One year after issuing the first Terms & Conditions for Internet Advertising, the American Association of Advertising Agencies (AAAA) and the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) today issued an updated, more comprehensive Version 2.0. Version 2.0 includes two key elements not addressed in last year's rendition: the first relates to third party ad-serving parameters; the second covers liability limitations. Agencies now have common language relating to their use of ad-serving solutions, and publishers have a clearer definition of liability coverage. Version 2.0 also provides more thorough definitions of terms and of agency and publisher obligations. The most notable modifications are related to notification, reporting, and billing procedures; make-good definitions; publisher rejection of ad materials; and indemnification. According to the announcement, like its predecessor, the new document is a collaborative effort by agencies and publishers designed to identify and address key issues facing today's Internet advertising industry. It is designed to improve efficiency and increase profitability for all parties involved in the buying and selling of advertising on the World Wide Web. The joint task force for Version 2.0 Ts&Cs negotiations included both IAB and AAAA members. It was co-chaired by Susan Berg of the Walt Disney Internet Group and Jeff Weitzman of Yahoo! representing the IAB, and Adam Gerber of The Digital Edge representing the AAAA. In a joint statement, they noted: "We have achieved our overriding objectives-to streamline operations and negotiations by addressing potential business issues facing publishers and agencies and provide the industry with a uniform document to use as a basis for agreements. The new Version 2.0 Ts&Cs reflect the state of the industry today and a greater understanding, on the part of agencies and publishers, of each other's businesses and business objectives. In effect, we have formalized the way many agencies and publishers are already doing business. As the industry progresses, so will these Ts&Cs, and we will continue to meet regularly to keep in step with this evolution." The Ts&Cs are voluntary and are posted on both organizations' websites (www.iab.net and www.aaaa.org). Both the AAAA and the IAB said they will continue to urge their members and media companies who agree to the Terms and Conditions to attach them to future insertion orders. IAB member companies that participated in the development of the Terms & Conditions included AOL, CNET Networks, Inc., Walt Disney Internet Group, DoubleClick, Terra Lycos, and Yahoo! Participating AAAA member agencies included Foote, Cone & Belding, Modem Media, OgilvyOne and The Digital Edge.
Hundreds of Internet radio stations and channels across America are planning to shut off their music streams on Wednesday, May 1st, in a "Day of Silence" to highlight their concern over the upcoming U.S. Copyright Office ruling on royalty rates that may shut down or bankrupt the vast majority of the nascent Internet radio industry. Under the terms of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), the Librarian of Congress is required to set "sound recordings performance royalty" rates for Internet radio stations by May 21st -- and a Copyright Royalty Arbitration Panel (CARP) working for that office has recommended a rate of $.0014 per listener per song (or $.0007 for broadcast simulcasts). Many webcasters say the proposed royalty rate is the equivalent of 200% or more of their revenues. By crying 'Mayday! Mayday!' on Wednesday, webcasters are hoping that listeners will take the time to contact their representatives in Washington and ask those representatives to express their concerns to the Librarian of Congress, delivering the message that "the legislative intent of a statutory royalty rate was supposed to be to encourage the growth and diversity of the industry, not to kill it." "The proposed fees would definitely put us out of business," said Bill Goldsmith, the owner of popular Paradise, California based adult rock station RadioParadise. "If that happens, everyone loses: our listeners, the artists we play, and the record labels themselves. We'd see two years of hard work and sacrifice go right down the drain." The RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America), which lobbied Congress for royalty payments in the first place, has denied that the CARP's recommended royalty rate will cause significant harm to the Internet radio industry, arguing that the industry is "crying wolf." But Beethoven.com's Kevin Shively disagrees. "Here's an example of how the CARP-recommended rate would affect webcasters,” he offered. “For eight of the larger independent webcasters -- Beethoven, Digitally Imported, Radioio, Radio Paradise, SomaFM, 3WK, Wolf FM, and Ultimate-80s -- we calculated that our total hours streamed last year were 40 million hours and our combined revenues were $93,000. But according to the CARP panel's recommended royalty rate, we'd owe a royalty to the RIAA for the same period of $710,000!" Goldsmith added, "If you do the math, you'll see that not one webcaster -- large or small -- can cover these fees with their present levels of income." On Monday, a letter signed by 20 key members of the US House of Representatives was sent to the Librarian of Congress, expressing concern that the CARP proposal for webcasters is "both contrary to the intent of the DMCA and Congress's general policy not to stifle innovation on the Internet." Both the Los Angeles Times and the San Jose Mercury News have issued stinging editorials rejecting the proposal and urging the Register of Copyrights to adopt a more reasonable approach, with the Mercury News suggesting that if the Copyright Office doesn't lower the rate, Congress should eliminate the royalty entirely. On May 1st, webcast listeners will be encouraged to call or write their state's two Senators and their district's Congressman, asking them to add their voice to the effort to set a royalty rate that will not destroy this nascent industry. Banner ads and PSAs will be available to all participating stations, and SaveInternetRadio.org will be redesigned to specifically focus on the day's event. "Whether their trade association, the RIAA, realizes is or not, killing Internet radio is NOT in the best interests of record companies," argues Kurt Hanson, publisher of "RAIN: Radio And Internet Newsletter" and one of the organizers of the "Day of Silence" event. "Internet radio is giving great exposure to dozens of genres and thousands of artists who currently don't get airplay on AM and FM radio stations." Participating Webcasters Most webcasters are planning the May 1st "Day of Silence" to begin at dawn in their time zone and end in late evening. Some webcasters plan to go entirely silent, while others plan to replace their music streams with periods of silence interspersed with public service announcements on the subject. (Some webcasters plan to broadcast, on at least one of their channels, an all-day talk show on the issues involved produced by WOLF FM's Steve Wolf.) Webcasters that will be participating in the "Day of Silence" include the majority of the top-rated independent webcasters, including AllDanzRadio (various formats), Choice Radio (various formats), ChronixRadio (rock), ClevelandHits.com (CHR), CyberRadio2000 (various formats), Digitally Imported (various forms of electronica), HardRadio (rock), iNetProgramming (bluegrass and other formats), Internet Radio Hawai'i (Hawaiian music), KING-FM/Seattle (classical), KPIG/Freedom, CA (Americana), M4Radio (indie rock), Mostly Classical (classical), Radio Paradise (AAA), Radioio (AAA) and RAIN Radio (several formats). Other webcasters planning to participate include SomaFM (electronica), 3WK (alternative), TwangTownUSA (country), Twangcast (country), Ultimate-80s (Eighties), Village Voice Radio (eclectic), WCSB/Cleveland (various), WICB-FM (Ithica College), and WOLF FM (70s-80s-90s). Webcasters who may not go silent but who plan to support the effort with heavy schedules of PSAs (that will include a moment of silence -- e.g., "Here's what Internet radio may sound like on May 22nd...") include Beethoven.com (classical), Live365.com (various formats), ClassicalMusicDetroit (classical), Radio Free Virgin (various formats), Shoutcast (various formats), Winamp Radio (various formats), and several other college and noncommercial webcasters. Some major terrestrial broadcasters (many of which stream simulcasts of their broadcast stations on the Internet) also plan to support the effort with either silenced streams or a combination of banner ads, public service announcements, information on their websites, including major broadcast groups Susquehanna Radio Corp. and Cox Radio. Additional webcasters who have committed to be part of the "Day of Silence" include Audiocandy.com (legal downloads), BumpNgrind Radio, Daily Dementia Overdose (punk/hardcore), Destination Doo-Wop (doo-wop), TheDownbeat (downtempo), Flaresound (deep house), Green Mist Radio (Celtic/folk), HitzRadio (CHR), KCRW/Santa Monica (NPR), KOZT/Mendocino County (adult rock), KUSA Radio ("spanning a century of American music"), KTRU/Rice University, RadioMaxMusic (various formats),. Rave Network (electronica), Red White & Blue Radio (Americana & country), Reign Radio (Christian hard rock), SmoothJazz.com (jazz), The70sStation ('70s), Stanford University streaming media, WebRadioPugetSound (various formats), WETD/Alfred State College, WFMU/Jersey City, NJ (the longest-running freeform radio station in the US), WMVY-FM/Martha's Vineyard (progressive), WSIA-FM/Staten Island (CUNY), World Music Webcast (world music), and Zoetek World Radio (world music).
VISA entered the online advertising game for an entirely different reason than most traditional companies—to focus on the transactional side of e-commerce. Credit cards or “plastic” remain the only way consumers can pay for products or services online. It only made sense, then, that VISA associate itself with major e-commerce sites across all e-commerce channels, including apparel, books, CDs, toys, travel. . . the list goes on. The company built relationships with these sites by offering itself as the “preferred card” for online consumers. Recently, however, the company has slightly shifted its online strategy. Whereas before VISA might have wanted consumers to click on a banner ad to learn more about how they could use their credit card to purchase products or services online, today the company also wants to utilize the Internet as simply another advertising medium to enhance its VISA brand. Today, when company officials talk about e-commerce, they also talk about advertising campaigns such as “Verified by VISA”, which speak to consumers who are either hesitant to shop online for fear of having their credit card information stolen, or shop online but only at three or four “trusted” merchants. “Brand has always been important to VISA, but it’s just now that we’re learning how to use online for branding purposes,” says Jon Raj, the company’s director of advertising. “Now we’re focused on building the brand and building the business. These are the two hallmarks of our online efforts.” The company only recently started capitalizing on larger ad units (skyscrapers) and rich media for its branding campaigns. For example, when the “Verified by VISA” campaign launched last December, VISA used Eyeblaster, Flash and PointRoll to demonstrate the value of its program. These technologies enabled them to vividly explain in a limited space how the program opens up a new world for consumers who were previously hesitant to use their credit cards online. “The more info we can get to the consumer without forcing them to leave their destination site, the more successful we become,” explains Raj. “Our objective isn't to disrupt a user's experience but rather to enhance it. We are confident that along with our television and print executions, we will be successful in raising awareness of our brand.” A more recent branding campaign focused on the Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, Utah. The company wanted to be able to utilize large ad units (skyscrapers, etc...) that were rich-media enabled to “really showcase the excitement of the Olympic Games and VISA's involvement. “It wasn’t about getting the most numbers of impressions, but rather about getting our message out there in a way that really had an impact with consumers,” explain Raj. Between now and the end of May, VISA will capitalize on the popularity of the television show “Survivor” by featuring each week the one “survivor” who gets booted off the island. Consumers who use their VISA card at participating online merchants are automatically entered to win “immunity” from their purchase amounts, plus $5,000. A new winner will be chosen for every week of the promotion. But all this is only part of the overall online strategy shift at VISA, which really came to surface last year when the company hired its current agency AKQA. “We finally came to realize that it’s best to bring both the media buy and the creative under one roof, says Raj. “Both have to work together to get the best product out there, especially in this new medium. If you really what to get the best campaigns on the best websites, you have to be willing to do new things, write a new playbook. Fortunately, a lot of the sites are willing to work with us on the next new online experiences.” Along with these branding campaigns, VISA also wants to push the envelope and experiment with different forms of technology, creative and media. Raj explains that by using all a variety of media, VISA can really catch consumers in the right frame of mind. For instance, VISA has found that sports fans are not only naturally passionate consumers, but they spend a lot of time online. “If you want to reach NFL fans, you go where they live. We’ll by advertising space at football stadiums and on NFL telecasts. We’ll sponsor a Fantasy Football game online. Our commitment to use integrated campaigns, advertising, event marketing, promotions, direct mail, PR and online advertising to generate brand awareness is because it creates relevance to our consumers,” says Raj. How does VISA go about measuring brand awareness? For openers, company executives no longer look at just click-throughs, but rather at the association between the VISA brand and the company’s objectives. “Too many companies make the mistake of measuring anything that’s measurable—the click-through or the cost-per-click—whether or not it’s even relevant. We’ve done ad recall testing, pre- post-surveys, as well as test-control research to see if we've moved the needle,” says Raj. “We’ve used third-party research companies with the sole objective of increasing consumers’ association and preference for using VISA. What we're finding is that we're increasing preference for our brand by advertising online.” Even in the so-called good old days, online advertising was the ugly stepchild to traditional advertising. Raj believes many traditional companies, like VISA, viewed online advertising as simply a direct response vehicle and not as an “viable” branding tool. It seemed back then that if we weren't measuring a click-through rate then we weren't doing our jobs. VISA, on the other hand , along with our online advertising agency, is finally writing the playbook and testing different strategies. And that's the way we're going to be successful. It's challenging, but frankly it's also quite inspiring.”