Broadband News

At around the same time as Sir Alan tells one would-be Apprentice ‘you’re fired’ tonight, Phorm will be launching what it claims has always been the ‘missing piece’ in its ‘rounded offering’.

However, one can only imagine what the business guru would have to say to Phorm if he were there in person. With six months having elapsed since it concluded a limited trial with BT of its behavioural advertising technology, WebWise, there is still no commitment from the ISP for a commercial roll out and no sign even of trials from Virgin Media (the other ISP on the record as showing an interest in the technology). No customers, no ISPs, no agencies, no publishers and not a single advert commercially launched after two years or so of constant promises from Phorm that it is ready to launch and that the ISP, publishing and advertising industries are enthused by what they have seen.

Webwise Discover

So, tonight, Phorm changes tack somewhat to present Webwise Discover, which it dubs ‘the ultimate recommendation engine’ and hopes will attract publishers to its technology. However, newly appointed Global Commercial Director for Phorm, Mike Moore, admits the system, which personalises pages subscribers visit around their interests, is causing lots of ‘chicken and egg’ questions to be asked.

Put simply, Phorm has opted to sign up customers to its Webwise behavioural advertising technology through their ISPs but with no ISP on board there can be no customers and the capabilities it claims for its technology cannot be demonstrated in the commercial world.

Its advertising technology works by people signing up for WebWise (it is an opt-in service) and then having the content categories of the content they consumer examined to see what they are interested in. Then, when a person visits, say, a football story the technology would know they are interested in a new camera and put up a relevant advert, an insight that the site on its own would never have been able to make.

However, there has been a public outcry from what Phorm describes as a ‘vocal minority’ about the technology which Phorm admits BT and other ISPs are “cognisant” of and could influence them in “a very competitive market”.

In other words, nobody appears to want to be first to launch a service which tracks opt-in customers, even though it has been ruled as legal by the Information Commissioner’s Office.

Publisher appeal

Webwise Discover, then, would appear to the outside observer to be a shift away from ISPs to publishers. The technology allows people who subscribe (yet nobody can, because no ISP has signed up yet) to be served the most relevant content and links the publisher has to offer. That is, so long as the publisher has signed up, which of course it cannot, because no ISP has and so no customers have signed up to start the ball rolling.

Ultimately, if there are customers and publishers sign up to Webwise Discover, Phorm hopes the publishers will sign up to its separate, but ‘complementary’, behavioural advertising technology and not only serve more relevant content for the user but also serve more relevant adverts.

The change in tack to woo publishers has dominated Mike Moore’s first two months in the job and he claims the feedback has been really good so far.

“People know about how the vocal minority have portrayed Phorm but the top level executives at publishers I’ve spoken to like the idea and they’re looking at on its own merits,” he says.

“Webwise Discover is really going down well with publishers with multiple websites who have various layers of content and they realise they could offer their content from across several sites on one page a whole lot better if they knew what a person was likely to be interested in.

“So, we’re going to be talking to publishers tonight to get more feedback and we may well make it a regular thing, to get out there and socialise with publishers and get a two way dialogue going, perhaps with workshops and so on.”

Change in strategy?

Moore denies that the Discover launch is a way for Phorm to circumvent ISPs, which have held up its commercial launch, and appeal instead direct to publishers.

“Webwise Direct and the conversations we’re having with publishers are complementary to our advertising serving technology,” he says.

“It’s always been part of the plan but it’s taken a while to get done but now it’s ready. Our approach is still to partner with ISPs.”

When asked when this crucial starting point of an ISP signing up and kick-starting the whole service, by opening up its customers to the option of opting-in to Webwise and perhaps Webwise Direct, Moore is refreshingly honest.

“I honestly don’t know, there’s no date in the diary when a BT decision is due. We’re happy with how things are going but we don’t know when we’ll be able to make any positive announcements.”

However well the dialogue with publishers goes from tonight onwards, however, at some point Phorm needs the six months of it and BT looking at results to turn in to action and have it, or another ISP, sign up.

No matter how good an idea publishers think the technology is with no ISP there are no customers and when the only UK ISP to have run trials of the system has chosen to take no action six months on (how long can it take to decide if it worked or not?) one cannot imagine another ISP will be rushing anytime soon to be the first to commercially launch the technology.