22nd February 2001 - New Media Age

Money For Nothing

Consumers enter the lottery in return for information about themselves. So when someone first visits the site they have to provide some "basic, non-intrusive data" about themselves. Every time players enter a draw, they have to click on one of several banners before their entry is submitted. Subsequent emails are only sent to customers who give their permission, and then only at a rate of "two or three a month.

"It's the advertisers who provide the funding for the draw. (PDV) offers the advertisers the opportunity to give closely targeted consumers some very specific offers.

"We offer a very deep level of targeting. At the base level we target on the basis of the basic registration data, progressing through the interests which players have registered ad their behaviour (estimated from which banners they've clicked on). We're also developing predictive models.

"The player isn't bombarded by emails and the advertiser only hits well-targeted consumers.

Derick Hill points out, increasingly sophisticated online marketers will be looking for increasingly targeted advertising opportunities.