Tensions Around Internet Marketing to the Family

Joseph Turow

University of Pennsylvania

The main point

Two conflicting public trends

and their institutional implications

The Revolt Against Advertising

An historical perspective Newspapers &

magazines Radio & television

The issues with the web

Enduring media issues: Selling violence Selling sex Commercialism Disintermediation of parents

New issues with the web

New form of disintermediation New interactive ways to get to kids

when parents aren’t around. Data mining an important rationale for

web marketers

The issues with the web

Release of family Information Passively (e.g. chat rooms, IM) Purposefully (e.g. to register)

The issues with the web

“I sometimes worry that members of my family give information they shouldn’t about our family to websites.”

36% agree or agree strongly

2000 APPC survey

The issues with the web

“My concern about outsiders learning sensitive information about me and my family has increased since we’ve gone online at home”

59% agree or agree strongly

2000 APPC survey

Pubic Concern/Industry Response

Expert and parental concerns Industry push-back COPPA only for under 13 years old Even with COPPA, data not linked to

PII can be taken and disintermediation can be carried out.

What people tell us re 13+

“I worry more about what information a teenager would give away to a website than a younger child under 13 would.”

61% agreed or agreed strongly

2000 APPC survey

What people tell us re 13+

“I am nervous about websites having information about me.”

Parents: 72% agree or strongly agree Kids (10-17): 63% agree

or strongly agree

2000 APPC survey

What people tell us re 13+

“Teenagers should have to get their parents’ consent before giving out information online.”

Parents: 96% agree or strongly agree Kids (10-17): 79% agree

or strongly agree2000 APPC survey

But what kids say they would do is different from what parents would want them to do.

Kids and parents

Much higher percentage of kids consistently said it is OK or completely OK for a teen to give out family information in return for a free gift.

2000 APPC survey

Kids and parents

Is the reason generational or maturational?

Either way, it’s a wedge for disintermediation

Marketers have tried to make commercialism on the web seem natural.

Dominant theme is that the tensions are internet growing pains.

Growing pains

The agenda then turns to questions such as informed consent and opting in or out.

Privacy policies part of the problem, not the solution.

Marketers have insisted that teens are adults when it comes to privacy issues.

They also have emphasized throughout society the idea that personal information is barter, not “body.”

Teens as market

Both these ideas are furthered in the huge amount of market-driven research on youngsters.

Primary view of youngsters as consumers colors development of web and discourse about it.

The panic over commercialism seems to have subsided.

On one level, parents and the press seem to accept notion that web is just another sales territory.

But there is a counter-trend.

Counter-trend

Annoyance regarding pop-ups and spam has sparked subversion of commercials.

Entry of ISPs and technologists into the fray.

Various forms of filters, including Bayesian

Marketers, in turn, are working hard to find new ways to naturalize the situation.

The internet disruption links to similar problems in other parts of the DIME.

Naturalization attempts

Product placement

Converging with Direct marketing and CRM

To create Customer Relationship Media

Customer Relationship Media

Sponsorship embedded/highlighted Specially discounted or free media and

related goods Available “everywhere” Tailored content

Customer Relationship Media

Driven by: Explicit & implicit transaction

databases Continual data mining of legacy and

external systems Following targets “everywhere” Pushing non-targets away

Customer Relationship Media

This type of activity has new implications for audiences and media.

Family tensions over possible release of information

Increased anxieties and division over social privilege and discrimination.

It’s a trajectory that needs monitoring and social discussion.