Phorm offering Incentives to entice users

The latest news in the Phorm camp is that it is looking into offering incentives to entice users to join its service offering users with advertising considered to be relevant to their surfing habits after recommendations were made that this must an opt-in service for customers of providers that take up this new technology.

In an attempt to encourage users to sign up for its technology that serves targeted adverts, Phorm is looking into the use of financial incentives to bring in customers.

It is believed that research is being carried out to find the sort of offers consumers would consider valuable enough to encourage them to join the service from the ISP behavioural targeting company, which is considered by many to be controversial due to its serving of ads it feels is relevant to consumers based on their web browsing habits.

Money off broadband of phone bill are thought to be some of the promotions it will be looking at. Customer of ISPs that are currently using Phorm technology would be the first users it would promote to online although eventually if TalkTalk and Virgin Media decide to pick up the technology it will advertise its service to the masses.

The recommendation last year that Phorm will need to be an opt-in service with ISPs being required to get their customers consent was made by the Information Commissioner’s Office’s and has led to this latest move.

The CEO of the IAB, Guy Phillipson said that barriers for consumers would be removed if incentives were offered. “It wipes away the barrier of people asking what’s in it for them. It’d be very easy to test and quite easy to research.”

A business consultant at Phorm rival NebuAd, Tony Evans said “I’m not sure there needs to be an incentive. But if I was an Internet Service Provider I would test it without an incentive and see how many people sign up.”

Free anti-virus features or web hosting could be some of the possible incentive he said. “The ISPs need to determine what produces the best results.” The marketing material was created for the company by digital agency TBG London, which was appointed by Phorm back in August.