IN THE PAPERS: Digital pirates and gongs for media
Highlights from today’s media sections
Digital theft: Media agencies have hit on a neat scheme for grabbing high value digital eyeballs on the cheap, reports Lara Sinclair. She reveals that agencies take out a small ad on a premium web site – where the cost of targeting 1000 high value users could be around $50 dollars. The ad tags the visitor with a cookie which labels them as a high value visitor. Then when they visit a run-of-the-mill sit, the cookie identifies them and they can be served ads at a fraction of the price.
And media agencies are making no secret of it. Says Leigh Terry of OMD:
I think this is a great idea. Why didn’t I think of this. If the sites are worried about losing revenue then they need to think of new ways to make money besides display ads.
So suddenly the smart use of technology to do behavioural targeting is “theft” ? Are you kidding ? So does that mean anyone showing a URL at the end of a TV ad is “stealing” channel 9’s audience ?
Looks like it’s time for the publishers to become a little smarter with their business models or join the music industry in the “we’ll just sue people until we get our old world back” space.