If you were lucky enough to be on Twitter Monday afternoon, you likely witnessed the aftermath of Burger King’s Twitter account being hacked by the international hacktivist group Anonymous. Some marketing pundits are going so far as call this a “PR disaster.” Hyperbole aside, I agree that Burger King has a big task on its hands to ensure this type of situation never happens again.

That said I don’t foresee the #failurewhopper Twitter hack hurting Burger King’s business or reputation in the long term.

The nuances of the hack have been analyzed over and over, so there is no reason to go into them in this post. (The company has since apologized for the confusion caused by its Twitter account being compromised.) What’s important, however, is to examine what impact, if any, the hack will have on the company’s brand affinity with consumers.

When I first noticed the Burger King account hack the company had about 82,000 followers. A quick glance at BK’s follower count at Twitter, as of noon EST Tuesday (Feb. 19) shows the company has a little more than 112,000 followers.  That’s an increase of 30,000 followers in just a few hours. That’s 30,000 new people, both current and potential customers, that the company can now engage, inform and influence through its Twitter account.

More importantly, it is unlikely many of those 30,000 will remember the hack after a few weeks. Burger King now has a great opportunity to turn them into brand advocates — if it plays the situation smartly and proactively, which it appears to be doing. After working through the various channels to get the account suspended so that Anonymous no longer had control over its profile, Burger King’s first post-hack tweet contained the perfect amount of wit and humility to win back fans and followers:

Looking at the Anonymous hack from a purely strategic standpoint, how many of Burger King’s loyal customers will stop consuming the company’s burgers, fries and other food because of this supposed “Twitter disaster”? The answer is most likely none.

The reality of the situation is Burger King has gained 30,000 new Twitter followers — 30,000 potential brand ambassadors — that will see its promotions and potentially spread the company’s message. They say pictures are worth a thousand words; well, the picture below is worth 2,576 retweets and 993 followers who favorite Burger King’s response.

A “Twitter disaster”? Hardly. More likely a learning opportunity about how to turn a potentially negative online marketing situation into a brand-building positive.

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The post Marketing Lessons from the @BurgerKing Twitter Hack appeared first on MediaWhiz.

Last week, Yahoo! announced it had signed a non-exclusive global agreement with Google to serve contextual ads on Yahoo properties and some co-branded websites. Last time the Silicon Valley giants attempted a strategic partnership, the deal was struck down by antitrust regulators at the U.S. Department of Justice. So, what is different this time?

The answer lies with the mastermind behind the negotiation: Yahoo’s CEO, and ex-Google executive, Marissa Mayer.

This deal is a sign that Mayer’s leadership is starting to have positive outcomes. Rather than contributing to the long-standing rivalry between the two companies she has chosen to build bridges. Her experience and knowledge of Google were key t negotiating this partnership, and will most likely serve as solid foundation for Yahoo to have the success that was not possible back in 2008 when it first attempted a search advertising partnership with Google.

Fast forward to 2013 and Yahoo and Google are tying up on display, as opposed to search. What does this mean for both companies? What does it mean for display advertising? 

Needless to say, the deal benefits both corporations. Yahoo, a company that recently reported a 10% year-on-year decline in display ad revenue, will finally see its ad sales prosper. This should result in the type of organic revenue growth that Mayer promised when she first took office – something that wasn’t possible through the company’s previous display ad deal with Microsoft.

Yahoo’s user experience will also improve. Having access to Google’s AdSense will allow the company to present more significant and relevant display ads to users. For Google, this of course means more revenue and an even greater presence on the Web. Most important, though, the deal offers the promise of a closer and more lucrative relationship with Yahoo and its Web properties, which register approximately 700 million unique visitors each month.

This alliance also has implications for brands with display advertising campaigns. On the one hand, Google’s AdSense service is the leading provider of contextual ads – those display ads that relate directly to the text featured on a site. On the other hand, most of Yahoo’s websites (such as Mail, Sports, News, Finance, etc.) have a highly loyal user base that trusts and relates to each property’s content. These two aspects combined provide more opportunities for success to media planners and buyers.

Through Google’s extensive ad network we will now be able to reach the consumers that turn to Yahoo, the largest Web portal in the United States, for their daily Internet habits. At the end of the day, serving users the right ad at the right time is what we do, and any tools that increase reach will always be welcome.

What impact do you think Yahoo’s new display ad partnership with Google will have on online marketing?

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One of the hottest trends in online marketing is native advertising. While not necessarily a new concept — the relatively old-school advertorial has been around for decades — it has seen a resurgence in the current content marketing era. Recent examples of native advertising can be seen with Google’s paid search results, YouTube’s sponsored videos and, to a lesser extent, trending topics on Twitter.

Content marketing has led to innovative forms of online advertising. With the online user experience key to a successful marketing campaign, this non-disruptive form of online advertising will continue to capture marketers’ addition — and advertising dollars — in 2013.

Native Advertising: The Basics

Native advertising is considered one of the newest forms of online marketing.

According to a September 2012 article in Mashable, the term didn’t take root until famed start-up investor Fred Wilson told an audience at OMMA Global in early 2012 about “native monetization” for Web properties, which he described as ads that were “unique and native to the experience” of a website.

Dan Greenberg, the CEO of Sharethrough, is credited with coining the actual term “native advertising.” Here’s Greenberg’s definition: “Native advertising is a form of media that’s built into the actual visual design and where the ads are part of the content.”

What separates native advertising from the equally hot trend of content marketing is a matter of debate. John LoGioco, SVP and general manager of content at Outbrain, recently told Mashable that the two are pretty much the same. “Native advertising seems to be the thing that most are able to hang on to and get it.”

What Makes for Great Native Ads

At its best, native advertising blends seamlessly with the editorial content of a website while providing content that is valuable to the target audience. Below is an example of native advertising on Twitter.

Not surprisingly social media juggernauts are publishing sponsored content, but now popular blogs and editorial websites are beginning to promote sponsored content as well. Buzzfeed is one major publisher that is posting sponsored content for its users. Articles on its main page blend in with the surrounding content. Below is an example of a sponsored article on Buzzfeed.com

In this native ad, Volkswagen provides a unique article for Buzzfeed readers. Instead of simply scrolling through the pictures and reading the article, Volkswagen asks users to listen to the popular song “Get Happy” while they read.

This type of interactive article is non-disruptive. It also provides an entertaining experience for the user. Volkswagen’s sponsored content partnership with Buzzfeed is a good example of a brand’s owned content mixed seamlessly with a publication’s editorial content while providing a valuable experience for the user.

Publisher, Advertiser or Consumer: Who Benefits?

Forbes has reported that consumers find native advertising to be “misleading”; however, reports such as this haven’t prevented marketers from focusing on native ads in 2013. Solve Media reported that 57% of media buyers plan to increase their investment in native advertising in 2013.

While publishers and brands can’t seem to get enough of native advertising, consumers aren’t yet sure of their benefit. For example, Volkswagen’s sponsored content in Buzzfeed blends in well and provides value to consumers, but does it connect to Volkswagen? The answer largely depends on a consumer’s affinity for Volkswagen and its products.

If you’re a fan of Volkswagen and its famous array of critically acclaimed advertisements, then the connection is obvious. However, if you don’t closely follow Volkswagen, or its various marketing campaigns, the business purpose of the brand’s “native ad” likely wasn’t clear.

That disconnect is what marketers still need to overcome when utilizing native ads and sponsored content. Blending their brand’s messaging and imagery with a publication’s editorial content is great, but if the business purpose between the article and the sponsor isn’t clear, the ad will do little to convert potential customers into actual buyers.

Publishers benefit from native ads that are relevant and valuable to their user base. As our SEO in 2013 infographic details, frequency of new content is essential for brands to reach their SEO goals. Most publishers have little issue with posting sponsored content on their sites, provided it offers a value to their readers and is differentiated from editorial content.

While native ads help publishers generate some much-needed online ad dollars, advertisers are left with campaigns that are often difficult to measure, particularly with respect to moving product and securing new customers. Until marketers can consistently produce results and generate leads, native advertising risks becoming another overhyped marketing trend.

In my next post I will discuss some of the best practices for native advertising.

Is native advertising something you and your company plan on investing in 2013? Tweet us at @MediaWhizInc to discuss.

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Content marketing isn’t a new or cutting-edge digital marketing practice. But it has evolved into a vital piece of the online marketing puzzle and is capable of impacting other marketing channels, especially SEO.

In today’s arena of social influence on both humans and search engines, developing and promoting content with real value is paramount to success of any digital strategy. For content to generate revenue, it must provide a value to consumer and engage them in conversations.

There are several best practices you should use when creating new content to leverage its potential as a driver of customer acquisition and a catalyst to organic search success.

Step 1: Define the Target Audience

In order to effectively communicate with consumers, it’s important to understand what they are looking for and what is compelling to them. The first step in content development is to perform some consumer research to identify the customer segment the content is targeted to and how it will best be engaged based on its buying patterns. Sites such as MarketResearch.com are a great resource for defining your target audience.

Step 2: Choose the Right Topic

Once the target audience has been identified it’s important to choose a topic that it cares about. It’s no longer enough for consumers to simply find content; they must engage with it. By choosing topics relevant to your customer’s needs and wants they will be far more likely to promote the content on behalf of your brand.

There are a number of tools that can be leveraged for topic ideas, including keyword suggestion tools and Q&A websites. Keyword suggestion tools, such as the Google AdWords Keyword Tool and Wordtracker, provide a list of queries people are actually searching around a specific topic. Look for search queries with high demand and incorporate them into the content.

Similarly, Q&A sites such as Yahoo Answers and Answers.com, are good places to research the types of questions people are asking around a particular topic. Look for popular questions around the products or services your brand is trying to promote and create content that answers those questions. Accurately answering consumers’ questions builds will build trust for your brand. It increases the likelihood that current and potential customers will engage with your content through commenting and social sharing, which will enhance the SEO value of your content.

It’s also important to choose a topic relevant to your brand. Instead of being a Jack of all trades, position your brand as the authority on the specific product or service you offer. This will ensure proper audience targeting and give search engines direction on the type of search phrases your website should be ranking for. For example, brands that offer health care products or services should not write about finance and vice versa.

Step 3: Incentivize Sharing

In order for your content to be shared readers must have a reason for sharing it.

Targeting the right audience and choosing the right topic are the first steps in encouraging sharing. It’s also important for your content to address the “why” rather than the “what.” This will illustrate how the content or the product being promoted will actually help your target audience. If consumers understand how they can be helped by your content they are more likely t to help their friends as well, thus leading to social sharing and improving the lead-generation opportunities from your content marketing.

It’s important to facilitate this social sharing for your readers. Placing social-sharing buttons, such as the Facebook Like button, Twitter Tweet button and Google +1 button, allows people to share your content with their social communities with a single click. Ensure these buttons are placed in a prominent location on the page, such as directly below the headline.

Step 4: Leverage Influential Authors

Invite authors with existing authority on the topic to provide content to your site. This can come in the form of a guest blog post, a video or email interview, podcast or any number of contributed pieces. The point is to leverage the authority of influencers within your industry in order to build credulity and authority of your content.

Leveraging the authority of industry influences in your content marketing will add trust value to the content and increase its promotion. Industry influencers often have an influential base of social media followers, leading to more social sharing and potential customers.

Relevant authors can be identified by searching the topics in Google+, Twitter and search engines and looking for writers that rank high in the results. Observe the volume of Twitter followers they have and Google+ circles they are included in to see who is the most popular.

Properly mark-up posts written by guest authors with rel=author tags to credit them for the content and leverage their authority.

What are some other best practices you have observed for content marketing success?

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Yesterday’s announcement by Facebook of its revolutionary new form of search — called Graph Search — has set the online marketing world abuzz with chatter about its impact on search. More specifically, whether Facebook will finally become the Google killer that so many have predicted it will.

While it’s unlikely that Graph Search will ever become a Google killer, the reality is that Facebook has just become a major player in the multi-billion-dollar search business. More importantly to brands and marketers, Facebook offers a bevy of new search and online advertising options that simply aren’t available with Google’s robust but often rudimentary search platform.

In short, Facebook’s Graph Search is just the latest milestone in an ongoing trend of the Web becoming more social. It’s the first true iteration of the social-search era that we at MediaWhiz colleagues previously predicted would come to fruition.

Let’s examine what the news means for the three parties most significantly impacted by the launch of Graph Search: marketers, brands and Facebook itself.

Facebook Graph Search

Implications for Marketers
For digital marketers, Graph Search means that a strong focus must continue to be placed on building and maintaining a sustained and proactive social presence, both for brands and individuals associated with those brands. This is especially true because Graph Search does not return results external to Facebook. Graph Search allows users to find people, photos, places and interests. The most immediate and impactful opportunity is marketing for local businesses so that consumers using Graph Search can easily find a business when looking for places relevant to its products or services.

Some tips for leveraging Graph Search for local business include optimizing the name, category, vanity URL and “About” section of a Facebook business page much like a webpage would be optimized for traditional organic search. This will help consumers find the business through Graph Search.

Implications for Brands and Facebook
Facebook’s Graph Search presents a huge opportunity to both advertisers and Facebook. Traditional Facebook advertising has essentially been a form of display advertising. It has served users ads based on their demographics, likes and the content they click on. This is a passive type of advertising. It tells users that because they like X, they may like Y even though they are not actively looking for Y.

The potential for brands advertising on Facebook that Graph Search offers is that ads can be served to users based on what they are actively looking for. This is more similar to paid search advertising than display advertising.

Facebook now has the ability to allow advertisers to show ads to users searching for products or services by bidding on various keywords related to those products or services. This benefits Facebook through additional ad revenue based on higher click through rates and benefits advertisers by targeting users with more intent to buy.

Facebook’s Graph Search is in Beta and will slowly rollout to users over the coming weeks. MediaWhiz will continue to evaluate the implications and opportunities for brands and keep you updated. Welcome to the social-search era!

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There’s no doubt that performance marketing is a significant force in online marketing, and will continue to grow. What will 2013 have in store for the performance marketing industry?  As I see it, there are four key trends that will influence performance marketers’ work in the new year:

1. More brands will invest in performance marketing. The 2012 IAB Internet Advertising Revenue Report indicates that more than two-thirds of all marketing transactions will be paid for on a performance basis. Total U.S. spend on performance marketing will grow by almost $5 billion, to $25 billion in online advertising revenue, versus 2011 spend. This indicates that performance marketing will continue to dominate the online ad-spend model. Brands that consistently miss their online marketing ROI targets will comprise the majority of new spend on performance marketing campaigns, as they seek to take advantage of the industry’s guaranteed results. Traditional agencies will continue to focus on branding for their clients in the digital space, and farm out performance marketing budgets to trusted affiliate networks and marketers.

2.  Lead quality and compliance take center stage. As brands continue to invest their marketing dollars in performance marketing, they will place increasing pressure on performance marketers to achieve their investment goals. The SaaS and lead quality product market will blossom. These two dynamic sectors of online markets will help advertisers pay for only top-quality leads, enabling performance marketers to get paid appropriately for such quality. The government will continue to get involved in online marketing regulations, such as Do Not Track legislation, and more states will attempt to pass nexus tax laws. Efforts will likely be minimally intrusive, and the industry will push for self-regulation efforts as a means to limit involvement.

3. Mobile lead-gen has its moment in the sun. Mobile marketing will become a much larger piece of the advertising budget in 2013. eMarketer forecasts 138 million smartphone users in the U.S. next year, comprising 43% of the total population. It will be critical for advertisers to optimize websites and create shorter lead-generation forms with click-to-call for mobile devices. In our “always on” world, consumers need instant gratification from the brands they allow into their online world. Advertisers that provide consumers with access to immediate customer service will win their business.

4. Consolidation of media channels. A larger premium will be placed on internal media sources to provide quality and consistency. As such, the lead-generation industry will see a continued and more aggressive consolidation of affiliate networks. Many affiliates will merge with or acquire one or more of their affiliate media sources. Specifically, many mailers and media buyers will join forces with networks to increase margin, reduce compliance risk and deliver on allocated budget to survive and create a competitive advantage.

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Welcome to The Friday Five, curated reads about marketing, advertising and digital media from the team at @MediaWhizLLC. Read previous Friday Five posts here. 

The New Algorithm of Web Marketing | The New York Times
In digital advertising, that formula is being increasingly tested by fast-paced, algorithmic bidding systems that target individual consumers rather than the aggregate audience publishers serve up. In the world of “programmatic buying” technologies, context matters less than tracking those consumers wherever they go.

The Original Social Networker? Your Insurance Agent | Advertising Age
Here’s an interesting thought: your insurance agent may be the most natural social networker you know. Why not? As this Advertising Age op-ed notes, insurance agents were educating clients, investing in long-term relationships and growing their businesses through word-of-mouth referrals long before social, mobile and digital technologies existed.

Online Marketing At The Crossroads Of Nature And Nurture | CMO.com
I’m sure you have been a party to animated debates about nature vs. nurture in the context of psychology. But how about as it relates to customer behavior and marketing? Nature, as I understand it, is the behavior that occurs without coaching. Nurture equates to behaviors that are learned. As marketers, our work falls somewhere between these two–understanding natural shifts in consumer behavior and shaping behaviors to achieve our end goal: engaging and selling to consumers.

Facebook To Favor “Engaging” Comments | Mashable
In an effort to increase user engagement, Facebook is testing a new comments format on brand and subscriber pages, which highlights comments by popularity. “We are testing a new format for comments on Page posts,” Facebook said in a statement to Mashable. “As part of this test, the most engaging comments appear higher up. You will also be able to reply to individual comments as well as the original post.”

Ads Disguised as Content Mislead, Annoy | eMarketer
Content marketing is a hot topic among both business-to-consumer and business-to-business marketers, who are using it to generate brand awareness, create an impression of industry thought leadership and engender loyalty among current and future customers. But with the fluid nature of online ad formats and tactics, along with the ever-present problem of bad actors hoping for unearned clicks, some consumers may start pushing back at the blurry line between advertising and “real” content.

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Welcome to The Friday Five, curated reads about marketing, advertising and digital media from the team at @MediaWhizLLC. Read previous Friday Five posts here. 

Google Casts a Big Shadow on Smaller Web Sites | The New York Times
This article in The New York Times caused quite a bit of consternation among digital marketers. It reports that for many small businesses and websites that depend on their ranking in search results, Google’s secret — and frequently fluctuating — search algorithm can evoke a complex blend of admiration and fear.

In Sandy’s Wake: The Cost to Adland | Advertising Age
The effects of Hurricane Sandy will reverberate for weeks as marketers and agencies across more than a dozen states tally storm-related losses and make up for lost business days.

Is mobile-first becoming a cliché? | Mobile Marketer
Mobile-first is becoming a popular phrase that marketers have been using over the past few months. However, few have truly taken the key steps needed, and continue to see the medium as a great add-on instead of necessity.

Infographic: Purchases with a purpose | Direct Marketing News
More millennials are sticking it to the brand and favoring companies with strong environmental and ethical practices. According to The Cassandra Good Guide by The Intelligence Group, 45% of men and women between 14-to-34 years old claim that brands will need to incorporate socially and environmentally conscious practices to flourish in the future.

Social Gifting Platforms Aim to Make Gift-Giving Casual | Advertising Age
Marketers are still largely unconvinced how much social platforms (aside from Pinterest) can drive e-commerce, but now a Swedish startup and Facebook itself are trying to translate the instinct that moves people to post birthday greetings on their high school friends’ walls into the urge to buy them something.

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Programmatic buying and premium display advertising were a big a topic of discussion this week at MediaPost’s OMMA Premium Display conference. Keith Trivitt, director of marketing and communications at MediaWhiz, moderated a panel, “Battling The Transformers – Can Media Maintain Its Value Against The New Ad Machine?” which focused on the state of premium display advertising among high-end publishers.

The panel was stacked with an all-star cast of speakers, including:

• Andrew Sollinger, Managing Director, The Americas, Financial Times
• Jason Oates, President, LiveIntent
• Bill Rowley, SVP, Business Development & Publishing, Martini Media
• Kathryn Kulik, Global SVP, Media Sales, CBS Interactive
• Kristine Welker, Chief Revenue Officer, Hearst Magazines Digital Media

Key Takeaways

• Premium display advertising is clearly helping publishers and advertisers adapt to their customers’ needs.
• Programmatic buying will not be completely eliminated from a company’s budget.
• The appropriate balance must be found between publishers using programmatic buying to sell their low-end display inventory and meeting the high end of the premium online advertising market.
• According to the Andrew Sollinger, managing director, The Americas, of the Financial Times, the biggest issue for publishers will be “moving [advertisers] from programmatic to premium.”
• Although ad exchanges and networks are beneficial to high-end publishers, the best way to keep advertisers happy it to focus on what they want; and what they want is premium display advertising that is designed with value to the consumer in mind.
  

  High-end publishers and brands continue to value premium display advertising, even as the sector gets squeezed at the margins.

Here’s a recap of what was a spirited 45-minute discussion about premium display advertising.

Programmatic Buying: Friend or Foe?

While all panelists agreed that programmatic buying is an important, if not vital, aspect of the business, they differed on its impact on the value of premium display advertising. “Custom premium is here to stay,” noted the FT’s Sollinger.

Through the discussion the point being driven is that premium display advertising is focused on the consumer and provides content that both consumers and advertisers want. “Premium display starts with the consumer or it won’t work. Ad experience needs to be built around the customer,” according to Katerine Kulik, global senior vice president of media sales at CBS Interactive’.

The Reader/Viewer is King

The consumer-centric focused of publishers’ high-end premium display inventory has provided brands with a much better experience when advertising through premium display, which has led to increased demand in recent years for premium display, especially custom content.

Bill Rowley, Martini Media’s senior vice president of business development and publishing, explained the growth in demand for premium display: “[Our] customers (brands) want great ideas. Custom display is a challenge, but we are seeing more requests for it.

The Value of Premium Display Advertising

With requests for premium display growing, the big question is, How is premium display valued? Do marketers place the value? Upper management? Or is the value of premium display derived from what the market – i.e., consumers of media content – will bear?

According to Kristine Welker, chief revenue officer of Hearst Magazines Digital Media Group, “Data and technology helps put the value of premium display in focus.” The value of premium display is in the area where consumers find the most value, not the producer. By following the data, businesses can take advantage of the value their premium display advertising might offer.  

What exactly creates a value for premium display? “Scarcity creates premium,” said LiveIntent’s Jason Oates; an important point to consider as to why premium display is so valuable. For example, in the early days of premium display publishers tried to drive traffic to where they were advertising. That has become increasingly difficult with the rise of “side door” media consumption in which consumers come to content through a variety of means, primarily social media.

Hearst’s Welker described how her company was under pressure to optimize and monetize side-door traffic and how they eventually adjusted to the phenomenon. “We were under constant pressure trying to drive traffic to our sponsored areas. It wasn’t working, so we had to adjust our content to where the user wanted to be,” said Welker.

With more customers finding publishers’ content through side doors, businesses and advertisers are forced to adapt. “No matter where the user comes in you want to message them in the appropriate way. The brand message should follow them wherever they come from on the site,” said Katerine Kulik, global senior vice president of media sales at CBS Interactive.

If this panel discussion made one thing clear it is that premium display advertising is very much alive and well and has a prosperous future.

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By Peter Klein | SVP, Media Services 

Editor’s note: The following post was originally published in AdExchanger.

It’s easy to take a prominent stance against proposed “Do Not Track” legislation. Like many online marketers I don’t yearn for regulation of the industry, believing it will stunt growth and hamper innovation. However, I also believe that anti-tracking legislation will not destroy online advertising.

Despite continuing pressure by public advocacy groups and members of Congress I don’t expect the United States to adopt anti-tracking legislation or regulations for several years — if ever.

The history of success of competition and regulations against certain forms of marketing and communications is mixed. The U.S. Postal Service has been around for almost 240 years and yet it is adapting (albeit slowly) to Web-based competition. And best of luck to those who try to “unsubscribe” from receiving targeted catalogs and direct mail, despite Federal unsubscribe regulations.

The passage of regulation meant to curb online behavioral marketing will require market adjustments. We’re already seeing that on a small scale after Microsoftintroduced default DNT settings in the newest version of its Internet Explorer browser. Despite claims by some that anti-tracking legislation will mean the end of online advertising I wouldn’t start shuttering ad agency doors just yet.

After the dust around this debate settles, I predict government regulators will come to several sensible conclusions:

1. Behavioral targeting is good for the consumer. After all of the non-personally identifiable information concerns of online ad tracking are properly addressed regulators will realize that behavioral targeting provides a beneficial consumer experience.
2. It’s a Federal vs. State battle. Given that the States have final say on nexus laws for Internet taxes being collected, I’d be surprised if this didn’t become a similar type of battle as to who owns the decision on behavioral targeting. Online tax revenues for each State are at stake.
3. Lack of ability to enforce. Unlike unsubscribes from an email list, or entering a phone number on the national Do Not Call registry, it is unclear how a person can make claims of being “targeted” by online advertising if she blocks cookies in her browser. There are numerous data points collected on a consumer, and new ad-tracking technologies will emerge that may make any DNT legislation obsolete almost as soon as it is enacted. Worth considering is what will happen when the FBI or another law enforcement agency needs data to track terrorism, child pornography or DRM piracy issues.
4. Consumers have freedom of choice online. Consumers, advertisers, site owners and publishers all have the same pushback strength as the tobacco industry since billions of dollars are at stake. Somehow millions of people still smoke despite the fact that the government spends millions of dollars on graphic ads depicting black lung X-rays, people utilizing voice-box devices and Surgeon General warnings on packages. The same will prove true in behavioral marketing; it will continue regardless of government or industry regulation.

Even if the above conclusions are taken into consideration, anti-tracking legislation would impact the online marketing industry in several important, and potentially unforeseeable, ways.

First, the cost of consumer acquisition will increase. Behavioral targeting helps home in on the appropriate audience. DNT legislation will hinder marketers’ efforts to collect consumer data, resulting in a larger marketing spend by brands due to the diminished ability to optimize.

There would also be a shift in brands’ online marketing spend to social media and vertical-specific sites. Advertisers would move into vertical-specific sites and social media platforms where users’ demographic data is already registered. Consider Facebook’s nascent ad exchange that will help the social network generate revenue from retargeting users’ data.

Finally, DNT legislation would bring significant growth of the Database Management Platform (DMP) and big data market. Companies like Bluekai, Mediaplex, Bizo, Exelate and many others will be relied on heavily for the data that can legally be targeted, stored and appropriately marketed. Advertising agencies with strong technology and media-buying skills will build their own DMPs to take advantage of a sudden influx of business opportunities arising from advertisers no longer having easy access to customer data.

Anti-tracking legislation may happen but that doesn’t mean the future of online advertising is in peril. Continued innovations, a commitment to self-regulation and new technologies will ensure that a $31 billion industry retains its influence on brands’ marketing efforts and consumers’ purchasing habits.

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