Not particularly scientifically. Our sample is based on ads we saw during market
hours on CNBC and during network television prime time, especially around
big-draw events such as the Academy Awards, for the last 3 months or so.
We chose television for the same reason Yahoo bought Broadcast.com: rich media.
Of the big names of online trading: Ameritrade, Discover Brokerage,
DLJ Direct, E*Trade, Fidelity, and Waterhouse Securities,
only DLJ Direct was missing from the action.
We also found a good representation of the
the smaller companies, such as Brown & Co. and Siebert & Co.,
and added a couple of traditional broker, such as Paine Webber, just for comparison.
Datek Online, owners of the Island ECN and a daytrader's favourite, is
also conspicuously absent. Datek has a very distinct print campaign and is quite
prominent in web banner ads. (Maybe we'll rank online brokers by banner ads next time.)
Specific entries are described in the Cast of Thousands section.
We made it a point to do all this from memory rather than
videotapes of the ads.
While we might have misremembered the details as a result,
we chalk that up as a measure of the effectiveness of the campaign.
Regardless, we recommend seeing many of the ads; they are often
entertaining and offer a meta-commentary on the whole industry.
We first determined the message the ads were conveying and ranked
them subjectively. This ranking is based on a combination of emotional appeal
(using the
Netsurfer Focus Greed-Fear Scale), and information
and entertainment values. Other criteria include message clarity and production values.
The final scores are determined by summing up the ranking in all categories,
double-weighting the message ranking by multiplying it by two.
The winner is the entry with the lowest score.
Honorable mentions are selected for special interest.
See also our Disclosure text for relevant skeletons in our closet.
