_Howard Firestone is Vice President of Marketing and Communications for “iPerceptions Inc.”:http://www.iperceptions.com/ whose predictive intelligence technology, processes and methodology were developed by combining the expertise of behavioral psychologists, technologists and biostatisticians. He is responsible for all marketing and public relations initiatives for the company in North America and the UK. Prior to joining iPerceptions, Howard was Senior Director of Marketing Communications at “My Virtual Model Inc”:http://www.myvirtualmodel.com, an Internet start-up in the online retail apparel sector. Howard has over seven years of hands-on Internet marketing, advertising and publishing experience._
*One Degree: Can you explain what iPerceptions means by “attitudinal analytic solutions”?*
When we speak of an attitudinal analytics solution we are referring to a process and methodology that allows marketers to map their customer’s experience (online or offline) to a perceptual framework to get inside their hearts and minds in the context of their actual web site or store experience. This provides our clients with a clear and distinct picture of the issues that matter most to their customers. We then apply proprietary algorithms to the data to learn what key attributes marketers should be focusing on to increase their customer’s overall level of satisfaction.
*One Degree: How does this fit in with log or tag-based site analysis?*
Category: Five Questions
“Kaboose Inc.”:http://www.kaboose.com is one of the world’s leading online media companies focused on kids and families. The Kaboose Network, including award-winning sites like “Funschool.com”:http://www.funschool.com, “Zeeks.com”:http://www.zeeks.com and “Kidsdomain.com”:http://www.kidsdomain.com, is a top 10 global Internet destination for over 6.5 million kids and families a month looking for entertaining, interactive and educational content. Jonathan has over 8 years Internet industry experience and an MBA from the University of Western Ontario.
*One Degree: Kaboose is geared to kids but makes aggressive use of advertising throughout most (all?) of its sites. Is there a right way to market to kids online without raising the ire of either parents or the government?*
Kaboose is a free site for kids and parents and is thus supported by advertising. Kaboose is the intermediary between millions of kids and parents and some of the largest brands in the world. We have many parents who bring their kids to Kaboose and they observe their kids interacting with our site, and thus are very aware of the advertising on it. So, the first thing an advertiser and publisher needs to constantly be aware of is that in the online world, where there are kids there are parents. Our most important role as a provider of ad supported content is to be a responsible publisher. That means accepting only ads that are suitable for a child of any age, approving the creative and messaging of every ad that goes up on the site.
*One Degree: You’ve got some pretty in-your-face interstitial ads on the site. The Pillsbury Doughboy just drew a “StrudelDoodle” all over my monitor! I’ve heard reports of technical horror stories with poorly coded ads on some Canadian sites. How do you guard against technical faux pas damaging your brand and your advertisers’ campaigns?*
_Launched in 2000, “RedFlagDeals.com”:http://www.redflagdeals.com uses the power of community to alert bargain-hunting consumers to Canadian retailing deals. Headed up by Derek Szeto, a recent university graduate, the site currently boasts over 800,000 unique visitors and over 12 million page views every month._
*One Degree: How does RedFlagDeals make money?*
RedFlagDeals’ (RFD) has two primary sources of revenue: traditional graphical/text advertising and commission sales. The key in terms of generating revenue is really volume. Now that we’ve proven our ability to drive traffic and conversions a lot of retailers are approaching us and we can put together some RFD exclusive packages that gives back to the community, drives sales for the retailers, and allows us to generate a bit more revenue.
*One Degree: How much of your revenue comes from affiliate programs over more traditional display ads?*