Giving new meaning to "pay-per-view," a couple of upstart marketing companies officially launched new services Tuesday that offer cash rewards to those who linger at targeted Web sites or make online purchases. But advertising insiders are already yawning at the prospects of the latest Net ad innovation.
CyberGold awards members in CyberGold currency for interacting with advertisers. "It's the extra motivation [to click on an ad], a symbol of appreciation of the time spent," said CyberGold spokeswoman Kim Criswell. Members are paid 50 cents to US$5 for looking at an ad.
The cyber currency can be converted into hard cash and transferred to a bank account, or donated to charity. Eventually, the company aims to spur e-commerce by making CyberGold currency applicable toward online purchases.
"While the model is interesting, I don't think it's much more than couponing," said Evan Neufeld, an analyst at Jupiter Communications.
He added that the value of a CyberGold system may stem more from information gathering than pay-per-performance advertising. "There is a real paucity of research on how people react to Net-based advertising, although I don't think that's what CyberGold is interested in addressing," he said.
Pay-per-view services beg the questions often asked of something-for-nothing advertising approaches. "It brings into question the value of the viewers," said Lynn Bolger, director of market research at SoftBank Interactive Marketing. She wondered who will come when cash is the motivating factor, "as opposed to successfully engaging the viewer."
However, a somewhat similar concept, developed by Yoyodyne, has gained a measure of acceptance. The company runs contests with big-money giveaways, allots something like frequent flier miles to members who visit targeted sites, and has built up a client base of over half a million.
"How do you drive people into the nooks and crannies of your Web site?" asked Seth Godin, president of Yoyodyne. He has answered his own question by successfully luring people to sites as diverse as the gaming favorite You Don't Know Jack, and Nissan. The inducement is a chance to win big prizes like a new car or $100,000.
Yoyodyne on Tuesday announced that it will license its "Click*Me" technology, which uses the collectible point method, to companies wanting to offer the incentive with their own branding.
But Steve Goldberg, a member of the Internet Advertising Bureau and group manager of the advertising business unit at Microsoft, questioned the whole pay-per-view model. "There's an obvious problem with the results being skewed," he said. "It's interesting as a way of testing, but ... is it really necessary to pay people?"
