Re: Interesting Twist to BANNER ADVERTISING

From: Hugh Smith <hbsmith_at_intecnet.net>
Date: Wed 29 Dec 1999 08:11:47 -0600

FRED WROTE:
> You may remember my comments recently about a "Robot
> that Clicks" on banner ads for you. Well, during that
> development we've come upon another interesting bit of
> coding genious that we just had to jump on right away.
> I'm posting it here to see if anyone on this list
> thinks it's interesting or worth the trouble to code.

As a former owner of a small regional advertising
agency, I agree with your premise that local businesses
are being underserved by the Internet's potential.

Your idea to pre-empt national banner ads and replace
them with local ads is creative, but I am not sure
legal. Typically, someone is paying to have their ads
displayed. If an ad agency, for example, billed a
client for an ad that was not actually displayed, could
your actions be construed as a theft of service? I
don't know; I'm not a lawyer or expert on the net. But,
if it was me, I'd want to be very certain before I
engaged in this activity.

As many on this list will attest, broadcasting networks
usually have "mandatory-carry" and "optional-carry"
commercial breaks. Local stations (and cable operators)
may cover the network spots on an "optional-carry"
break. If a local station or cable operator has not
sold the time for a local commercial spot, they will
often insert promo's, psa's or allow the network spots
to air. The viewer or listener is normally none the
wiser.

Yes, movie theaters are selling more and more local
advertising. There is no pre-emption here as far as I
know. The ads merely add to the time you must wait for
your movie to begin.

Fred, don't give up. You have identified a major
internet challenge and you could become filthy rich if
you find a solution. Ultimately, I believe, the answer
will be a "marker" that identifies a browser's
geographic location, perhaps applied by the ISP. Such a
refinement may not be too far into the future if
governments are successful in taxing internet commerce
(Heaven forbid!).

Good luck!

Hugh Smith
St Louis, MO
http://global.mycomputerbiz.com/store







Received on Wed Dec 29 1999 - 08:11:47 CST