AdGenesis: It's All About Opt-in Whether You Like It or Not - Michael Kelley - MediaBizBloggers

Happy 20pt-in11!
January 18, 2011 - Somewhere in SoHo, NYC

As a result of being caught between young boomers and the old gen x'ers, I have only known interruptive advertising. However, I have always felt that there had to be a better way to do advertising. Whether I was working to build Hulu, developing new advertising offerings for AT&T, helping move mycokerewards.com to generate advertising revenue or working with the team at Martha Stewart on new forms of mobile engagement, almost every financial model, piece of consumer insight and advertiser conversation led me to realize the greatest value equation pointed to getting the consumer to actually opt-in for advertising messages.

By doing so, opt-in is the first "value domino" to fall knocking over a watershed of user volunteered data followed by the amazing pinpoint relevance of advertising messages and culminating in a much higher level of engagement. I remember one advertiser friend over drinks telling me,

"I would pay 5x today's CPMs just for a consumer who actually chose to see my message;
10x for data they might willingly give up in the process; and
15x for delivering a message tailored to an individual as a result."

While possibly exaggerated by happy hour, the promise of this math always stuck with me even as she washed away the possibility of all three desires ever happening along with the last sip of her martini.

Being the eternal optimist for opt-in advertising to become a reality, I always thought it could happen, but only if we advanced technology. Now, the technology—especially around video delivery to any platform—is finally happening along with the amazing social networking renaissance. What I didn't realize is that two other events would occur that would accelerate opt-in advertising as a real business model: the Great Recession and privacy firestorm. Now in the blink of an eye, 4 out of 5 American households make less than $55k with equity wiped out in a vast majority of homes, "coupon" became a top search term for a second year and a larger share of people (nearly 50%) are seeking deals on-line before they shop for any item. Furthermore, interruptive advertising and tracking consumers long after they visited a web site finally stoked the fires calling for the ability to "opt-out." Call it what you will. Defend it as you may. Opt-out is one topic that will find common ground in 2011 among a deeply divided US political machine, and my Washington sources tell me it will have Constitutional implications. Regulation is never desired. However, we must find alternatives to opt-out or the future of advertising hangs in the balance and out of our hands.

Now could never be a better time for the opt-in model as an alternative. At AdGenesis, we are ushering in the opt-in advertising era. As 2011 dawns, we are beginning to tip critical mass approaching 1m in our opt-in network and are further poised after today's announced publishing partnership with Parade Magazine (parade.com/perks) and to reach their 70 million readers. More importantly, we now have the most impressive numbers that will be detailed in our newly launched, AdGenesis Insights report (to subscribe to our report click here now—http://www.adgenesis.com/insights_subscribe.html, which will be released periodically with snapshots of data that prove opt-in is a total opt-in for advertisers. Click here to find our first edition, and here are a few data highlights: AdGenesis Insights Report

-10% or more Click-thru rates: Consumers who opt-in profile information about their interests and upcoming purchase intentions and then are matched to brands, are 50x more likely than traditional direct response methods to click-thru to accompanying offers. Here's a snap shot of our CTRs by advertiser category:

Spend $150 or more on Jeans=25% higher CTR: With every visit, we ask our consumers just a couple of questions to better match them to brands of interest. They do it and soon we will have hundreds of data points on every individual. For you clothing makers and sellers, you may want to find ways to target those who spend $150 or more on a pair of jeans, because they have a whopping 25% higher CTR on clothing ads and offers:

I am ready to find my friend, buy her a fresh martini and toast the New Year and era of opt-in that she once wished for. The technology is ready. The advertisers are ready. Most importantly, the consumers are ready…and engaging. The proof is in the numbers. Happy 20pt-in11

Michael Kelley is CMO and on the Advisory Board of AdGenesis. Michael is one of the most recognized marketers and digital advertising strategists who knows how to build and operate businesses. He can be reached at mkelley@adgenesis.com.

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