This installment of the Online Marketing Champions series features the guru of rich media, Dr. Mookie Tenembaum, founder of United Virtualities, a rich media marketing company. Under Tenembaum’s direction and with his dedicated and talented staff, United Virtualities has single-handedly revolutionized the rich media offerings available to marketers today, whether it be with the groundbreaking Shoshkeles or the newly released Ooqa-Ooqa branded browser. Tenembaum and his fellow rich media artisans are consistently breaking new ground in the advertising technology arena. In a first for U.S. elections, Ooqa-Ooqa browsers were used to encourage voting and provide a fast link to election news by a group of ABC TV Web sites.

Born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Dr. Tenembaum studied Law at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, Israel and Temple University in Philadelphia. He clerked for the Israeli Supreme Court and acted as a prosecutor for the City of Jerusalem. Dr. Tenembaum was a member of the Board of Directors of two U.S. publicly traded companies and was actively involved in their IPO's. Dr. Tenembaum has produced and hosted the international affairs radio show "The International Observer”, created and built the news department of Channel 41 in Miami and has interviewed Oskar Schindler's widow for both US and European television networks. Dr. Tenembaum is a frequent guest lecturer at several universities, discussing topics as varied as "The Future of Internet Advertising" to "The Economy of Terrorism". He is also an active member of "The International Raoul Wallenberg Foundation", an institution that has amongst its members Nobel Prize Laureates and Heads of State from around the world. Dr. Tenembaum is the author of two books. He speaks seven languages.

In our interview Tenembaum discusses the need for marketers to do right by consumers and the impact of rich media marketing in the future as well as his views on the IAB’s role in marketing standards.

eMarketingIQ: Tell us about founding United Virtualities?

Mookie Tenembaum: United Virtualities was founded in 1999. Originally it was called United Sites of America, incidentally and the logo was the map of the North American continent upside down. Our mission was and still is to provide unique rich media solutions for publishers and their advertisers with platforms such as Shoshkeles and our browser Ooqa-Ooqa.

eMarketingIQ: You’re a proponent of the online video 10-second spot and the power of it, can you tell us why?

MT: The 30 seconds that might be repurposed from TV, are too much time for a spot online. Users won’t sit still for that long; they find 30 seconds unbearable. Ten seconds is the maximum time we believe you can take from someone. TV is passive, but the Web is active and every second literally counts to the user. Advertisers must do great things at breakneck speed on the Internet.

eMarketingIQ: What do you think should be the future goal of marketers?

MT: At the end of a long tunnel, one campaign per user. Each user would have one singular campaign unique only to them. The path to that is to get the user engaged in what you’re offering. The user already has the power to turn you off or click away to another page. The secret is to give the user something they perceive as valuable in exchange for their time and attention.

eMarketingIQ: How should companies look at marketing differently than they do now?

MT: You must engage the user as your partner. The users are my partners and once I have the user on board, I have my future. Constantly ask, “What does he need, what can I give him?” If you are interested and I am interested then we are engaged in a partnership. You have to give the user value. Taking without giving has no future for advertisers on the Internet. For example nearly every UV product offers the users a new and useful function (such as search or a dictionary link, or a translation link, or calculator) so that they engage with the unit. Some of that appreciation rubs off on the advertiser.

eMarketingIQ: What do you think is harming marketers’ reach on the Internet?

MT: One drop of oil can make 50 gallons of freshwater undrinkable. Even though most of the Internet advertising industry is honorable, it only takes a few phishing scams or inappropriate e-mails or spyware to compromise the consumer and lose his confidence. It’s unbearable and if it continues the relationship will ultimately be broken. The spyware companies don’t care. It’s a short-lived profit, because what you destroy in losing customer confidence is much bigger than what you will gain. We have a saying, “Bread for today, in exchange for starvation tomorrow.” That’s essentially what spyware is doing. Advertisers must address this and get the user confidence back.

eMarketingIQ: What exists for marketers that they’re not recognizing?

MT: The technology is out there to make a singular campaign and give your customers what they need. For instance if you look at TACODA systems and see what they’re doing with behavioral marketing, it is excellent. It gives you the ad relevant to you. TACODA thinks about their users. It’s putting the user first. When users are inundated with non-relevant advertising it’s basically abusing the user and corrupting their trust.

eMarketingIQ: What about the IAB rules in regard to rich media?

MT: I think the IAB rich media rules are a joke. They’re ridiculous because the IAB should be dealing with two things: quality assurance and education. Quality assurance because the companies in our industry have very little quality assurance on their own. You have to take into account our industry is young, but there needs to be more done to make the whole quality of our offerings better. How many times do you go to the Web with broken advertising and mayhem? Why does this happen? Because there is no quality assurance and big brands are not going to bring their money with broken ads. The second thing is dealing with education. IAB is becoming too much like Congress. It should not be a rules maker, it should be an educating force. It should be a leader and take a stand.

eMarketingIQ: What’s one piece of advice you would give to marketers?

MT: Don’t be in the business of impressions. Life doesn't end this quarter and the most important things are the users and publishers. We live off of them and do not neglect them or sell them short. Demand quality assurance of any ad you buy; less than perfect is unacceptable. Use the golden rule. The Talmud says, “Love thy neighbor.” It’s in every religion, “Love thy neighbor as you love thyself.” If you keep that rule in front of you when you’re looking at marketing and ad initiatives then it will be a fantastic industry and I have great hope for the future of it.