Beyond Design: Advertising on the Network Aims Brian Kelly This talk aims at: • Finding out your views on UK Web Focus Web advertising UKOLN • Identifying what is meant University of Bath by advertising • Examining current uses of Bath, BA 2 7 AY advertising Email: B. Kelly@ukoln. ac. uk URL: http: //www. ukoln. ac. uk/ • Summarising the pros and cons • Reviewing our views 2 UKOLN is funded by Resource: The Council for Museums, Archives and Libraries, the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) of the Higher and Further Education Funding Councils, as well as by project funding from the JISC and the European Union. UKOLN also receives support from the University of Bath where it is based.
Unsolicited Requests Dear Sir or Madam, I am writing to you on behalf of the publishing company, the XXX Group. We specialise in the production of microfilm collections of primary source material, aimed at a mainly academic audience. We are very interested in the possibility of advertising our forthcoming collections in xxx and would be grateful if you could supply us with more information concerning this publication. Could you please supply details of: 1. Your advertising rates 2. Whom your publication is aimed at (e. g. acquistion (sic) librarians, academics) 3. Circulation figures for last year How would you respond to a message such as this? 6
Advertising – For or Against? The house believes that advertising on Web sites is a legitimate means of obtaining additional funding for public sector services What do you think? I agree, this is a sensible way of getting additional funding Tell me how to do it 7 Sorry I can’t make up my If you are against mind – I’m indecisive advertising, think about the reasons why I strongly disagree – the public sector should not be forced into such a position which will put trusted organisations in a compromising position
Arguments Against Philosophical • Public sector orgs should be adequately funded • Users expect us to be neutral • We will lose the trust of our users • Our model is the BBC, not Sky Practical • Income from advertising is dropping • Negotiating deals will be expensive and timeconsuming • Adverts will distract from the design of my Web site • Adverts will slow download time What other objections do you have? 8
UK Government The Government’s www. open. gov. uk Web site hosts advertisements http: //www. open. gov. uk/index/orgindex. htm http: //www. open. gov. uk/search. htm 9 Example
UK Government … although a Government report does acknowledge that policy guidelines are needed 10 Example http: //www. cabinet-office. gov. uk/innovation/ 2000/delivery/index. Frame. htm http: //www. cabinet-office. gov. uk/innovation/2000/delivery/creatingamixedeconomy/content 4. htm
British Library The British Library OPAC has an ad for Amazon. co. uk Amazon are sponsors of the OPAC 97 service http: //opac 97. bl. uk/ Note current service is at <http: //blpc. bl. uk/> 11 Example
Essex Public Library Example http: //www. essexcc. gov. uk/infoserv/ecc_lib/fsinfo_l. htm Essex public Library also provide links to Amazon from their home page 12
Links With Waterstone’s Example http: //www. ull. ac. uk/ Several Universities advertise Waterstone’s http: //www. bath. ac. uk/internal/students/ http: //www. leeds. ac. uk/library/ 13 Note: Bath Univ. has a business relationship with Waterstone’s on campus and provides departmental reading lists to the campus shop
Who Else Links to Waterstone’s Alta. Vista. co. uk reports: • 358 links to Waterstones. co. uk from . uk. ac Web sites • 2, 311 links to Amazon. co. uk (and 2, 822 to Amazon. com) 14
We Link To Book Companies http: //www. anglia. ac. uk/cits/learning/books. html Many Universities provide links to companies such as Waterstone’s, Amazon, etc. in any case http: //www. qmw. ac. uk/~english/ services/services. html Providing links to book shops is clearly a useful service provided by Libraries 15
More Than Books Example Hampshire County Council host rotating banner ads http: //www. hants. gov. uk/library/ Hampshire CC use consider. net to manage the display, management and billing of the ads Consider. net are targetting local authority Web site See <www. consider. net/l a_adnet. html> 16
Sponsorship Edinburgh University provide images and links to their sponsors Example http: //www. lib. ed. ac. uk/ http: //www. ucl. ac. uk/ 17 UCL has an image and link to sponsors on their home page
Special Offers For Members The Open University provides special deals for its members. These are available on the Web site Since trade unions and professional bodies (e. g. AUT, BCS) do likewise, what objections are there to using an Intranet to provide online access? 18 https: //msds. open. ac. uk/your-record/soffers. htm
From Advertising to Ecommerce After advertising special offers (phone xxx to place an order) we can expect to see use of ecommerce Many large organisations (Universities, charities, councils) already provide branded credit cards Expect to see them promoted for use in ecommerce 19 http: //www. oulinkwine. org. uk/oulinkwine/
Integration of Local and Remote Services Essex Libraries enables borrowers to borrow a CD from the Library or buy it from Amazon from the same page 20 http: //www. essexcc. gov. uk/infoserv/ ecc_lib/whatsin/music. htm
Advertising Can Be Useful Well-targeted adverts may be useful and appreciated by readers. Wouldn’t an advert for Endsleigh Insurance be useful for sixth formers using the UCAS Web site? 21 http: //www. ucas. ac. uk/
Student’s Unions A look at Student Union Web sites may provide an indication of acceptance of advertising by students Where your political views formulated in the 1960 -70 s, when students were radical? Haven’t things changed? 22 http: //www. nusonline. co. uk/ Example
What Do Students Want? Survey of students at Nottingham University: • Want information on social events in Nottingham • Why doesn’t the University provide banner ads for pubs, clubs, theatres, etc? http: //www. thisisbath. com/ Who should provide such community information: • Organisations, such as University, College • Public Libraries • Leave it to the commercial sector “Interested to hear from SUs whose websites already have a commercial side to them, advertsining (sic) sales, banner ads, sponsorship etc. ” See discussion at <http: //rabbit. stu. uea. ac. uk/pipermail/uksu-www/> 23
Commercial Sector If public sector organisations don’t provide information on social events which their users expect, we can expect to see the gap filled by the public sector 24 Example http: //www. wap 4 students. co. uk/
Individuals Will Do It In Universities individuals will probably provide advertising / affiliate links ahead of / irrespective of organisational policies 25 http: //catless. ncl. ac. uk/Lindsay/books 2. html
Students Spotting Opportunities http: //www. unibookstore. co. uk/mecheng/ http: //www. mechengbooks. co. uk/ A student at Bath has set up a Web site providing affiliate links for recommended books If the University fails to provide this service, shouldn’t such entrepreneurial endeavours be encouraged? 26
Alumni At Mansfield College Oxford the Alumni magazine is extending use of Amazon affiliate links 27 http: //www. mansfield. ox. ac. uk/ alumni/emag/2000 -01. htm
Images Can Improve Appearance http: //www. hillingdon. gov. uk/education/li Many organisations make use of company logos to make lists of links more interesting and more memorable If they do this, would there be any harm in getting money for doing so? 28
Projects Migrating To Services Many projects need to address issues of ongoing funding if they are to transition to long term services. Advertising provides one income stream 29 http: //intarch. ac. uk/advert
Internal Notice Boards Many large organisations may provide Notice boards for selling small items (which complements use of physical notice boards). 30 http: //www. bath. ac. uk/Noticeboard/
Mirrors Do it If your Web site hosts mirrored resources, you may find that you are hosting adverts. http: //tucows. mirror. ac. uk/ The JISC-funded UK Mirror Service mirrors large Web sites which contain adverts. 31
E-commerce at Universities are already developing e-commerce services e. g. Alumni service which sell stationery, pens, scarves, etc. Aren’t they likely to wish to advertise the goods they sell? 32 http: //www. leeds. ac. uk/alumni/ html/serve/shop_sta. htm
Advertising Charities Is advertising for charities acceptable? 33 http: //www. huntingdon. ac. uk/links. html http: //www. cs. bham. ac. uk/~gxb/rednose/
Advertising Netscape & Microsoft Many Web sites in the past have provided free ads to Netscape (initially) and Microsoft http: //www. gateshead. ac. uk/ http: //www. ee. surrey. ac. uk/CSER/UOSAT/missions/tmsat/ 34
Advertising Your Own Resources Ba. Na. RAMa is a registry of libraries which provide promotional banner pages http: //www. public. iastate. edu/ ~CYBERSTACKS/Banarama. htm http: //www. villapark. lib. il. us/ 35 Rotating promotional image ISSUE: If it looks like an ad and have the characteristics of an ad, is it an ad? Are your criticisms of ads still valid?
Affiliate Links If your objection is to the intrusiveness of advertising images, would affiliate links be acceptable? This links to the Web Tools Web site, via a marketing company. Income is received for every click through. 36 This also links to the Web Tools Web site, via a marketing company. Income is also received for every click through.
Adware The Opera browser is now available as adware – free software which is funded by hosting advertisements The cost of the software without ads is $39. See defn. of adware at http: //tucows. ukonline. co. uk/help/glos. html#Adware 37
Ad or Sponsorship What is the difference between an advertisement and acknowledgement to a sponsor (e. g. a donator of hardware, software, services, etc. )? 38 http: //www. mailbase. ac. uk/docs/acknowledges. html
Externally Hosted Services (1) There are many externally-hosted Webbased services available – e. g. Web statistics, voting forms, chat systems, etc. They are often free – and are funded by adverts If use of a sponsor’s logo is acceptable, is this? http: //www. ariadne. ac. uk/issue 23/web-focus/ CAVEAT (9 Mar 2001) Announcement from EZPolls of the end of the free ad-based service (due to decline in ad revenue): “After 1 April your free poll will be replaced by an advertisement for My. Computer. com services” 39
Externally Hosted Services (2) http: //www. ukoln. ac. uk/web-focus/ events/conferences/ili-2001/advertising/ Externally hosted Web services (ASPs) can provide useful services (search facilities, maps, etc. ) for free in exchange for advertising http: //www. thegrid. org. uk/ You can buy a service without ads, or develop your own. But which is best use of taxpayer’s money? 40
Advertising – The Case Against Some arguments against have been made to the author following an discussion on the website-info-mgt JISCmail list: • “MRC discussed this last year and took a decision in the short term not to advertise partly from a philosophical viewpoint but also practical (revenue NOT EQUAL to costs and hassle). ” • “. . the reputation of British Universities is very high. If we sell our name too cheaply then we downgrade our reputation and elevate that of organisations that may not be deserving, for we do indicate our approval of any organisation that we advertise. ” • Advertising doesn’t work (e. g. click-though rates are dropping / income is falling) – see <http: //www. useit. com/alertbox/9709 a. html> 42
Advertising – The Case Against (2) • Either the ads will be unrelated to theme of the site and therefore distract (e. g. Mac. Donalds) • Or if the ads are related to the interests of the organisation (e. g. health/research related for a medical body) there may be problems with the ethics, work or products of the sponsor - irrespective of disclaimers. • On the practical front getting the technical bits worked out and the stats reported may be problematic; then there is the income and accounting - who gets the revenue and will it cover billing costs? • Also, who will police the ads to ensure it conforms with local policy (and legal requirements) • Advertising revenue may lead to underfunding of core activities distraction from providing a good service for core activities. 43
Advertising – The Case Against (3) • Banner ads, Java applets, etc. clutter up Web sites and increase download times which would contravene certain public sector Web site design standards and cause accessibility issues • Ads can be quite confusing and people may understandably mistake them for part of the Web site • Are sites dedicated to public information suitable for ads? How can a site be claiming to offer unbiased community or public information if they include enticements for people to spend money on one or more companies' products or services? • Depending on corporate investment for funding Web sites would be a dangerous precedent. Public sector sites would be open to criticism that sponsors are influencing the content of the site. • At present. gov sites are generally regarded as being reliable sources of information due to their non-commercial content and editorial procedures. Including commercial advertising could compromise the reputation of public sector sites. 44 David Little
Implementation Issues What should you think about if you decide you wish to consider use of advertising / sponsorship deals, etc? • Other possibilities not yet discussed • The need for organisational guidelines 45
Google Affiliate Program Message to Web 4 Lib list on 6 June 2000 Should the University of Arkansas Library join the Google affiliate program (the income could pay for our free printing service)? What happened (paraphrased): If we provide a search facility using Google, I thought we may as well reap some financial benefit. Agreement was reached with the Library and University. Before implementing it, Google’s prices had dropped from 3 c to 1 c, so we decided not to do it. 46 http: //dante. uark. edu/
Google http: //www. google. com/affiliates/ Google Affiliate program: • Aimed at small – medium Web sites • Provide a search box and earn $0. 01 per search See also Lycos’s affiliate program at <http: //www. lycos. com/ affiliateprogram/and <http: //affiliateprogram. com/> 47
Google in the UK Due to large nos. of hits (to popular Dinosaur site) department looked at income generation options to develop site Banner ads ruled out Google affiliate program chosen since: • Google was used in any case http: //www. gly. bris. ac. uk/ • Easy to set up • No unsightly / inappropriate adverts $14. 80 made over 6 week period (19 Nov – 3 Jan) Money to go to a departmental account STOP PRESS Google affiliate scheme ended on 1 Feb 2001 48
Link. Batons are user-customisable links that can be placed on any website to enable user preference and to enhance website revenue. 49 http: //my. linkbaton. com/get? site. Page=conductor
More Than Online Advertising You may wish to host ads other than / as well as on your Web site. Companies such as You[th] will manage: • Posters • Bookmarks (distributed with books) • Screensavers • Web page sponsorship • Online surveys 50 http: //www. screensavers-online. co. uk/ “Revenues earned by our affiliate partners range between 30, 000 & a few thousand pounds over the course of a year. ”
EEVL’s Experiences http: //www. eevl. ac. uk/roddy/private/freebooks. html The idea is to get 'advertisers' to pay for promotional costs. EEVL gets the publishers to pay towards the cost of fliers advertising the promotion, plus they are giving away a retail value of £ 1, 250 books each. The sponsors get their logos on an appropriate part of the Web site, and on fliers. They also get a contact database, etc. EEVL gets promotion at low cost. The users get free books. “With a v. low marketing budget (about £ 3 K per year, which includes web site design, etc) & a target audience within HE Everyone's a winner! 51 alone of 220, 000 academics, such sponsorship is the only hope EEVL has of promoting widescale to our audience. ”
A Mixed Economy We are living in a mixed economy in which academic users will wish to access resources from both educational and commercial Web sites. The JISC Hybrid Libraries recognise this by integrating access to academic and commercial Web sites (such as Amazon, Alta. Vista, etc. ) 52 The Agora Hybrid Library
The Need For Guidelines This is a need for organisational guidelines which cover: • A definition of advertising / sponsorship / affiliate programs, etc • Whether advertising is permitted And, if advertising / sponsorship, etc is permitted: • What type is permitted • What is acceptable and unacceptable • Who gets the income • Internal procedures 53
Government Guidelines Government Sector 3. 10 Advertising Government sites are permitted to carry advertising. In designing pages, departments and agencies should ensure that advertisers‘ branding does not detract from the effectiveness and appearance of their own branding or that of the government as a whole. Particular attention should be given to avoid any implication of endorsement of products or services or of contradiction between government messages and those of advertisers. Framework Policy for Web Sites Published by Information Age Government Champions See <http: //www. citu. gov. uk/iagc/guidelines/ websites/web_contents. htmor <http: //www. citu. gov. uk/iagc/pdfs/websites. pdf> 54
Examples of Guidelines (1) HE Sector Aberdeen University Policy on the use of University web pages for commercial advertising (June 2000) i Advertising should be applied in context: that is, it should be relevant and advantageous to the subject matter of the web page. … Sites displaying advertising must previously have completed the appropriate registration forms iii Advertising must not conflict with the policies or strategic aims of the University vii Advertising must not constitute more than 10% of a single web page, and should not usually involve animations, frames, child windows, … Revenue from advertising reverts to the department … responsible for the pages. . Each advertisement submitted for approval is subject to a charge, payable to the DISS (Directorate of Information Systems and Services). http: //www. aberdeen. ac. uk/diss/docu/forms/advertising. hti 55
Examples of Guidelines (2) Bristol University HE Sector Webmaster Team Frequently Asked Questions Can I advertise/host a non-University organisation / event on the Web? What if someone want to "sponsor" a page displaying their logo? If a University server makes information available with the aim of furthering teaching and research, or any other activity which is consonant with the University's objectives, that is acceptable. … If the content is pure advertising for a non-University organisation then this is clearly unacceptable (except possibly in the case where the subject of the advertisement is related to University activities - a conference being organised by a learned society, for example). http: //www. bris. ac. uk/Webmaster/faq. html#advertise 56
Examples of Guidelines (3) HE Sector Dundee University Advertising on University Web Servers Broadly speaking, online advertising could be: a Commercial (e. g. software, books, etc. for sale, …) b Non-commercial (e. g. Web site for charity, ad for academic journal, . . . ) Both commercial and non-commercial advertisements can be mounted in department web space. Personal web space must not be used for commercial adverts. Likewise, a personal advertisement should not be published in a department web space. http: //www. dundee. ac. uk/main/webadmin/advertising. htm 57
Examples of Guidelines (4) HE Sector Oxford University Advertising Material on University Web Pages The University Rules for Computer Use forbid use of University IT or network facilities for "commercial purposes without specific authorisation" and offering "commercial services through web pages" except with permission. The reason … is that … computer and network facilities are subsidised from public funds … for academic purposes. The rules are intended. . to bar advertising of outside, ie non. University, commercial services on University web pages. [However] statements of sponsorship are permissible, logos and links are permissible, . . http: //www. ox. ac. uk/it/rules/ads. html 58
Examples of Guidelines (5) HE Sector Unnamed University Draft Policy The University will only enter into a contractual arrangement with a 3 rd party where: • The advertising material is of direct relevance and benefit to the staff and students • The advertising material does not infringe any of the University’s regulations or codes of practice (e. g. JANET AUP) • The advertising material does not impact on the University’s professional standing 59
Examples of Guidelines (6) http: //www. hants. gov. uk/TC/hantsweb/advertising-disclaimer. html Hampshire County Council Advertising on Hantsweb Local Government Sector . . advertising banners appearing on Hantsweb are part of a six-month trial to evaluate use of advertising Advertisements are arranged via a third party working on behalf of Hampshire County Council and certain other local authorities. The advertisers have no influence over the editorial content of the web site and Hampshire County Council staff are not involved in negotiations with potential advertisers. Latest: . . belief in Council that the presence of advertising undermines the authority of information on the website, and that adverts make it look 'cheap' and 'tacky‘ . . . issues over HCC business units where the banners ads interfere or conflict with other sponsorship arrangements. Email message, 9 March 2001 60… low revenue return
A JISC Study JISC call for tender for a Study into Advertising on JANET given in THES (8 Dec 2000) JISC wishes to commission a study of the opportunities that advertising and associated activities can offer for income generation, the impact that its introduction will have on the network and services and the implications for policy in a number of areas. Opportunities For Income Generation The study must identify the opportunities that exist for, and provide some indication of the likely revenue generation from: – Sponsorship of web sites and services. … – Advertisements on web pages on institutional web sites or JISC services … – ‘Sell-through’ from web users visiting commercial sites with a percentage of sales returned to the JISC or institutions. . – Commercial companies funding JISC services in order to acquire marketing information on the behaviour of students or staff in education … 61
A JISC Study (2) 62 Impact of Advertising Advertisements will increase the traffic across the network, will reduce the amount of ‘usable’ space on web pages, can increase the [download] time. . and may be a distraction to serious study. The report should identify the impact of advertisements on • The total network traffic across JANET … • The effective reduction of bandwidth in critical areas … • The usability of JISC services delivered through Web interfaces Policy Implications There are several areas of concern about the way commercial activity could threaten academic independence. . . The report should provide information on. . : • Impartiality • Acceptability • Screen real estate • Multiple deals • …
A JISC Study (3) Advertising Service It is feasible for each institution or service to seek its own deals for advertising or sponsorship. The study should investigate whether it may be more efficient if there is a single JISC advertising service that is responsible for: • marketing the potential of advertising in the sector • striking deals on behalf of all JISC services • meeting or exceeding revenue targets agreed with the JISC • offering to broker deals on behalf of institutions, or projects which expect advertising to offer a feasible exit strategy • giving advice to institutions … on advertising and sponsorship issues • … 63
Conclusions To conclude: • There a wide range of income generation options which may be classed under the term “advertising” • Public sectors organisations are increasingly interested in such possibilities • A simple decision to ban “advertising” outright may well be unacceptable or difficult to implement • A decision to allow any form of advertising is probably also undesirable • Organisational guidelines are clearly needed • The JISC study is likely to be of interest 64
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