The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) and the Privacy Leadership Initiative (PLI) today launched a new public service advertising (PSA) campaign aimed at informing consumers how they can gain
greater confidence in maintaining their online privacy. IAB member companies have committed ad avails worth more than $13 million to the campaign.
The ad campaign focuses on presenting a series of
"tips" that will help consumers greatly increase control of their online privacy. Research conducted by Harris Interactive for PLI found that consumers
believe it is their responsibility to protect their privacy but often do not know how. In addition, the Harris Interactive research indicated that almost half of consumers found that the risk of
identity theft outweighed the benefits of the Internet. The ads focus on the importance of choosing and protecting unique passwords, safeguarding an individual's Social Security number and ensuring a
secure online connection with encryption before providing credit card information.
IAB President & CEO Robin Webster said consumers are "concerned about receiving information about how to meet
their individual privacy needs, and we believe this campaign will help address their needs." According to the IAB, more than 70% of the nation's Internet consumers will be reached in this campaign,
and a total of 538.6 million impressions with a value of nearly $13.5 million have been committed over the next 12 months.
A new interactive advertising format developed by Netomat, an
interactive software development company, will be used to launch the privacy campaign on the Internet. The new ads are offered in the skyscraper (120 x 660) and large rectangle (300 x 250) IMUs, using
a graphic design of a keyhole through which one can view various letters. When the user clicks on a letter, the privacy tip is displayed within the keyhole. For example, the letter "P" will lead to a
tip about passwords and "C" is used to teach consumers how to protect one's privacy in a chat room. These new rich media ads will run on three IAB-member sites: About, iVillage and TerraLycos. They
can be viewed on http://www.understandingprivacy.org/keyhole1 and http://www.understandingprivacy.org/keyhole2.
In addition to the new Netomat ad format, banner ads and IMUs will be launched simultaneously
over IAB-member sites including About, America Online, Cars.com, CMP Media Inc. (TechWeb), CNET Networks Inc., Discovery.com, Forbes.com, iVillage, iWon, Monster.com, NetZero, New York Times Digital,
Snowball.com, SportsLine.com, TerraLycos Inc., Travelocity, USATODAY.com, Vindigo Inc., Wall Street Journal Online, Weather.com, Yahoo! and Ziff Davis Internet as well as sites represented by ad
networks 24/7 Media, L90, Lightningcast and DoubleClick.
A total of 7 ads have been created for the launch and new
executions will be developed over the next few months.
According to PLI Director David Klaus, the campaign starts with the online world but will expand over time to new initiatives to aid consumers
in both the online and offline world.