Forbes.com: Gator's Legal Feud Means Big Publicity (Aug. 29/01)
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Gator's Legal Feud Means Big Publicity Betsy Schiffman
Wednesday, August 29, 2001
NEW YORK - Crime typically goes up when the economy goes down.
In business, companies may not resort to criminal activity, but they do use
aggressive tactics that would never fly during economic high times.
About a month ago, Gator, a Redwood City, Calif.-based software
company, rolled out a software application, Gator Companion Popup Banner, that
issues popup ads based on users' surf patterns. This in itself is nothing extraordinary.
Companies like DoubleClick (nasdaq: DCLK - news - people ) have served targeted
advertising based on individual Web usage patterns for a couple years now. For
example, consumers sniffing around at the Ford (nyse: F - news - people ) Web
site could get served an ad for a local Ford dealership.
What is extraordinary, however, is the fact that Gator's popup
ads actually obscure the ads publishers have sold to other advertisers. Gator
is essentially hijacking valuable advertising space to serve ads it says are
better suited to individual users' tastes. Although Gator claims it serves ads
consumers actually want, publishers say Gator is stealing advertising real estate.
And although Gator claims consumers benefit from the ads it serves,
its greater purpose is really to serve advertisers. Gator uses guerilla warfare
that traditional media buyers aren't capable of--it serves popup ads on Web
sites that don't sell advertising. The example given on the Gator Web site shows
a graphic of the Home Depot (nyse: HD - news - people ) Web site, and an ad
for Home Depot competitor Sears Home Central gracefully appearing in the corner
of the site.
The hitch is that Gator ads are never served on the actual
site--they are always popup ads that float over areas of a Web site where advertising
is traditionally served. And according to Gator, that makes the company's practices
perfectly legal. Also, Gator says its ads receive a 6% to 26% clickthrough rate--meaning
between 6% and 26% of its users click on the ads it serves--which is significantly
better than the less than 1% of users that click on traditional ads.
Read the full article at Forbes.com ...
