IP Intelligence: Creating "Globally Local" Online Initiatives
By Rob Friedman,
Executive Vice President, Digital Element
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 The
Internet has become one of the most significant business
communications tools, enabling companies to reach out to
today’s global audience in a more costeffective manner.
Even though this medium provides an opportunity to become
instantly global, companies need to define themselves on
the Internet just as they would differentiate themselves
in the local marketplace.
Companies were initially caught up in the vast global opportunities
afforded with the Internet – so much so that geographic
boundaries seemed to disappear overnight. It sounded great
on paper. However, in reality, geography plays a very important
role in conducting business offline:
1. What language you speak;
2. What currency you use to make purchases;
3. Whether or not you sell to someone (legal restrictions);
and
4. What products you are likely to buy/how you should
stock your shelves.
Internet Users Sport a More Global Complexion In March
2008, approximately 1.4 billion Internet users existed worldwide.
(1) During the last eight years, however, the global complexion
of the Internet has changed. Asia (38 percent) and Europe
(28 percent) now capture essentially two-thirds of global
Internet usage. (2) North America is now home to only 18
percent of all Internet users; whereas, in 2000, the United
States alone claimed nearly 33 percent of Internet users
worldwide. (3)
Because the online world has become an integral part of
day-to-day business, appealing to a mass online universe
is no longer adequate. Businesses must now find innovative
ways to reach and communicate with “global” audiences, but
within their “local” communities. Furthermore, in the once
boundary-less Internet universe, new restrictions and regulations
are making companies take a hard look at how they secure
and distribute content.
When it comes to online content, a universal, all-thingsto-
all-people approach simply doesn’t work anymore. To succeed
online, businesses must localize content, advertising and
communications to increase the reach, relevance and response
to their messages. Companies also need to secure online
content distribution in order to comply with licensing and
copyright agreements as well as to obey customs and cultural
boundaries.
As global businesses take more holistic views of their
online business initiatives, they are turning to IP Intelligence
(anonymous data derived from analyzing an Internet user’s
IP address, including city-level location and other information)
to help them move closer to replicating real-time interaction
in the offline world — most importantly, helping them remove
the impediments of geographical distance.
Businesses now realize the importance of engaging the global
customer in a way that has previously been difficult in
cyberspace. IP Intelligence delivers an in-depth view of
the Internet that allows for more tailored messaging and
content by forging the relationship between geography and
business.
Address Geographic Realities of
Business with IP Intelligence
Geographic realities of “doing business” won’t change just
because companies are now conducting business online. Through
its IP Intelligence technology, Digital Element helps companies
deliver content localization, local search, targeted advertising,
and digital rights management (DRM).
Digital Element’s NetAcuity® IP Intelligence technology
allows businesses to perfect audience segmentation capabilities
and targeting based on a comprehensive set of parameters
such as geographic location (country, region, state, city
and zip code); connection speed; area code; Internet Service
Provider (ISP); North American Industry Classification System
(NAICS); domain name; demographics; company name; proxies;
Designated Market Area (DMA)/Metropolitan Statistical Area
(MSA); language; time zone; and longitude/latitude.
By deploying NetAcuity, companies can accurately and anonymously
pinpoint a person’s location down to the city level worldwide
without being invasive. NetAcuity utilizes more than 20
different patent-pending methods that make it the recognized
industry-standard in accurate IP Intelligence technology.
Accuracy is the most important feature companies should
look for when they evaluate IP Intelligence technology.
This is the area where other similar technologies have previously
fallen short in their drive to deliver the desired results.
Digital Element strives to continually improve its accuracy
levels. Recent third-party tests conducted by Keynote Systems,
the global leader in on-demand test and measurement solutions
for continuously improving the online experience, demonstrated
a 100-percent accuracy rate for NetAcuity at the country
level, as well as an exact match at the state level for
those IP addresses located in the United States. Additionally,
the Keynote technology assessment graded results down to
a city level, and NetAcuity delivered 97 percent accuracy.
Build a “Globally Local” Online Initiative
Below are four areas where companies can utilize NetAcuity
to create “globally local” online initiatives:
- Content Localization - Websites can instantly route
users to location-relevant content instead of asking visitors
to “choose their country” or surf an entire site just
to find products and services of interest. With IP Intelligence,
companies can customize Website content, language, currency,
products and promotions to create an instant connection
with Website visitors, reduce abandon rates, and increase
time evaluating products and services — resulting in increased
sales and revenues.
- Local Search - Marketing dollars would have a larger
return on investment if businesses optimized local search
results by advertising to those potential customers in
the geographic region where their business is located.
IP Intelligence allows companies to automate the process
of serving geographically targeted paid search results
and content, allowing for better click-through rates and
costs-perconversion than national campaigns with local
keywords.
- Targeted Online Advertising - Any business can play
big in the online advertising world. Just knowing something
as simple as a Website visitor’s location is a crucial
factor for success. Geo-targeted ads, for example, get
a 50 percent higher click-through rate. Utilizing IP Intelligence,
companies can enhance targeting of their online campaigns
in order to reduce wasted impressions, increase click-through
rates, and enhance message reach by delivering relevant
ads to local audiences.
- Digital Rights Management - By leveraging IP Intelligence,
companies can effectively create the necessary control
to manage the distribution of and access to online content,
relying heavily on geographic location to serve as the
foundation. Geolocation capabilities allow for legal downloads
where licensing and copyright agreements are in place
and restricts downloads were it is illegal. Additionally,
content containing what might be perceived as culturally
offensive can be restricted on the front end.
Worldwide Corporate Success with IP Intelligence
Companies such as CinemaNow, an innovator in digital entertainment
technology delivering high-quality Hollywood movies and
TV shows across multiple platforms, and ABCSearch, the largest
privately held pay-per-click (PPC) ad network, are successfully
using NetAcuity to harness online consumer information and
apply it to the “the new way of doing business.”
CinemaNow
CinemaNow is the leading destination for the authorized
distribution of feature films and video on the Internet.
The company recently expanded into the businessto-
business sector, working with several manufacturers
to integrate its technology into consumer-electronic devices
where it acts as the de-facto service for video-ondemand
stores.
Looking for the most accurate and reliable technology
on the market, CinemaNow chose NetAcuity to integrate
as part of its PatchBay™ platform to allow for pay-perview
delivery of online content and the management of
digital rights, as well as user profiling and report generation.
By leveraging IP Intelligence, CinemaNow restricts
distribution based on geographical parameters. Furthermore,
with international fraud on the rise, CinemaNow
has now established a front-line barrier, denying access
to those geographical areas with the highest
rate of this type of criminal activity.
With NetAcuity, CinemaNow ensures its distribution partners that it is using
a major- studio approved and reliable solution and that
their access rights are protected, which helps the company
as it continues to build out its continually expanding licensing
portfolio. The company sees NetAcuity as an absolute necessity
for DRM. CinemaNow executives feel that their company cannot
be in business without it — it is not a matter of increasing
sales; the company can’t distribute films without it.
ABCSearch
ABCSearch has created a strong presence
in the marketplace with more than 6
billion searches per month throughout its
entire PPC network of targeted search engines and niche-specific directories. The company needed
to provide more accurate targeting for its global advertisers
in order to continue delivering high conversion rates
for its worldwide clients.
ABCSearch made the switch to NetAcuity in order to
meet its goal of having ads targeted as efficiently and
effectively as possible to its advertisers’ audiences. ABCSearch
executives understood their advertisers relied on
geotargeting to accurately bring their ads to specific locations
around the world, and they expected the company
to use the most accurate and reliable IP Intelligence
available.
By incorporating NetAcuity, ABCSearch gives its clients
the solution that will reduce costs and help them achieve
their online advertising goals by delivering high conversion
rates and ultimately a substantial return on their investment.
By automatically building IP Intelligence into any online
strategy, companies can gain a competitive advantage as
they begin to build solid, global relationships based on
connecting with people in their local community – and
within the parameters of when, where and how they
want to be reached as well as providing relevant, personalized
information that resonates with their culture
and lifestyle.
1. Internet World Stats, “World Internet 1. Users and Population Stats,” March
2008, Accessed May 6, 2008, http://www.internetworldstats.com/stats.htm.
2. Internet World Stats, op. cit.
3. Computer Industry Almanac, Press Release, April 24, 2001,
Accessed May 6, 2008, www.c-i-a.com/pr0401.htm.
Published - May 2008
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