A new wave of Web advertising could be heading our way. The critics say it's more invasive than spam.
By signing on to file-swapping networks, people may expose their instant messaging handles and entertainment tastes to the world.
That combination offers a potent platform for lurking advertisers, who are ready to risk annoying millions of Web surfers for the chance to appeal to a handful of receptive music fans.
"It's a chilling thought...The songs that you make visible to the world on Napster say a lot about you," said Jason Catlett, president of anti-spam group Junkbusters.
"Many people don't realize that when they're using these P2P services they are becoming publishers of their personal collections - it's like putting your CD collection in the window fronting the street."
For now, major online advertising networks, including DoubleClick, have stayed on the sidelines of IM marketing. But other grassroots marketers and online ad networks are aggressively tuning into the affinities of consumers, scavenging the pseudonyms of people who like a particular artist and then inviting them via IM to buy an album or visit the artist's home page.
Illustrating the heft of marketing to come, online advertising agency L90 has signed a deal with peer-to-peer network Aimster in one of the first exclusive partnerships to promote goods to consumers via instant messaging.
A.D.D. Marketing and Big Champagne, both newcomers to the Web, are capitalizing on the intimacy of file-sharing systems by targetting Napster and Gnutella users, suggesting they visit an artist's home page or sign up for various contests.
Sitting ducks?
Such tactics could represent the next frontier in the fight against spam on the Net. Because many consumers sign on to peer-to-peer systems with no idea that they're publicising their music tastes to the world, for example, industry watchers say this makes them sitting ducks to marketers.
"Marketers will scavenge for any personal information on which they can target you," said Catlett. "But unsolicited instant messaging is the same morally as spam - marketers shouldn't do it, and they're going to get a huge push-back if they try."
Matt Wexler from A.D.D. Marketing said that although consumers it contacts haven't agreed, or "opted in," to receive promotions, it carefully targets people based on their music tastes.
"People will always disagree with what you're doing, but people are definitely open to getting info that helps," Wexler said.
In addition, some IM services provide filters for any message from a source that is not on a "buddy list" of shared usernames, meaning advertisers might not have direct access to their targets. Yahoo Instant Messenger, for example, asks members if they want to chat with an unknown individual before opening a dialogue box.
Intrusive?
Jim Nail, online advertising analyst with Forrester Research, said that although advertisers cannot actually see private discussions over instant messenger, popping open a chat box on someone's computer screen is similar to interrupting an actual conversation.
"This is a really bad idea because instant messaging physically is like a private conversation. This is like you're talking with your boyfriend over the phone and 1-800-Flowers jumps in and says 'I see you're having an argument, why don't you buy some flowers?'" he said.
Gold mines to market researchers This is so much more effective than banner ads and email because it can be tied to actual results, said Deep, who said that marketers pay by the number of responses to any given promotion.
