ofthe results page.

As we reported in our last issue,mobile advertising is positionedto experience the greatest surge in2013. Because the smart mobiledevice is still a relatively newinnovation, mobile advertisinghas much room to expand, andthe golden age of mobile is still tocome. A significant challenge tomobile advertisers is the complexitycreated by the diversity amongcarrier networks and devices. Themobile ecosystem has numerousplayers. On the advertiser side,there are the agency, ad network,and ad server; on the media side,there are the content publisher(the entity that produces ordistributes news, entertainment,educational, or other informationaldata), content enabler, and carrier(portal); on the delivery side,there are the carrier (network),handset, and consumer. Navigatingthrough the complexity of mobileadvertising can be worth it, however,because of the many opportunitiesfor advertisers to reach consumers,including text messaging, ringtoneand wallpaper downloads, mobilevideo, and mobile display advertis-ing. On-device display ads aredelivered to the device itself, inthe form of text ads, banners,video prerolls, or traditional TVcommercials. Alternatively, off-device display ads (outdoor, liveevent, television, etc.) can beaccessed through the interactivecapability of the mobile deviceand may feature a mobile call-to-action (sending information viatext messaging).

New business models and tech-nology innovations will continue

Surging Ahead——continued from page 1

to change the landscape of mobilemedia, according to the InteractiveAdvertising Bureau (IAB), the tradeassociation for sellers of interactivemedia. In its Mobile AdvertisingOverview, the organization foreseesfaster data connections, improveddevices, improved embedded soft-ware, more content, and enhanced“discoverability” through improve-ments in mobile search.

Social is set to take secondplace in internet advertising growthin 2013. In its publication SocialAdvertising Best Practices, theIAB defines a social ad as “anonline ad that incorporates userinteractions that the consumer hasagreed to display and be shared.The resulting ad displays theseinteractions along with the user’spersona (picture and/or name)within the ad content.”

Social advertising is a type ofpaid media. A major advantage ofsocial advertising is its uniquemethod of targeting its audience.Unlike other internet media, whichlargely target consumers basedon their online behavior, socialincorporates user interactions andpersona into the ad content, whichis then delivered to friends withintheir social graph. Social mediacompanies, such as Facebook,continually develop ways toenhance the connections betweenbrands’ advertising messages andsocial recommendations. As anexample of its expanded PremiumAd offering, Facebook showcased anad in which a user’s friend “liked” arecently released movie. Beneaththe recommendation, appearedthe originally sponsored content,a post on the movie’s fan pagecalling attention to a rave reviewin Rolling Stone.

An emerging category of onlineadvertising is “branded content,”in which publishers help adver-tisers create content around a topicrelevant to the brand. The goalof branded content is to enticereaders to pass along the informa-tion via social media. An exampleof branded content is the recentrollout of General Mills’LiveBetterAmerica.aol.com, awebsite built on the HuffingtonPost technology platform.

A relative of branded content is“brand-led” original program-ming, with marketers producingand distributing content withoutthe active support of a mediacompany. As reported by ShivSingh in Advertising Age, Nike,Virgin, American Express, andIntel are moving aggressively inthis direction.

Pricing. Some publishers offerspace on a cost-per-click (CPC)basis, in which the advertiser paysonly if a visitor to the websiteclicks on the ad. On a cost-per-action (CPA) basis, the visitor musttake a subsequent action, such ascontacting the company or buyingits product. Most publishers, however, sell space on a cost-per-thousand-impressions (CPM) basis,with an impression defined as abasic advertising unit delivered toa computer. With CPM-basedadvertising, the advertiser payseach time the advertisement loadsonto a user’s screen, regardless ofwhether or not the user clicks onthe ad. Obviously, the prices forCPC- and CPA-based advertisingare much higher than for CPM,since the percentage of visitorsthat actually click on ads is usuallyless than 1%.

Prices vary among publishersdepending on the perceived valueof their websites by advertisers,with “premium” publishers able todemand higher prices. Also, pub-lishers may charge higher rates byoffering advertisers the specificaudience segments they want. Thistargeting can be done by a varietyof methods that involve gatheringvisitors’ personal data, includinginterests and even personality pro-files based on what they view.Publishers can send pieces of datacalled “cookies” to visitors’ webbrowsers to collect information ontheir subsequent browsing andtransactional activity. When the vis-itor later returns to the publisher’swebsite, the information collectedbetween visits can be retrieved.Analytics firms are hired to analyzethe information, which publisherscan then use to show advertisersthe quality of the audience and,therefore, to demand higher prices.

Online advertising networks arecompanies designed to connectadvertisers to websites that wantto host advertisements by aggre-gating ad space supply and match-ing it with advertiser demand.The ad space can come in manydifferent forms, including space onwebsites, in RSS feeds, on blogs, ininstant messaging applications inemails, adware (such as pop-ups),and other sources. Networksemploy ad servers to deliver theads to consumers and to target,track, and report impressions.First-tier networks, which includemajor search engines such asGoogle and Yahoo, have a largenumber of their own advertisersand publishers as well as high-quality traffic. They serve ads andtraffic to second-tier networks,which may have some of their ownadvertisers and publishers, butwhich get most revenue from syn-dicating ads from other networks.

If ad networks seem complicated,ad exchanges add yet another levelof complexity. These centralizedmarkets (actually, technologyplatforms) facilitate bidded buyingand selling of online display adver-tising inventory from multiple adnetworks. Much like the stockmarket, there are three entities

3

involved in a real-time bidding (RTB)transaction: the buyers and systemsthey use (Demand Side Platforms, orDSP), sellers and systems they use(Supply Side Platforms, or SSP), andthe real-time ad exchanges (such asAdbrite or DoubleClick), whichprovide the platform technology.Basically, here’s how it works: Anadvertiser chooses targeting settingsand a maximum bid for what theywould pay for an impression thatmeets those parameters; a user goesto a page on a publisher’s website;the publisher sends a bid request(generally on a CPM basis) to thou-sands of potential advertisers, alongwith a personal profile of the user(for example, a 25-year-old female,Dallas, Texas, recently searched forhotel information in New YorkCity); the publisher receives bids,the highest bidder is informed, andthe advertiser can place its ad onthe page. The entire transactiontakes place in 300-500 milliseconds,with no apparent delay to the user.

Measurement methods. Since theinception of digital advertising,advertisers and agencies have hadconcerns about the lack of standard-ized methods to measure ad effec-tiveness. Additionally, according tothe IAB, discrepancies have occurred

as a result of different countingmethodologies used by thevarious ad serving technologiesas well as the complexity of thesetechnologies. For these reasons,many marketers have been reluc-tant to commit money for inter-active advertising.

In 2003, the American Associa-tion of Advertising Agencies(AAAA) and the Association ofNational Advertisers (ANA) askedthe IAB to develop a plan toresolve the issue. The organi-zation created a task force com-posed of publishers, technologyproviders, networks, and vendorsto research, refine, and approveguidelines for measuring impres-sions related to interactive displayadvertising. Since then, the IABand the industry have continued toissue updates to include additionalmedia and metrics as they develop.The IAB, with the strong supportof AAAA and other members of thebuying community, recommendsall ad-serving applications used inthe buying and selling process tobe certified, at minimum annually,as compliant with the guidelines.These guidelines and updates areavailable for review on the IABwebsite (www.iab.net).

Privacy issues. If some of thissounds a bit Orwellian (“BigBrother is watching you”), youare not alone with your concerns.According to the Pew ResearchCenter in its State of the NewsMedia 2012 report, “there hasalways existed a tension betweenthe services that technology com-panies provide and the data aboutconsumers they gather and thenleverage for financial gain.”

In December 2010, the FederalTrade Commission issued a privacyreport that called for a “do nottrack” system that would enablepeople to avoid having theiractions monitored online. Do NotTrack technology, which is nowbuilt into new browsers fromevery major maker, was developedto enable users to opt out oftracking by websites they do notvisit, including analytics services,advertising networks, and socialplatforms.

—continued on page 4

“So the advertiser pays on the basis of CPCs, CPAs, or CPMs, or he doesRTB with the DSP buying from the SSP through the RT exchange. This iswhat you came back with from that internet advertising seminar?”

V O L U M E 2 7 , I S S U E 4 , D E C E M B E R 3 1 , 2 0 1 2S Z A B O A S S O C I A T E S , I N C .

1

As we reported in our last issue,media can look forward to a rise inadvertising spending in 2013, largelydue to the continuing surge in newmedia. Internet advertising in 2013,particularly in mobile and socialmedia, is expected to grow morethan 18%, the strongest growth ratein at least four years.

While the new digital landscapepresents a myriad of opportunitiesfor media, it also comes with abucketload of challenges for eachdepartment and the organizationas a whole. Credit and collectionmanagers can help position theirorganizations to take advantage ofthese opportunities by establishinga base of knowledge about digitalproducts, pricing, measurement,and privacy issues. Additionally,they should maintain active lines ofcommunication between sales andcredit in order to keep abreast ofchanges in the fast-evolving digitalmarketplace.

Countless books have beenwritten on the subject of internetadvertising. It would be impossibleto provide in a single article theinformation necessary to become aplayer in the internet arena. Wewould like, however, to expand ourlast issue’s discussion on some pop-ular types of internet advertising,which may enable further explora-tion into media options relevant toyour organization and provide infor-mation on new media your customersmay be considering as part of anintegrated marketing plan.

Products. Internet advertising prod-ucts continue to evolve and, withthis evolution, comes a whole new

lexicon related to the platform,style, and delivery of ads. Amongthe most common categories ofinternet advertising are display,search, mobile and social advertising.

Display advertising is a broadcategory of ads, which can appearon web pages in various formsand sizes. Standard display adsmay contain static (fixed) imagesor images that are animated withtools such as Flash. Generally,they allow only one interaction,which takes the user to a destina-tion site. A more complex (andmany would say, more effective)display is a “rich media” ad, whichoffers greater opportunities forinteractive content. Rich mediaemploys advanced technology suchas streaming video, downloadedapplets (small programs) thatinteract instantly with the user,and ads that change as the user’smouse moves over it.

Search-engine advertisingtakes advantage of users’ typed-inkeywords in the search box. Theengine’s formulas determine the“organic” search results, the selec-tion and order of page links onthe list. If the user types in“meningitis outbreak,” severalnewspapers’ websites appear onthe list. If the user clicks on one ofthese links, that newspaper has anopportunity to serve an ad to theuser. In order to take betteradvantage of organic searches,marketers sometimes hire searchengine optimization (SEO) firms,which understand the searchengine’s rules, to raise their visibili-ty on the list. Another approach is“paid-search” advertising, a process

—continued on page 2

The Do Not Track (DNT) systemis completely voluntary, with nolegal or technological require-ments for its use; therefore, notall websites and advertisers honorthe request by users. WhenMicrosoft announced its plans toenable the DNT feature by defaultin its newest Internet Explorer 10browser, the company facedprotests from numerous advertis-ing industry groups, including theDigital Advertising Alliance (DAA),Interactive Advertising Bureau(IAB), and Association of NationalAdvertisers (ANA). Stating thatthe default mechanism “offersconsumers and businesses incon-sistencies and confusion insteadof comfort and security,” the DAAdoes not require companies tohonor DNT signals fixed by thebrowser manufacturers.

According to Peter Klein in anOctober article in Advertising Age,some form of anti-tracking

legislation is inevitable, and thisinevitability should encourage theindustry to continually innovate andmarketers to take a hard look attheir own actions. Says Klein,“organizations like the IAB, DAA,and Performance MarketingAssociation have pushed forstronger industry self-regulation toward off anti-tracking regulations.”

Internal and external communication.Keeping abreast of new technologyand developments and sharing infor-mation within your media organiza-tion are essential to avoid being out-paced by competition in this dynamicenvironment. Credit and collectionmanagers and their staff must stayconstantly in the loop with their salesdepartments to fully understand justwhat is being sold and how theseproducts are structured.

Effective, consistent communica-tion offers its own set of challenges,particularly in large organizations andthose with shared service centers.Again, we can look to technologyto help meet these challenges.

©Szabo Associates, Inc. 2012. Allrights reserved. Materials may notbe reproduced or transmittedwithout written permission.

PRESORTEDSTANDARDU.S. Postage

PAIDAtlanta, GA

Permit No. 747Collective Wisdom® is a publication of Media Collection Professionals,3355 Lenox Rd. NE, Suite 945, Atlanta, Georgia 30326Tel: 404/266-2464, Fax: 404/266-2165Website: www.szabo.come-mail: info@szabo.com

4

For example, tools to create“social enterprises,” or internalsocial networks, have alreadybeen developed by technologyproviders such as Microsoft, Cisco,and SalesForce. Like a businessversion of Facebook, social enter-prises hold much promise to helpbusiness colleagues collaborate inreal time to better share informa-tion, support customers, developprospects, and save time.

As in so many endeavors,knowledge and communicationare of paramount importance ifmedia organizations are to developnew opportunities and boost prof-its in the digital arena. Seminarsand trade organizations, several ofwhich we have mentioned in thisarticle, can provide a wealth ofinformation on new innovationsand issues. What better NewYear’s resolution than learning allyou can and sharing what youknow in this ever-changing digitalmarketplace! �

Surging Ahead——continued from page 3

Surging Aheadin the Digital Marketplace

Dear Friends:

It seems we can’t go anywheretoday without seeing some formof new media. This is truly anera of “being connected” in some way, 24 hours per day formany of us. The growth andmaturation of internet marketingand advertising offer a wealth ofopportunity for media, alongwith challenges—one of the mostformidable being the challenge of keeping up with continuingadvances in the digital market-place. This issue broadens ourdiscussion on new media, includ-ing products, pricing, measure-ment, and privacy issues.

Our winter agenda includesthe Media Financial Management(MFM) CFO Summit on February21-22 in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida.Szabo is pleased to sponsor theopening breakfast on the 21st.

All of us at Szabo Associates hope that 2013 will be a year ofabundance and joy for all of you.

Robin Szabo, PresidentSzabo Associates, Inc.