ETD: 775 Why risk it?; Nielsen ads in video games; New
Wireless Technology
E-Tailer's Digest
etd_post at gapent.com
Thu Apr 8 12:22:26 GMT 2004
E-Tailer's Digest --- Everything for the Retailer
Issue #0775 April 8, 2004
George Matyjewicz, Moderator mailto:georgem at gapent.com
Published by: GAP Enterprises, Ltd. http://www.etailersdigest.com
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CONTENTS
[1] Greetings
[2] Why risk it?
[3] Nielsen ads in video games
[4] New Wireless Technology
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[1] Greetings.
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Hi All:
List member Javilk has some interesting comments on gambling. What do you
think?
Nielsen is entering a new advertising arena with sublime ads. Just what we
need eh?
I am very interested in the new wireless technology being offered by
Verizon. I enjoy linking in at airports, and am happy to see I will be
able to do so from anywhere very soon. The benefits to retailing are quite
exciting if you think about it.
What are you doing for the Easter holidays? How is business during this
period?
Tell us about your business which will remain for posterity at
our "Members: Who Are You?" site.
http://etailersdigest.com/resources/members/index.htm And we have a form
there for you to tell us about you. As I said when I first proposed this
idea, we have "known" each other for a long time, yet we often don't know
anything about each other. So, tell us who you are and what you do.
Now, let's get to everything for the retailer.
Sincerely
George Matyjewicz, PhD
Chief Global Strategist, GAP Enterprises, Ltd.
mailto:georgem at gapent.com
http://www.etailersdigest.com
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[2] Why risk it?
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> Aiming to avoid a possible showdown with law-enforcement officials, Yahoo
> and Google, the two largest search engines -- and online-
> advertising generators -- have said they will stop taking advertisements in
> the United States from gambling casinos and related companies. Both search
> providers reached their decisions independently.
>
> What I find interesting about this announcement is the fear companies have
> over potential threats.
I believe this has nothing to do with the law. It is a matter of
reputation -- the only thing of value that you own.
Background:
For years, I polled search engines watching what their clientele asks
for. Of particular interest to me is what I call "signature bands" which
are characteristic bands of same-text queries run by their typical
clients. You can identify a search engine by the signature bands; which is
to say, you can identify a search engine by the characteristics of it's
habitual client base.
When ponr (spelling intentional for the mail filters out there) was the
hottest thing on the net, the large search engine's signature bands did not
include pnor. Yes, there were rpon queries. But they did not move in the
characteristic patterns of the signature bands.
The only time they showed up in the larger engines, was when a smaller
engine failed for several hours. Then you could see the signature bands of
the smaller engine superimposed on other search engines in positions
related to the total volume. And that's how I could tell which engines were
larger. Let me tell you, there was a VAST difference in volume between the
best engines and the rest. What's more, when we did some in-depth analysis,
I found that a large portion of those pnorn queries were from a very narrow
set of IP numbers. In other words, very few people were very active
searching for it. Which makes sense given the venereal disease statistics
the CD compiles. Only a very small percentage of the population is active
enough to catch VD, and they catch it over and over.
Gam ling:
Most of the more intelligent learned about statistics in high school, then
got a refresher in college. Statistically, you will lose.
I enjoyed statistics in some sense. I tested the statistics with coins,
slot machine simulators, electronic random noise generators. Being an "odd
phenomenon" buff as odd things help illuminate reality vs myth, I was also
trying to see if I could skew the statistics. And when I got the chance, I
worked with a professional gambler in the late 70's to analyze dog races
for ways of getting the edge.
I bet about $10 to $12, $8 of which I got back because we covered the
probabilities. That's not per week, not per year. It's total since
1975. And I only did it because the gambler asked me to bet. Given the
context, the two of us sitting at a race track looking things over, it made
sense to spend some money to get the feel of it.
(Oh yes, we did find ways of getting the edge. I chose not to associate
myself with the results. Later, when there were major inquiries on
corruption, guess who got hauled in to testify before the legislature? All
the high rollers!)
I've walked through most of the casinos in Atlantic City, and some in
Nevada on other business. I know the probabilities. More, I know it is a
zero sum game. I'd sooner risk it on some high tech venture, because win or
lose, that enables high tech. Gambling enables nothing.
The Reputation:
Do you want to be seen as enabling the loss of money? Do you want your
customers to remember YOU helped them lose money?
Do you want your children to see those ads? Do you want them to get hooked
on gambling? Are you going to encourage them to use a search engine which
show gambling ads???
Gambling is not good for your reputation. Period.
And that is why the larger search engines didn't cater to what some thought
was the hottest thing on the Internet. They had the sense to see that it
wasn't, and that it would just bring down their reputation.
We (the USA) set a standard for maintaining a (minimum-) quality reputation
in business. Those intelligent enough to see it as such comply, not to
meet the requirements of doing business; but to show they have at least a
minimally clean reputation.
They jumped on the ISO-9000 bandwagon for the same reason -- reputation!
Your reputation for professionalism and decency is the only thing you truly
own that is worth anything. Why risk your reputation and long term loss
for short term profit?
-javilk-
Today's Photo: http://www.mall-net.com/today/
------------------- IMAGINEERING --------------------
--------------- Every click, a vote. ----------------
----- Do people vote for, or against your pages? ----
-- What people want: http://www.SitePsych.com/free --
-----------------------------------------------------
+++ [Moderator's Comments] +++
While I agree with your analysis of reputational risk, I also know that the
almighty dollar drives too many corporate decisions. Otherwise why would
companies move their production and support facilities offshore?
ISO 9000 is an interesting concept. It has become a standard for all
companies to be judged. If you are ISO 9000 compliant, I can be assured
that your products are quality. BTW, I believe the same concept will be
coming to the financial world. Companies will proudly display the fact
that they are Sarbanes-Oxley compliant, meaning they have documented
internal controls and they monitor them regularly.
George
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[3] Nielsen ads in video games
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In an article in the WSJ, it was reported that Nielsen plans a new service
to assess audiences for ads in hot videogame medium
An idea came to Bobby Kotick two years ago at the World Economic Forum in
Davos, Switzerland, where he listened to executives from global brands like
Nike and Pepsi-Cola grouse about being unable to reach young people with
traditional ads. "I was sitting there thinking, 'We have the perfect medium
for these advertisers,'" says Mr. Kotick, chief executive of Activision
Inc., a Santa Monica, Calif., videogame publisher.
Today, Activision and Nielsen Entertainment, a unit of VNU NV, plan to
announce new tools to help advertisers evaluate the effectiveness of
videogame ads, much like Nielsen Media Research's famous method of rating
television shows. If widely adopted, it could bring more commercialism to a
medium that attracts coveted young consumers.
Nielsen says the new system will track how many gamers see the ads in
videogame content, how often they see them, and how well they recall them
afterward. It's designed to work with console-based games, by far the
industry's largest sector, with real-time measurement data relayed through
an Internet connection. Activision and Nielsen say they plan to start using
the new system this year.
The new service, which is still in development, is likely to employ a
device -- possibly a box or a small gadget -- to measure game-playing
behavior, much as Nielsen's TV-rating service uses set-top devices to
monitor TV-viewing habits. The devices would require an extra layer of
electronic encoding in the videogame software, the companies say. Gamers'
ability to recall ads is likely to be measured using telephone surveys and
other follow-up methods.
Details at...
http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB108137344577577118,00.html?mod=todays_us_marketplace
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[4] New Wireless Technology
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True wireless broadband is coming to the U.S. this year and next. By the
end of 2005, courtesy of Verizon Wireless, you should be able to wirelessly
connect a laptop, PDA or cellphone to the Internet at real broadband speeds
from almost any location in every major U.S. metropolitan area.
They are not talking about the spread of more Wi-Fi "hot spots" in
airports, coffee shops and similar places. This is wireless high-speed
Internet service that you can use just about anywhere -- even on the street
or in a car.
Verizon's new service, called BroadBand Access, is being tested in two US
cities - Washington DC and San Diego. It is simple to set up and works just
like any other broadband connection, with your normal Web browser and
e-mail program.
Based on a new cellphone technology called EV-DO (short for Evolution-Data
Optimized), the new Verizon service is as fast as most wired DSL lines, and
it worked effortlessly almost everywhere.
Verizon claims the new service will deliver average downstream speeds of
between 300 and 500 kilobits per second. That is three to five times as
fast as the typical speeds available over older cellphone networks, and
about what many people get from wired DSL lines.
Verizon plans to roll out the service in all major markets by the end of
2005. Additional cities will come online starting this summer, and by the
end of 2004, the service will be available on about a third of Verizon's
network, covering 80 million people.
Details at...
http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB108137415910377148,00.html
This can be exciting news for retailers - to be used as a sales tool and
for service. For example, let's say you are a women's retailer. Offer a
service in your store so the husband who is always dragged along to shop,
can play on his laptop while his wife helps him decide that what she picks
is what he likes. ;-). A couple of weeks ago I patiently sat in Chico's
for 2 1/.2 hours as my wife shopped. Internet connection would have been nice.
On the other side, when you have those sidewalk sales, you can have a
wireless cash register. Or, when you have those offsite events (like one
of my old clients who rents Giant Stadium for a ski sale) you can set up
the 20 registers using a simple wireless network, that can also link back
to the store.
What do you think?
George
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Links to follow
==================================================================
GAP Enterprises, Ltd. http://www.gapent.com/
Sarbanes-Oxley 2002 http://www.sarbanes-oxley2002.com
E-Tailer's Digest http://www.etailersdigest.com
ETD Archives: http://topica.com/lists/etailer/read
Prior to 29 Dec
1999 http://etailersdigest.com/archives/index.htm
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