Privacy’s always been a big concern on the Internet. Ever since the invention of “cookies” back in 1994 there’s been an ongoing (and sometimes contentious) debate over who gets to collect personal data about users, how that data is collected, and how it’s used.

On one side are the marketers, retailers, advertisers, and publishers trying to gather as much data as possible in order to target advertising more efficiently, sell more products, and deliver content tailored to users’ needs and wants. On the other side are privacy advocates, “hacktivist” groups like the now-infamous Anonymous, and consumer organizations who contend that collecting data about online behavior is an invasion of users’ right to privacy. But while the privacy advocates have won a few skirmishes in the war over the decades, the trend vectors have always pointed towards collecting more and more information.

Recently the debate flared up again over Google’s moves to capture and aggregate data from across their many properties (including Google+ and their ubiquitous search engine) in order to form incredibly detailed profiles of users and their online behavior…

To read more of Sean’s The Dirty Secret Behind User Data Collection & Tracking please visit March’s idfive Whitepapers.

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I have been very impressed with microsoft’s mac office banner ad campaign. It is human, engaging and unavoidable on a page.

Of particular note is the soft sell. Microsoft isn’t trying hard to sell me something, it is trying hard to make me smile, and really that is best way to approach me and any consumer.

I only wish the rest of microsoft could learn to be this charming.

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1. Demo. Example: Apple iPhone commercials
2. Show Need or Problem. Example: Those annoying Cingular ads where the voice drops out making what would have been a normal conversation terribly awkward.
3. Symbol, Analogy, Exaggeration. The product solves a problem. Example: Theraflu ogre ad.
4. Comparison. Example: Charles Schwab posterized ads.
5. Exemplary Story. Example: The VW commercials where the people in the car are just chatting it up and, then out of nowhere, boom! Crash.
6. Benefit Causes Story. Example: the Lynx ad. Probably the funnies ad of the lot, both for men and women – it’s so far fetched. It’s amazing what one can get away with in the name of comedy. Watch this one if nothing else.
7. Tell it. Example: UPS ad with man who needs a haircut drawing on a whiteboard.
8. On Going Characters and Celebrities. Example: Subway, Mercury, Geico, Energizer Bunny, etc.
9. Symbol, Analogy, Exaggeration. This time, instead of showing how the product solves a problem, the technique demonstrates a benefit of the product. Example: Starbucks, Metamucil, etc.
10. Associated User Imagery. This is all about connecting the product to the type of person the advertiser thinks would be using the product. Hoping for identification. Example: Nike.
11. Unique Personality Property. Example: Dyson Vacuums.
12. Parody of Borrowed Format. I love this format. Basically, make fun of something popular and then stick your logo at the end. Brilliant. Example: Reality TV – Geico.

That was fun, I am sure many of you enjoyed it as much as the next person. I can think of a couple of other types that were missed. Such as the ones that leave you hanging and puzzled with out a concrete message or a call to action. What are those called?

Anyway, what’s the overlap between these formats and online advertising?

While we all know that there are many forms of online advertising, such as pay-per-lead, email, search engine keywords, adwords, etc – this next part only includes banner advertising.

Banner Advertising Classification:

1. Irritate the Hell Out of People by Making the Screen Shake. You’ve seen it. Mortgage companies love this tactic. Think right-hand column empire ads in Hotmail.
2. Whack-a-mole. Enough said. The point is to get people to click, right?
3. TV ad on the web. Very popular on sites like Yahoo! and Collegehumor.com. Literally, the ad space looks like a mini made-for-television ad.
4. Background Branding. Where the entire background of the website is leased out to an advertiser. If you want to check this out, go to Pandora.com and keep refreshing the screen until you see it.
5. Traditional. Simple typography, imagery, message, and call to action. An all time classic.
6. “Whoa, did you see that?” rich media. Very amazing, high impact ads that stay contained in their space until the user mousse over them – at which point, the ad “unfolds” on the page overtop the page’s content, and a rich media experience is delivered. They are expensive to produce and expensive to run. But effective as hell.
7. Chameleon. The ads that look like content on the site. Trickery!
8. Buttons. These I don’t understand. The space is sold, and people click on them, otherwise they wouldn’t exist, right? Come on!

Ok, that’s all I have time for. I know I am missing some obvious ones, so please help me complete this list.

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