Claria strives for Web legitimacy, but doesn't have a chance
Today's New York Times has an article about Claria, who is moving beyond its Gator pop-up ad products to a new service called PersonalWeb. This new service pursues a Google-like ad model designed to garner more dollars from advertisers to target specific user interests and Web behaviors. The service requires users download a piece of tracking software and install it on their computers:
Our take: Claria's service is doomed from the get-go. In this era of Internet virus and security paranoia, the only people who will download Claria's software are those who really have no idea what they are getting into. And since the payoff is only a personalized portal -- a commodity on the Internet today dominated by giants like Yahoo, Google, and MSN -- users have little incentive to stick with the program for more than a few days.
But even worse, Claria seems to ignore the fact that consumer experiences with Gator pop-up ads have left them with a tarnished consumer brand. And while Claria has attempted to divorce PersonalWeb from its Gator history, a quick Google of PersonalWeb -- the first step for any Internet-smart consumer -- will reveal the connection. The result: it will take tens of millions of marketing dollars for Claria to repair their brand damage before anyone is likely to take their PersonalWeb bait. And given their abortive IPO last year, no one is likely to provide them with that kind of bankroll.
If a man, for example, downloaded the software and surfed through stories about the N.C.A.A. basketball tournament and car reviews, his PersonalWeb home page would reflect those interests the next time he clicked to it. In addition to showing newer headlines about cars and college basketball, the page might also feature ads from car companies or for jerseys from the man's favorite team.
Claria says that because those ads are so closely aligned to the user's interests and recent behavior, marketers will be willing to pay more than they might on other sites for the ability to reach PersonalWeb users.
Our take: Claria's service is doomed from the get-go. In this era of Internet virus and security paranoia, the only people who will download Claria's software are those who really have no idea what they are getting into. And since the payoff is only a personalized portal -- a commodity on the Internet today dominated by giants like Yahoo, Google, and MSN -- users have little incentive to stick with the program for more than a few days.
But even worse, Claria seems to ignore the fact that consumer experiences with Gator pop-up ads have left them with a tarnished consumer brand. And while Claria has attempted to divorce PersonalWeb from its Gator history, a quick Google of PersonalWeb -- the first step for any Internet-smart consumer -- will reveal the connection. The result: it will take tens of millions of marketing dollars for Claria to repair their brand damage before anyone is likely to take their PersonalWeb bait. And given their abortive IPO last year, no one is likely to provide them with that kind of bankroll.
Technorati Tags: Advertising, Business, Marketing, Web, Web advertising
posted by Carl Howe at
10:05 AM
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