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SEMs are the Next Frontier for RMX

Thursday, July 22nd, 2010

At Right Media, we’re very focused on finding new ways to research, plan, target and measure digital media so we can help speed the flow of ad spending online. Our demand-side platform (DSP) pilot, launched earlier this spring, represents one of the ways we are leveraging Yahoo!’s unique offering of science, art and scale to deliver on the promise of audience-based buying.

The Right Media Open concluded yesterday with some exciting news about the program, further underscoring our commitment to innovation and the rapidly evolving business models that our members are building upon the Exchange. The pilot has helped advance client business while protecting consumer concerns and has provided marketers with more opportunity for investment in digital buys across Yahoo!. Right Media has opened the door to select Exchange publishers, including Demand Media, and provided insights into market segments which could benefit from becoming Exchange intermediaries.

Yahoo! has worked closely with DSP leaders, including Invite Media, MediaMath, Data Xu, Turn and X+1 and new partners Adchemy and MIG to establish best practices in audience buying for clients. Early results show that during Q1, DSP partners spend and impressions have grown and eCPM is now higher than other exchange spenders. Additionally, agency partners have shown material media investment growth in Yahoo! Q1 year-over year. Finally, DSPs are now taking a much greater share of inventory with a growth in eCPMs and there has been a growth in DSP spend on Yahoo! inventory in comparison to a decline in ad network spend.

We have also found that as search and display businesses move closer together, search-engine marketing (SEM) companies represent the next phase of demand enablement strategy for the Exchange. Valuable search data can inform display buys, allowing for search and audience-based bidding as well as the ability to serve search creative. To facilitate this convergence, Right Media and Yahoo! are creating a program with leading SEM firms, including Innovation Interactive, Kenshoo and Marin Software to offer this additional value to clients. We also plan to work with Efficient Frontier, a performance marketing company that provides SEM services. This program will enable real-time bidding (RTB) across select Right Media Exchange (RMX) publishers, including Yahoo! and select publishers, including Demand Media; leveraging of data and insights with a clear usage, rights and consumer privacy framework for SEMs intent on leveraging their audience insights to collaborate more closely on search and display advertising; and collaboration on creative best practices and the coordination of search and display advertising in regards to pricing strategy, attribution and measurement, and infrastructure.

—Ramsey McGrory, VP, North American Marketplaces and Head of the Right Media Exchange

Posted in Demand-Side Platforms, Events, Right Media Exchange, Right Media News, Search, Technology | No Comments »

Right Media “Eggs-perts” Share Useful Information Over Breakfast

Tuesday, March 16th, 2010

Dozens of Right Media clients got “eggs-actly” the information they needed at our Eggs & Exchanges breakfast series held on March 2 in New York and March 11 in Santa Monica.

Our first session, Our DSP and Yours, focused on enabling demand-side platform partners to find the maximized advertiser ROI golden egg. Megan Pagliuca, senior director, Right Media Professional Services, outlined the many improvements made to the Right Media Exchange, such as facilitating transparency, integrating with third-party brand-safe vendors, pruning undifferentiated clients, and supporting branding with surveys and other features.

Clients were given a wealth of information about Exchange transparency including that approximately 84 percent of impressions served by Right Media show accurate, targetable validated URLs. Megan also discussed third-party online brand studies, buyer and seller best practices, and brand safety and emphasized that diligence and creativity were needed to excel with RMX. “If you don’t add value, you get squished,” she said. Megan and Daniel Tse, manager, Right Media Professional Services showed how a top cosmetic brand for the first time was able to measure and monitor purchase intent, which led them to profitably redefine its target audience.

During the second session, A Closer Look at Real Time Bidding, Pedro Ponce de Leon, senior manager, Right Media Solutions Architecture, explained the advantages of RTB for ad networks, intermediaries, publisher aggregators and buy-side platforms. He also addressed concerns such data collection and rights and whether there’s a risk of eCPM cannibalization on premium inventory.

Even the most hard-boiled clients profited from the eggs-posure to Right Media’s presentation, which came with a tasty and generous breakfast buffet. Right Media clients can watch their e-mailboxes for an invitation to the next one!

Posted in Advertisers, Demand-Side Platforms, Events, Right Media Exchange, Right Media News | No Comments »

A Closer Look at Online Data

Tuesday, November 10th, 2009

Right Media clients talk shop, spot trends

Everyone knows how powerful online data can be – but not everyone agrees on exactly how to use it. That was the focus of a panel I moderated as part of the Right Media Forum last week.

The panel, “The Power of Online Data, Today and Tomorrow,” looked at the use of data in today’s online advertising industry and helped attendees identify data-driven opportunities, and applications that may exist in their current strategies.

Panelists included:

Mike Benedek, Vice President of Business Development, AlmondNet
Alan Edgett, Senior Director of Interactive Media, Experian
Mark Mannino, Vice President, Supply & Data, MediaMath
Steve Sutton, Chief Operating Officer, Ziff Davis Media
Mark Zagorski, Chief Revenue Officer, eXelate

This great mix of execs joined in an engaging discussion about major challenges for the industry, ownership of data, government regulation and the role of the Exchange.

Taxonomy was discussed at length on the panel, as concerns about differences in the classification of data came to the forefront. Panelists debated: Should the industry have a universal taxonomy as a way to help standardize data across the board? One panelist said that his sales people can’t keep up with the algorithms doing the classifications and, therefore, are not in sync with the different data segmentation occurring in the industry. Another panelist felt that taxonomy creation should not be the role of an exchange, comparing it to a government that is so involved in the mechanics of the economy that it erodes open nature of the market.

The need for flexibility was another central theme in the discussion. Panelists felt that any standardization or taxonomy would need to be flexible. Advertisers who focus on performance need to be flexible with the audience segments they target. Demand aggregators, networks, and publishers need to be flexible with the various data providers they choose to partner with. Panelist agreed that there is no “one size fits all” data strategy and businesses will need to tolerate constant experimentation and its potential financial impact.

When government regulation was raised, panelists said they supported the efforts of the Network Advertising Initiative and felt confident that decision makers were being educated and moving in the right direction.

Naturally, everyone in the room was curious about future enhancements to the Right Media Exchange. I know our clients would like our platform to better enable segment exposure and provide more robust reporting and control. As I said during the discussion, we hear your needs and we are working on them! I look forward to seeing you at our next event.

–Ryan Maynard, Senior Engagement Manager

Posted in Data Providers, Events, Right Media Exchange | No Comments »

Search, Meet Display. Display, Meet Search

Thursday, October 8th, 2009

An SMX East panel yields research and strategy for combining search with display

For the online community, today marked another step forward in understanding how to service multiple products for advertisers. At the Search Marketing Expo East conference, our own Megan Pagliuca, Director of Professional Services, participated in a panel discussion with the clever name “Search Meet Display; Display Meet Search.” Also on the panel were executives from iProspect, ComScore and Didit. To quote “Law and Order,” here are their stories…

We first heard from ComScore and iProspect, who had very exhaustive research proving that when search and display are incorporated into a single media buy, the overall results are much better. Comscore contends that in the search + display synergy, 1 + 1 = 2.5, whereas iProspect asserts that it’s actually 1 + 1 = 3.

And it’s not just based on performance improvements (increased CTR and conversions), but also specific, very interesting, data points:

Display ads drive search: Consumers are still leery of clicking on display ads; however, they will search for a brand name using their favorite search engine (which should be Yahoo!’s, naturally) after viewing a search ad.
Display ads also drive the halo effect with search: Consumers will sometimes search for competitor keywords after viewing a display ad.
Offline sales are impacted by the synergy: Search lifts offline sales and display lifts offline sales, but search + display lifts offline sales more than the two do individually.

Yahoo! has experienced the same results from our own research, and we applaud the detailed research that these two companies undertook.

Next up, Kevin Lee from Didit dove into some sophisticated best practices around search retargeting, which is another excellent starter strategy for marketers looking to blend a search and display budget.

Then Megan finished up the round of presentations, and focused on the “how” of search + display. Given that it’s a complex capability to develop end to end, Yahoo! has two main flavors: We’ll manage it for you, or we’ll enable you to build the capabilities in house with specific tools and practices. Megan started with a quick review on how the consumer consideration cycle works, and pointed out that display and search need to work together to seamlessly guide the consumer down the funnel to the point of sale. She then moved into the two ways that Yahoo! delivers a great search and display product.

The first way we do this is by enabling our network partners to buy Yahoo! display inventory and Yahoo! search keywords, and ensuring that users who search on certain keywords are retargeted with relevant display ads. The second way we do this is by providing a technology platform and services team (Right Media, and Professional Services, respectively) that can work to enable an agency or marketer’s business to buy display and search from multiple sources. In this way, we manage the product or enable eligible businesses to develop the capability on their own. Or both.

This is something that we’re really proud of at Yahoo! Fact is, we should all be making the size of the digital market bigger, so listen up marketers and agencies: Here’s another way to bring your digital spend online!

— Jacob Ross, Director, Business Development

Posted in Ad Networks, Advertisers, Events, Technology | No Comments »

Sleeping With the Frenemy

Wednesday, September 23rd, 2009

Video: Yahoo!’s Bill Wise on working with ad networks

Bill Wise, Yahoo! VP of platforms, spoke this week in an OMMA Global panel at Advertising Week about the relationship between ad networks, advertisers and publishers. Bill made the point in the panel that many publishers simply don’t know how to work with ad networks properly, or know which ad networks are best for them. Bill explains that point—and talks about Yahoo!’s new swagger—in this video.

Posted in Ad Networks, Events | No Comments »

Right Media, Right Conference

Monday, September 21st, 2009

Follow Right Media and Yahoo! at Advertising Week

LIVE NOW!

Right Media and Yahoo! are on the scene at Advertising Week in New York’s Times Square right now. To follow events as they happen, check out: Yahoo! AdBuzz on Twitter.

Ad Week—that Rolls Royce of advertising confabs—kicks off next Monday, September 21 in Times Square, New York City. Combining several events, including the Internet Advertising Bureau’s MIXX Conference and Expo, OMMA Global and the ANA Agency/Client Forum, presenters at Ad Week will tackle the most pressing issues facing today’s digital advertiser.

Naturally, Right Media and Yahoo! will be there to offer news, insight and context.

First, look for some big news from Elisa Steele, Yahoo’s EVP and chief marketing officer. In her keynote address at IAB MIXX (Tuesday, September 22 at 9:45 a.m.) Elisa will discuss what’s new at Yahoo! (and there’s lots of it) and where the company—and where digital media in general—is headed.

Next, look for Bill Wise—he’s Yahoo!’s head of display platforms and Right Media’s VP and general manager of Global Exchange—who will be on a panel with the catchy title, “Sleeping with the Frenemy: Ad Nets vs. Web and Mobile Publishing.” During the panel, which happens down the street from MIXX at OMMA Global the same day at 11:45 a.m. (you might have to run if you can’t hitch a ride), Bill and his fellow panelists will provide valuable insights on how ad networks can and must work for small and medium-sized publishers.

And, of course, there will be tons of parties, galas, awards ceremonies and other assorted brouhaha all week. Can’t make it? Follow the action here and on Yahoo! Ad Buzz via Twitter.

For more details, check out the post over at the Yahoo! Search Marketing blog.

Posted in Ad Networks, Advertisers, Events | No Comments »

Eggschanges? Eggsactly!

Thursday, September 10th, 2009

Come meet us in New York and L.A.

We love to meet our clients, hear first-hand what’s on their minds and offer solutions to your business needs. That’s why we host a breakfast series for our clients called “Eggs & Exchanges” where we highlight strategies for helping them to increase revenue on the Right Media Exchange.

The next breakfast series will be held in New York City on September 16 and in Los Angeles on September 24. We’re particularly excited about the program:

Session 1: “Servicing Brand Advertisers: A Yield Opportunity”
As offline advertising dollars shift online and brand campaigns move to performance, networks and publishers are presented with several opportunities to increase yield. This session looks at how ad operations teams can increase yield by having tools in place to drive better performance results than their network competitors and by providing site transparency to alleviate brand advertiser concerns.

Session 2: “Improving Quality: How to Create Revenue with the Least Risk.”
Proper creative management affects all Exchange members. In this session, we will look at the process from the perspective of buyers, sellers and networks as well as share troubleshooting techniques and escalation procedures.

If you’re already a client, we hope to see you at Eggs & Exchanges. If you’re not currently working with Right Media and would like to learn more about us, drop an email to rightmediaevents@yahoo-inc.com and we’ll get back to you.

–Liza Cichowski, Brand Experience Manager, Right Media Exchange

Posted in Ad Networks, Advertisers, Agencies, Events, Publishers, Right Media News | No Comments »

Is BT the Silver Bullet for Brand Advertisers?

Friday, August 7th, 2009

Brand campaigns seeking better performance look to behaviorial targeting

As brand dollars shift online and as brand campaigns shift more towards performance, we’re beginning to see a lot more interest in the performance benefits of behavioral targeting (BT). BT takes information such as the pages users have visited or searches they’ve made, and enables you to serve ads that are more relevant to a user’s interests. The argument then becomes: if you can show relevant ads to interested users, the performance of your campaign should increase – hence the natural link between performance campaigns and BT.

I attended OMMA Behavioral late last week and had the pleasure of taking in several interesting presentations and speakers that focused on the growth of BT and its impact on publishers and advertisers. The best of these was “How Are Brands Looking at Behavioral Targeting?”, presented by Doug Chavez, senior manager of digital marketing at Del Monte Foods. He confirmed the above trend when this equation flashed across the screen: “Brand + DR [Direct Response] = BT Growth”. This is backed up by a June 2007 forecast by eMarketer, which projects behavioral targeting to more than double between now and 2011.

Brand advertising and BT can be a particularly strong match, because brands have a deep understanding of their consumers and how to engage them. Brand advertisers and their agencies try to use a precise combination of demographic and psychographic information to target the appropriate audience. BT lends to this extremely well. We’re starting to see more brand-relevant segments offered in the market – the Avid Golfer, the Family Chef, etc.

The one thing I took away from OMMA Behavioral and Doug’s talk in particular is that BT may not be a silver bullet but it does align very well with what brand advertisers seek. Doug underscored the importance of BT providers being transparent with advertisers with respect to how their BT segments are created. Brands are not looking for the “special sauce”, but more for the ingredients that are necessary to show the most relevant ad to the most interested user.

— Megan Bergtholdt, Consultant, Professional Services

Posted in Ad Networks, Advertisers, Agencies, Data Providers, Events | No Comments »

Caught in the Ad Nets

Thursday, July 30th, 2009

A round-up of things seen and heard at the OMMA Ad Nets event in L.A.

Yesterday, OMMA hosted its second Ad Nets program in Los Angeles (sponsored by Yahoo!), and the conversations certainly mirrored the ad network space itself: a lot of opinions, and subject matter that was somewhat confusing at times.

Jarvis Coffin from Burst Media summed up the persistent theme of the day during the vertical ad network panel with the line, “How horizontal is your vertical?” As an example, vertical ad networks were developed to target specific interests, but now they need a broad toolset to fully service their partners. Each panel seemed to mention new needs, tools and services now needed by advertisers.

There’s been a profound shift in digital buying to audience that has opened up a lot of opportunity; today Aggregate Knowledge just announced their own audience optimization product. Add in the agencies and their proprietary networks, and it is looking like we are in store for a renaissance in network growth. Correct me if I’m wrong, but don’t you usually see a consolidation of assets in a recession? I guess we’re not in a recession after all.

OMMA AdNets was full of content, covering macro and micro trends with no shortage of new buzzwords. Panelists talked about “private exchanges,” “audience verification,” “real-time creative optimization” and even “secondary premium inventory.” Non-guaranteed inventory turned into “unreserved” inventory (is that like standing room only or general admission inventory?). At this rate, OMMA will need to add a glossary to their program just so the audience can follow along. The term “network” itself still has a negative stereotype apparently, leading QuandrantOne and Disney to call their networks a “platform” or “portfolio” instead.

Regardless of the differences in toolbox and terminology, ad networks are some of the best innovators in the space. There are hundreds of networks because there was, and still are, market opportunities for new solution sets, like campaign and audience verification.

Jordan Rohan from Clearmeadow Partners summed up four key factors to be a successful network: Get big (70% reach is now table stakes for a network), get niched (be different, have a story to tell, and tell it well), get data (an agency panelist repeated that client data is the secret sauce), and get good salespeople (good salespeople don’t stay at poor networks).

I quietly laughed when I heard a panelist say that we still are in the “early times,” but after listening to the whole program, that might just be true. Two topics that were mentioned but saved for the next OMMA event was measurement and attribution. Quentin George, Chief Digital Officer at IPG Mediabrands, talked about it during his keynote, saying that the Atlas Institute had done some good things, but that there was a lot more to be done.

For more scuttlebutt from OMMA Ad Nets, check out #Ommanets on Twitter.

— Christopher Murphy, Director, Business Development

Posted in Ad Networks, Advertisers, Agencies, Events | No Comments »

Can Publishers and Networks Get Along?

Friday, July 24th, 2009

Come see Yahoo!’s panels at OMMA Ad Nets in Los Angeles

If you’re an Angeleno in the world of advertising, it’s easy to feel left out. Most of the conferences tend to be in New York City because that’s where the agencies are, and although it’s great to get to New York, sometimes it’s nice to go to something around the corner. So, if you’re on the West Coast, you should come visit us at the OMMA Ad Nets conference next week in Los Angeles on July 28.

OMMA Ad Nets take place as the world is changing for ad networks, with pressure on advertising prices, the continued rise of exchanges, and the move of agencies into the ad network business. The conference is meant to help ad networks—and the publishers, agencies, and networks who use them—navigate the new environment.

Yahoo!’s Josh Jacobs, our VP and GM of advertising technology, will take part in a panel that raises a familiar question: “Can’t Premium Publishers and Ad Networks Just Get Along?” The panel will explore the notion that even though publishers and networks have sometime clashed in the last year, they still depend upon each other for revenue and inventory. Josh and his fellow panelists will look at how the relationship between publishers and advertisers has evolved, and the ways they’re attempting to resolve channel conflict.

If you’re hungry for knowledge and food (sorry, couldn’t resist), then you should check out the Lunch & Learn session Yahoo! is sponsoring, The Next Generation of Display Solutions. Holly Bowyer, director of marketing, will talk about two of our new display solutions, Smart Ads and Search Retargeting. Both of them bring increased relevance, and may change your conception of what display advertising can do for you.

—The Team

Posted in Ad Networks, Events, Publishers | No Comments »