Solutions to Cookie Conundrum Suggested
iMediaConnection's Media Strategies Editor Jim Meskauskas approaches the cookie conundrum with six suggestions marketers may wish to consider in the face of a seemingly huge consumer cookie rebellion. Maskauskus suggests the advertising industry take strides to educate consumers about the advantages cookies provide; educate the industry so those that use cookies or make software that uses cookies understand how each discipline values the cookies; make the cookie hard to find like United Virtualities has done with its Flash-based PIE technology; keep quiet about the whole debate acknowledging that talking about cookies just brings unwanted attention; forget about the cookie and and rely on other existing tracking technologies; and simply surrender control to consumers allowing them to create Passport like "universal cookies" containing any type of information the consumer choose to provide and allowing them to decide whether they share it or not.
Comments
More crap from Jim. He goes from one publication to another spouting his shit.
May I suggest another way of viewing cookies. I have seen a shift in marketing in general from the idea of "give the customer what he wants" in order to build a business to forcing the customer to accept what the seller wants to provide. Cookies are an extremely good example of this attitude shift. They do not "give" the customer anything but serve the marketer. Maybe it is time to quit pissing on the customer and find some other way to track the numbers.
Jackson43's comments are dead-on and I completely agree, this anti-consumer attitude won't work when we (the consumers) control the technology (hello Firefox) and companies better get used to it and start learning to play nice again. The only acceptable solution out of the six listed is the last:
"Forget about the cookie and and rely on other existing tracking technologies; and simply surrender control to consumers allowing them to create Passport like "universal cookies" containing any type of information the consumer choose to provide and allowing them to decide whether they share it or not."
Otherwise, you'll get nothing from me. I block cookies, I edit and screw with them, I erase them, and don't accept third-party cookes, and I skip many sites that insist I have to have cookies set. I'll take my business elsewhere, somewhere more user-friendly, where they'll accept what little info I'm willing to provide them and not an iota more
Centralized open profiles (think social networking, dating, business) combined with editable opt-in ad settings are coming next. Switzerland-like structure will be required if consumers are expected to give up local cookies for centrally located (or distrubuted) data they have access to.
If I want to buy a car, I want car ads, immediately. After I buy the car, they should go away. Contextual advertising has gone in the wrong direction, it's not url-based, it's opportunity based. Nobody seems to get this.
This will result in a better online experience for consumers, better deals, more targeted ads and less crappy advertising, of which I love reading about on this blog.
Blog networks are the new ad networks. I know more about our readers than an ad network ever will. Do they ever ask about how we "influence the influencers?" No, because they're not that smart, yet.
Why does an ad network know more about me than a blog network? Why do we have to rely on what an ad network things are important datapoints when there is a whole slew of other ways to evaluate a visitor's wants and needs?