Steve Smith at Behavioral Insider recently completed an interview with David Hallerman from eMarketer.

http://publications.mediapost.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=Articles.showEdition&art_send_date=2006-04-28&art_type=31

One question & answer especially interested me:

Smith: How about the client education piece of BT? Does that continue to be an issue, just getting them past what some consider the creepiness of it?

Hallerman: And that is a key roadblock, those privacy issues that may be concerns more than actual facts in most cases. But still, they need to be addressed. It’s one area where the publishers too can help. They want to be able to sell their lesser inventory with [BT], and they need to take part. I think that’s also something that is being understood more. As behavioral is done more, and there is the lack of push back from consumers, it helps advertisers realize that it isn’t necessarily invasive.

I (& all consumers) expect more! If users have privacy concerns they are privacy issues. Publishers are no longer in control, users are! (Esther Dyson)

That is why at mSpoke we empower the user to make media relevant in a transparent way:

1. Users actually explicitly log-in to the system.
2. They are able to see the memes (algorithms representing preferences) our system is learning about them.
3. They are empowered to adjust those memes if they choose to.

For more information on mSpoke, view our site at – www.mspoke.com or email me sean@profitablesignals.com

Customers creating advertising for products they love have been around for some time now. When George Master’s created the Apple iPod video it was covered in Wired Magazine http://www.wired.com/news/mac/0,2125,66001,00.html

Recently, Fred Wilson reviewed advertising created for Firefox.

http://avc.blogs.com/a_vc/2006/04/letting_the_cus.html

In George Master’s case, I know Apple has not actively encouraged him to create this ad. He did it based on passion associated with the brand. In the Firefox case they are certainly encouraging it.

In both cases it is a technology product and seems natural. It certainly back fired when GM tried to mobilize their users like Firefox

http://www.webpronews.com/topnews/topnews/wpn-60-20060404GMUserCreatedAdContestBackfires.html

This has been a great reminder to me about marketing (user created or otherwise) needing to start with a remarkable product. User Generated Advertising just exposes the dependence on great products.

Clay Christensen has a concept he calls “disruptive innovations.” The concept is that start-ups are able to introduce new offerings by focusing on markets that established companies don’t care about. The dominant companies often ignore these new offerings (or disruptive innovations) because they don’t interest their mainstream customers.

This is a great summary from the market’s perspective. However, from the entrepreneur’s perspective, this often means spending your time evangelizing the benefits of the new approach or capabilities your solution offers.

As I mentioned in my previous (and first J) post, I just am returning from ad:tech. On Thursday night, I attended the RSS Industry Roundtable. It was a great evening after the largest ad:tech yet (9,000 attendees & 300 exhibitors.)

The 40 attendees of the RSS Industry Roundtable were primarily entrepreneurs & new media people who had just finished attending ad:tech. In Pittsburgh, I rarely get the opportunity to interact with that many entrepreneurs in a networking setting. Reflecting back on the event, it hit me what I liked most about the group. It was a group of people who are used to ignoring the wisdom of an established market. Therefore, the discussion was lively & thought provocative.

I’m in route home from San Francisco on the red-eye after a very exciting week at ad:tech 2006. (http:// www.adtechblog.com/) As I sit at 30,000 feet heading home I was thinking about my first post. As I started to write, I realized first I ought to explain why I want to start blogging.

According to Technorati, there are over 30 millions blogs today & the number is doubling every 5 – 6 months. I’m not how many original thoughts I’ll have to contribute to the online community, but I do want to be part of the conversation.

This is definitely an experiment, we’ll see how it goes. Like all good experiments let me state my hypothesis up-front “it will be valuable professionally & personally to blog.” If it doesn’t play out this way I’ll probably stop. I certainly have too much on my plate as it is.

However, while I don’t know I’ll have hard metrics to measure the professional or personal impact. I do know I’ve met too many bloggers over the last 6 months who have told me as much.

I’m looking forward to the experiment & optimistic about great results. With out further ado … profitable signals.