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

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

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.

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.

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

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

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

Yahoo! talks to publishers about managing multiple sales channels

Yahoo!’s Professional Services team is everywhere these days. Last week we blogged about several events Yahoo! would be participating in, an IAB Professional Development class about Managing Multiple Sales Channels being one of them. The class, led by Marc Grabowski, senior director of network sales, and Jeanne Hwang, director of consulting, helped publishers and networks set up their sales teams to develop ad packages that cross sales channels and maximize their inventory. Luckily for me the class was in San Francisco: No travel required!

Within the first few minutes we heard why attendees had given up three hours of their day to be there. The reasons the attendees gave ranged from getting a handle on yield management to developing streams of new ad revenue to dealing with channel conflict. With this industry changing as quickly as it is, I understood where these people were coming from. Luckily, Jeanne and Marc had a few tricks up their sleeves to deal with these issues. The three biggest takeaways were:

Times, they are a changin’
The industry is undergoing a dramatic shift. Marketers are becoming savvier; they have fewer ad dollars to spend but have more metrics at their fingers than ever before, and they want results. Over the last few years we’ve seen a shift in ad dollars from brand to performance. Roll in agencies’ demand for more transparency, and you can see how this is causing a pain point that publishers and networks must address. Bottom line:Publishers and networks must become savvy sellers of performance advertising.

Just say no
Successful sales teams work with marketers to identify the goals of a campaign but, more importantly, they help determine if the campaign is likely to see success on their site or network. Is the marketer looking for clicks or conversions, and what are those worth? Who is their target audience?Does the creative have a clear call to action?Is the conversion path short?Does it require minimal registration information that is easily provided (Such as a zip code as opposed to a social security number)?Bottom line:If the answers to the previous questions point to a bad campaign, sales teams must learn to just say no.

Differentiate to survive
How do you avoid conflict among channels that are selling the exact same inventory?You don’t—it’s inevitable. If marketers are able to access the same inventory from multiple sales outlets, they can take the lowest price, ultimately degrading the value of your inventory. You can fight slipping CPMs by allowing different channels to sell different slices of inventory determined by targeting, frequencies, properties, and so on. Bottom line:Differentiate what sales channels are able to sell to help avoid conflict.

—Megan Bergtholdt, Engagement Manager

Yahoo!’s Bill Wise talks trash, tackles publishing problems at Digiday

You know it’s a great panel when quips are tweeted:

Yahoo!’s Bill Wise: “I’m smarter than you.”
Time Inc. Media Group’s Kirk McDonald: “You work for Yahoo—how could you be?”

The ribbing was all in good fun, livening up Bill and Kirk’s panel at the Digiday targeting conference’s “The Publisher Roundtable.” But Bill, our GM of Global Exchanges, got the last laugh when the audience caught Kirk apparently stretching his experience in the industry by checking his LinkedIn profile.

In addition to providing a ton of laughs, the conference also tackled some big questions around the industry’s use of data and where the market is moving.

What data is a proxy to valuable customers?
There was no argument that the industry felt that they need to use data to enable accuracy, efficiency and scale. There was also no argument that this is HARD! (Well, duh.) Making data actionable and figuring out which data to use is why hundreds of networks and service providers specialize in only this.

What I didn’t hear enough of was taking into account the consumer consideration cycle and user intent. One panelist did make a great analogy: If there is a 25+ male, high-income, investor on a slide with his kids on a playground, you probably don’t want to choose that time to talk to him about 401ks. The same thing goes for online advertising: you want to target him with a 401k ad when he is in research mode.

Where do we need to go?
What was clear throughout all the panels is that everyone is an intermediary— networks, agencies, and publishers. Networks and publishers increasingly offer agency-like services: Time discussed its branded network, and one of White Pages’ core service offerings is behavioral targeting. We are entering a world of “co-opetition.” Publishers need to focus on syndication to aggregate similar individuals and will likely start selling audiences rather than placements.

—Megan Pagliuca, Director of Consulting, Professional Services