ONLINE-ADS>> 1:1 marketing, PowerAgent and The Future.

Mark Dolley (mark_at_zapworks.com)
Fri, 12 Sep 97 00:01:44 -0700

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So, it looks like PowerAgent (http://www.poweragent.com) is in big
trouble and may be doomed to fail before it even gets started. It seems
they need $20 mill before next week to keep going. Now if they fail in
this way, it may be a good thing. At least then we can all blame it on
the classic start-up ailments of poor cash flow and undercapitalization.
Admittedly theirs was not the kind of undercapitalization many of us will
ever have to face (would that I had enjoyed $16 mill instead of a
half-empty coin jar to start my business). With failure now, the
principles behind the 1:1 database model would not be as sullied as with
a post-launch bankruptcy.

In any case, I feel the PowerAgent saga raises a few issues that deserve
the list's consideration:

How much value does 1:1 database ad serving bring? How much better is it
than the really intelligent use of context with content backed up by
anonymous reader surveys?

Would you want to advertise to the kind of person who signs up for less
than $10 a month to see your ads? (Although I know this question does not
apply exclusively to PowerAgent.)

How would publishers react to having the effectiveness of their own
advertising diminished? (Their content would appear under PowerAgent's
permanent banner window, situated above the browser.) Could we expect
publishers to react in the same way as they reacted to TotalNews? (Which
put other people's content in their own ad-filled frameset until the
litigation struck). I see PowerAgent as not a lot more than a very
ambitious TotalNews - more like a TotalWeb.

How long can we reasonably expect the bandwidth to stay slow enough for
the "while you wait" technologies to enjoy a market?

Finally, would the demise of PowerAgent spell the end of venture capital
for "Field of Dreams" online advertising startups ("Build it and they
will come")?

Mark Dolley, zapworks! | vox:(+1) 415 551 1800
=
http://www.zapworks.com | fax:(+1) 415 431 3084

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