S	M	T	W	T	F	S
1	2	3	4	5	6	7
8	9	10	11	12	13	14
15	16	17	18	19	20	21
22	23	24	25	26	27	28
29	30

Subscribe
Get the next ClickZ Today newsletter delivered to your inbox!

October 15, 2009

Voters Say Some Web Formats Don't Work, but Expect Candidates to Use Anyway

What's the best way for political campaigns to attract voters online? It may seem like a no-brainer at this point, but the official campaign Web site beat out other online formats and platforms as the best way for candidates to get voters' attention online, according to a just-released E-Voter Institute study.

Compared to Web ads, social sites, viral video and Twitter, the campaign site was deemed the most appealing online tool, says the "Persuading and Motivating Voters: What Will It Take in 2010?" report, published today.

The official site was considered the best ways to get attention by 54 percent of ultra liberals, 59 percent of somewhat liberals, moderates, and somewhat conservatives (referred to as moderates from here on out), and 58 percent of dyed-in-the-wool conservatives. Respondents could choose more than option.

That's pretty close to traditional platforms of TV/cable advertising and debates. TV ads were considered attention-grabbing by 59 percent of liberals, 65 percent of moderates, and 63 percent of conservatives. Debates: 56 percent, 59 percent, 60 percent, respectively.

Here's the breakdown for other online formats:
Social networking sites - L: 41 percent M: 28 percent C: 19 percent
Online ads - L: 39 percent M: 34 percent C: 28 percent
Viral video about a candidate - L: 28 percent M: 14 percent C: 13 percent
Twitter - L: 25 percent M: 17 percent C: 9 percent

The disparity between the "very liberals" and the "very conservatives" on most of these formats is striking. Even in the cases of social sites, viral video, and Twitter, moderates seem far less impressed by these formats than liberals.

Although a significant portion of survey respondents didn't think some online formats would get their attention, many still expected the candidates to use them. Eighty-five percent said they expect candidates to have Web sites, 60 percent expect online ads, 56 percent expect Web video on other sites, 49 percent expect social sites, and 42 percent expect Twitter.

Check out the full report, including methodology, here.

Posted by Kate Kaye at 4:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Malicious Banners: What's Old Is New Again

The recent alarm about malicious display ads began slowly, but has rapidly gained steam.

First The New York Times was duped by a "rogue" ad buyer (a security software company) that posed as a legitimate marketer (Vonage) to sneak some spammy, deceptive ads onto NYTimes.com. Then Microsoft filed five lawsuits against so-called malvertisers. This week, Starcom Mediavest Group and some of its sister agencies at Publicis started warning publishers of the risks and insisting ad sellers take steps to verify their insertion orders.

Said a Starcom rep: "It serves as an alert to our media partners who work with us to protect client investments, and it asks for their collaboration as we secure insertion orders and ad placements."

In a semi-related development, research Ben Edelman described finding some second and third tier publishers were serving loads of ads into invisible iframes -- a practice belligerent toward ad buyers if not toward consumers.

With all the attention being paid to the big bad wolves of the online ad market this fall, it's worth keeping in mind that malicious display advertising in one form or another has been around for years. A little walk down memory lane:

November 2004: Ad serving firm Falk became an unwitting agent of the Bofra virus, delivering the Internet Explorer exploit to users whose browsers requested ads within a certain window of time.

June 2006: Ben Edelman documents how a handful of lesser-known ad networks cause pornographic pop-ups to appear in odd places -- like, for instance, AOL's sign-up page.

June 2007: Finjan Malicious Code Research Center publishes a study finding cyber-criminals have begun using affiliate ad networks to infect computers with keystroke loggers, bot net software, and other malicious code.

September 2007: Ad exchange Right Media is used to spread a virus.

That's not to say the digital marketing community should be unconcerned. Safeguards such as those being taken by Publicis-owned agencies are an important step, and a sign of maturity for an industry inclined to quickly forget yesterday's screw-ups.

Incidentally, before this morning I had yet to see a malicious banner ad in action. Thanks to a new report and video from Anchor Intelligence, that's no longer true. The below clip shows the dirty deed. It's probably the closest thing this sector will ever have to a crime reality show.

Posted by Zachary Rodgers at 7:49 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

See More Posts From:

Today | This Week | This Month