Thanks to Robert Moskowitz for helping us understand Claria’s new Personal Web technology.  Moskowitz does a great job of summarizing the value proposition when he said:

“Imagine your best friend, a skilled reference librarian, watching you surf the Web and—by noting what you stop to read and what you bypass—continually offering you lots of additional, in-depth content you might not easily find on your own.”

In a world of already happy consumers who use Yahoo, Google Sidebar, ISP’s like Earthlink and a plethora of others to create personalized “home pages” that offer news and information content Claria believes they want more… they demand a more personalized experience.  Users simply aren’t happy with their “home pages” because they’re static and too difficult to update. 

As an example, says Scott Eagle, Claria’s chief marketing officer, wants his “home page” to collect email from two different providers (do people want to use a “home page” to centralize email? really?) and let him check Expedia (why not just go to Expedia?).  Eagle also wants it to reflect his current interests and offer new topics he might enjoy.  Finally, he wants the “home page” to not display content he’s no longer reading (hello… RSS!).  Finally, he says he wants manual control over all this.  Does any of this sound remotely familiar (as in, do users already have this tool)?

As I see it, there are few reasons why Claria is bound to fail.  First of all, they’re Claria and come with one heck of a tarnished image—especially in the “power user” category (people who might want to do all the nifty things his application will do).  Can MicroSoft have some kind of impact on this… and what’s in it for them now that the courtship is over?

Claria is choosing to do battle with some heavy hitters (Google, Yahoo, ISPs of all flavors, anyone employing RSS to update personalized content… which is just about everyone these days, etc.) and more importantly they’re not sure who the tool is aimed at.  I come to this conclusion based on Eagle’s comments which seem to signal both power users and dear old dial-up dad. 

The real wrench in the proverbial engine?  Privacy.  The nation is virtually burning advertisers at the stake and everyone from the FTC to Congress is heavily involved in protecting privacy.  Congress has only fueled citizen’s privacy concerns with passage of the Patriot Act and big business seems to be forever losing reems of financial data on consumers.  Identity fraud has us running scared… and along comes Claria’s success story?  Really?

Claria seeks to earn the trust of a nation that rejects even the most well-crafted, thinly disguised attempts at providing free tools or information in exchange for the opportunity to offer them “tailored advertising.” There’s always a catch and privacy concerns have never been greater.  Can a once trusted (remember the Gator wallet?) known prime offender give itself a new name and earn the trust of a privacy-centric nation?  Doubtful.  Tivo… now that is control.  Show me some commercials, please, and give me access to everything available on TV, cable and the Web—on my schedule.

Busy executives get paid to move the needle leaving very little time for experimentation… yet researching new innovations (new tools that can help us innovate) is required in order to compete.  Often, e-commerce and e-marketing teams make large investments in essential tools such as e-mail delivery systems yet only use 1/3 of their total functionality.  Why? 

Jeanniey Mullen reveals that perception is at the core… in that busy professionals choose (I suggest) to see but a handful of a tool’s total options.  These are the functions that, they believe, are essential in moving the needle (generating consideration, sales, leads); the rest are “bells and whistles.”

Is this a dangerous practice?  I suggest it may be considering the rapid pace of innovation and young, “e-savvy” entrepreneurs.

Robert Rose’s recent “predictions for e-marketing in 2006” piece is worth a read in its entirety but a few jump off the page as being remarkably insightful. 

Rose suggests…

“You have to develop a trusted relationship by providing value to the relationship before they’ve bought from you.  In 2006, savvy marketers will begin to create programs that establish that relationship.  This is primarily going to come in the form of content.  Whether it’s a how-to on using products you sell, or creating affinity based content that relates to your customer base, it will be up to the digital marketer to create independent, high-value content for their customers.”

If word-of-mouth (WOM) marketing Kingpin, Brian Clark were here he would suggest, “duh!”

My angle is to follow this brilliant prediction (which is rooted in many early signs of market shift from professional associations to mega brands active investment in WOM marketing) with a question:  “Isn’t this a big opportunity for what the world knows as ‘affiliate marketing?’ Moreover, will affiliate marketing be trumped by WOM campaigns that quite literally reach beyond the Web and take to the streets, television, radio and multi-channel marketing venues?”

Perhaps they can co-exist?  If “We’re all publishers” as Rose suggests will affiliate marketing be—just as WOM marketing is—challenged to be more transparent and less filled with tomfoolery, media arbitrage?

Rose also predicts…

“Look for turnkey and specialized suites of technology solutions to emerge for marketers to make, distribute and generate leads from this content—whether it’s content publishing systems, podcasting or webcasting.”

This suggests that current frameworks/technology platforms may be either outdated or threatened.... and ties loosely with his prediction that Google will lose market share in the contextual ad space as well as move aggressively into competing with CPM/image ad networks DoubleClick and 24/7.

In February, the CMO Council published a joint study with the Promotional Marketing Association that proclaimed a majority of marketers admit that they, themselves, do not have a “very good” level of understanding when it comes to e-marketing.  Combine this with the CMO Council’s new report suggesting that a majority of those surveyed are not “well regarded and respected.” In fact, only 10% report being viewed by executive peers as “highly influential and strategic.”

“This study confirms marketers need to move from a tactical orientation to a more analytic and strategic approach that will enable them to realign marketing initiatives with the overall corporate mission,” said Donovan Neale-May, executive director of the CMO Council.

MarketingVOX reports two-thirds of CEOs (polled in a separate survey by Chief Executive magazine) said their marketing groups are “mission critical” for creating top-line growth.  Duh!  Outside of sales and marketing who’s left?

What has the power to change such perceptions and why do technology marketers care to know so little about tech-based marketing?  What will shame them into action or will the “can’t live with ‘em, can’t live without ‘em” attitude CEO’s possess simply provide them with an insurance policy on remaining employed?

Tivo… the supposed ad-killer… now aims to become the advertisement helper.  Let’s face it, ads can be helpful to consumers when they’re actually interested in being influenced, pitched to, etc.  This is a large appeal of search marketing - consumers can find what products they want.  So… Tivo doesn’t want to stop at helping consumers tune out commercials; now they want to help TV watchers tune into relevant ads when they want them. 

Sounds like a Google-killer to me.  Hu?  Think about it: Does the Almighty Google.com (in its current state) help you or hinder you in your search for relevant ads or commercial information?  I tend to find its user interface cumbersome and riddled with garbage (i.e. type in just about any irrelevant word and receive “Looking for ______?  Find exactly what you want today.  eBay.com").  I’ll skip the “thanks to affiliate marketing programs” rant on this one.

Could Tivo beat Google to the punch by offering a better way for consumers to tune INTO advertisements?  Could Tivo give consumers complete control over advertisements and, thereby, become a more useful and popular utility?

*** THIS JUST IN *** December 2, 2005
MarketingVOX reports Tivo is stepping up the pace and getting into e-commerce.  Subscribers can now search local movie listings, purchase tickets, download music and exchange photos via Yahoo.

It seems that when it rains on affiliate marketing it pours.  I’ve been keeping very busy lately discovering how affiliate programs are being investigated and, in fact, regulated by the FTC as well as one instant where an affiliate program was actually funding cyber terrorists based in the Middle East.  Chris Sanderson, affiliate manager extraordinaire, is also keeping busy busting affiliates that, in his words, “lie and lie and lie” over the phone, via e-mail, etc. about their use of prohibited adware media buys (used to send visitors to marketers’ sites).  What’s more, Chris is denying the offender, TheAdnetwork.net, 3 months of commissions.  Will Linkshare stand behind him on this one?

What’s the common theme?  A good number of Web marketers remain asleep at the wheel and seem to be just fine with it, thank you very much! 

Last week the Chicago Tribune gave us a new twist on affiliates who thumb noses at retailers… all the while collecting affiliate fees.  Their piece (which somehow managed to neglect the true “legal trailblazer” in this realm, FatWallet.com), explores the “Black Friday” Web site phenomenon wherein visitors trade insider information on post-Thanksgiving rush sales (top secret information often being leaked by employees deep within retail organizations, their print advertising vendors, etc.).

The front page piece chronicled the journeys of a handful of Web sites operated by people who, they say, aren’t out to make a quick buck so much as they are out to defend the public’s right to pay less… people like 21 year-old Alan Smolek who, when questioned as to why he operates the site, says, “If I can save somebody money, I’ll do it… I wasn’t always in the best personal situation growing up.  We had to cut corners.  As result, I think you should spend as little as you can so you can buy more.”