Does behavioral advertising actually bring in significantly more revenue for publishers than contextual advertising? That question, hotly debated by privacy advocates, academics, publishers and advertisers, was a central theme at the Federal Trade Commission’s day-long workshop about the...
adexchanger.com
As much as adexchanger wants it to be, the topic of behavioral versus contextual was not a central theme of this workshop. This article was a great summary of literally the last panel from a very sad 8 hour session of speakers primarily advocating for a stricter COPPA. Contextual is as good as Behavioral? Please, Kate O'Loughlin - that statement comes from a huge bias, a bias that the company that she works for was founded on and that they sell to their advertisers (who are terrified of COPPA). Look at your own data guys - ads which are behaviorally targeted are more effective than ads that are contextually targeted. It is science, and Harry Jho (Mother Goose Club) was speaking from experience. The FTC designed this workshop to jump topics so many times that nobody really could form any kind of conclusion (government-style), and the moderators intervened more often than not to defer to a speaker who had a strong position on privacy versus someone from the private sector (from the few who were actually on the panels). Harry Jho made it clear several times that his company doesn't have any intent on doing horrible things with children's data, and that they would be satisfied with high-level non-identifying information to help advertisers and to stay afloat. I've got kids guys, and I have to say that I've never really been offended if an ad for pokemon came up because they understood that my child liked pokemon. It is ultimately my decision to tell them that they are or are not getting it for Christmas. If cigarette ads were coming up, that'd be a scarier conversation, and they probably will be coming with all of the scrambling that is going to happen due to these changes. I've worked in digital marketing for many years, have collaborated with many of the scary big data companies that everyone talks about, used CRM's and marketing automation platforms, etc. I have first-hand knowledge of and understand the extent in which the data is used. Rovio isn't pulling up in white vans and pulling kids off of the street with this data (one of the original reasons for COPPA), and if my kids aren't going to want the new toy from the behaviorally targeted ad, they are going to want the one from the TV ad. Stripping away our livelihoods isn't going to prevent kids and their immature prefrontal cortexes from being manipulated by advertisements. Katharina Kopp thinks that she is saving the day when in reality, kids are still affected. Julia Tama was on point with pointing out her bias. Katharina would probably prefer that nobody owned a TV and that children played with wooden toys in their window-less basements. Choose a new niche - these people aren't going away. It'll get worse, I promise, and they'll come for the other platforms that you guys are talking about. FTC made that clear, and just doubled their budget. I would advise that you convert your channel to 13+ content with an exit plan to move to a non-kid focused niche. Do it before the reality of January hits you.