Prediction 1 – 2008 will be the year of new and revised standards for online media.

Many outside our industry (and more than a few within it) have criticized the online media world for lacking business and measurement standards. It’s both a fair and unfair criticism. Fair because the lack of standards has in many instances limited our growth. Look at the online video space for a recent example. It’s also a bit unfair, as standards take time to emerge as learning are accumulated, and consensus is built. And, of course, we have been creating standards but they are not yet fully understood.

But I believe that 2008 will be a watershed year in the development of industry standards, including standards related to public policy. Look for significant improvements in best practice standards around behavioral targeting, lead generation and privacy in 08. Moreover, look for the IAB (their audit and public policy committees) and the Network Advertising Initiative (together with its Digital Policy Forum) will likely take the lead in building consensus, establishing standards, and ensuring they are well publicized. This is especially the case for behavioral targeting in light of the FTC staff’s release on December 20th of a set of proposed principles for self regulation of behavioral targeting.

All of these efforts will improve our businesses and grow consumer trust. In a few years, we’ll look back at some of the work currently underway and be grateful to those who participated.

Prediction 2 – Someone will figure out how to ‘save’ brand advertisers from inappropriate content.

Advertisers who want to enter the interactive space, or are seeking to increase spend are reluctant because they have few options where they can know that their brand will not wind up next to inappropriate content. This certainly isn’t a new problem, but the growth of User Generated Content over the past 18 months has really brought this issue to a head. Moreover, with the widespread use of ad exchanges to buy media, it’s becoming increasingly difficult for brands looking to guard against ‘bad’ content.

Much of the work in this space has focused on the User level – particularly around protecting children. Some attempt to filter out and block bad content  Net Nanny, KidRocket, while others attempt to create a walled-off, safe web for kids via a white list. (Pikluk, Children’s Internet).

The software model may help protect Users, but there just isn’t much out there to help the brands – but that’s changing. There are already a number of companies, particularly in the online video space, that claim to offer a means of protecting brands from inappropriate UGC. These companies generally approach this issue by scanning the video and text content around their advertisements. Others outside of the video space are simply working on categorizing much of the content that’s already out there. Here at NebuAd, we are able to perform real-time scanning before brand Ads are shown, if Advertisers wish to be sure the content is OK.

So I predict that we’ll see a handful of companies enter the content rating and certification business in 2008. And this will be extremely helpful, if, as some have predicted, there is a slump in the advertising business. I remember back in 2001 when many online media firms sought to bolster their slumping ad sales by luring the large brand advertisers. As a significant cadre of companies figure out how to make the Internet brand safe, we’ll all benefit. And in fact, a content certification platform (another standard to work on!) would be attractive to affiliate marketers, online ad exchanges and of course, media networks.