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!

Right Media’s General Manager Bill Wise was interviewed by the Wall Street Journal last week, touting our “significant” lead over the competition. He also explained how Yahoo’s web sites are part of the Exchange ecosystem and represent a “must buy” for advertisers.

Wall Street Journal subscribers can read the full article.

As brand marketers bring more dollars online, Right Media is actively addressing the needs of the differentiated ad networks, direct advertisers, and global agencies to enable brand safety in our premium marketplace.  In the coming weeks, we will further define how the Right Media ecosystem is evolving in the following areas:

• Right Media Goes Premium: We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again! Last year, we tightened our focus on providing premium, differentiated demand and premium, transparent supply.  We’ve adjusted our strategy and charged our business development team with signing only premium, transparent brand buyers and sellers.

• Third -Party Technology: Right Media is focusing on developing relationships with partners who provide brand safety and verification technologies.  Our Exchange Technology Partner Program helps identify and support third-party technology to extend the capabilities of the Right Media Exchange.

• More Metrics: Our customers have asked for it and we plan to deliver! Right Media is in the process of identifying a set of Exchange-wide metrics as brand safety indicators. 

• Publisher Transparency: Marketplace Select was launched in July 2007 to facilitate site list sharing between sellers and buyers. Today, the program has 145 members.  We’ve also significantly increased the percentage of transparent exchange-wide validated URLs (VURLs).  Now, we are working on an initiative to help facilitate launching more types of premium buys on the Exchange and removing some of the obstacles created by rich media, expandable ads, and brand surveys.

• Product and Policy: We continue to invest in both product and policy and we will work to strengthen our commitment running an open exchange while protecting all participants.

We are looking forward to sharing our 2010 plans with you and welcome your feedback!

— Brooke Wyard & Megan Pagliuca

Earlier this week, we announced that Right Media will discontinue supporting the Direct Media Exchange (DMX) – our self-serve platform for small publishers looking to monetize their sites.  The DMX site will serve ads through January 31st and DMX participants can access their reports through March 1st.

This was a strategic business decision and it was made after careful consideration of our business model.  We believe that the future of the Right Media Exchange lies in the premium marketplace and we have spent the second of half of 2009 paving the way for what we anticipate will be a very exciting 2010.

We welcome the opportunity to share how we can help our clients and potential partners leverage the Exchange to enhance their businesses.  I encourage existing Right Media clients to reach out to their account manager or directly to me so that we can craft a specific strategy for your business.  If you are not currently a client, we would like to explore how we may work together in the future.  Potential partners may contact Steven Woolway at stevenw@yahoo-inc.com.

We’re looking forward to sharing our success with you in the coming months.

Stephanie Dorman
Senior Director, Client Services and Operations
skane@yahoo-inc.com

We have always been, and continue to be, an entrepreneurial group here at Right Media:  We continually challenge the norm.   We push each other to iterate and innovate– if not through code then through creative solutions.  We challenge, learn, and evolve with our top customers.  In fact, we challenge each other so much I urge people to yell, “challenge” in internal meetings if they don’t agree with something being said- it could be on a position during a heated discussion, could be on a market theory, could be on product prioritization… heck, it could be on what we decide to order for lunch!

In 2005, Right Media established ourselves as the first ad exchange when there was so much friction in the market that it seemed like anyone with an ad server could call themselves an ad network.  Today, we are the largest exchange with tremendous scale.  More than 120,000 active global buyers and sellers and roughly 9 billion transactions pass through the Right Media Exchange every day. It was always our goal to take the installed base of buyers, sellers, and overall marketplace liquidity and continue our maturation towards a more premium and differentiated offering.

Today, online advertising is again at a critical point in its evolution. Consumers are spending more and more of their time online and we as an industry have not effectively shown large marketers why the dollars should shift as well.  Now, that’s changing: The advertising community wants an upscale, high-quality marketplace where audiences can be bought at scale, and in real-time.  Yahoo! and Right Media have been at the forefront of this shift and we will continue to leverage the Exchange to capitalize on this trend.

That’s why I’m excited to announce that Right Media has refined its strategy to become a premium exchange focused on being transparent, differentiated and interoperable.  Our premium supply and demand ad platform will support an ecosystem of leading and differentiated digital advertising companies, including differentiated ad networks, leading advertisers, global ad agencies, premium publishers, data providers, and technology innovators in our non-guaranteed marketplace.

We also will have demand-side platform (DSP) capabilities, which is a marketer-focused buying solution that transparently manages media spend across multiple supply marketplaces.  Our premium ad exchange will enable clients to leverage value-added data across the supply and demand of the Exchange and offer  integration (interoperability) with other exchanges.

To read more about this topic, Advertising Age posted a story today about our new strategy. I hope that you will keep reading our blog for more updates about the Exchange.  And please feel free to tell us what you think by leaving a comment.  As you now know, I love a good “Challenge!”

—Bill Wise, Yahoo! VP/GM, Ad Platforms

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

Staying Open While Closing the Door on Harmful Content And Behavior

The following is an excerpt from an AdExchanger.com article by Bennie Smith, Yahoo! VP Exchange Operations/Platform Policy.

Online advertising in the age of media fragmentation does not have to be like a box of chocolates. Both advertisers and publishers should know exactly what they are going to get with every ad impression.

Ad exchanges have played a crucial role in making this possible – by running transparent, fair, and open platforms that have enabled targeted and efficient media buying in the highly-fragmented and ever-expanding media universe. However, the benefits of seamless transactions in an open ecosystem can quickly be eroded (along with your brand equity), if appropriate controls are not put into place.

Threats to the online advertising ecosystem include harmful ad and Web site content, spyware, traffic quality and the emerging and rapidly evolving threat of malvertising (the delivery of malicious code or software via Internet advertisements). These threats have the potential to cause significant harm to all the primary stakeholders in the online advertising ecosystem. Advertisers face the risk of brand erosion and publishers can face user attrition, loss of revenue and public relations risks. Ultimately, consumers are exposed to harmful content and privacy and security risks.

In light of these risks, Right Media remains committed to helping its customers do business in an open ecosystem with greater transparency and control. These issues are not unique to us, but impact the Internet as a whole. In fact, recent malvertising incidents at New York Times and Gawker.com were direct buys and have illustrated the need for every stakeholder in the online advertising value chain to work equally hard and collaborate with each other to address these growing threats.

Our continued investment in protective measures and the implementation of innovative mechanisms are helping Right Media protect participants in the exchange ecosystem from potential harm. For example; in response to new malvertising threats that were observed this year, we made some enhancements to our Creative Tester tool that help us detect and ban creatives that load non-standard file types that can install malicious code by exploiting security vulnerabilities in standard applications that open such file formats; contain an automatic page redirect that is non user-initiated and also identify ads that triggers click streams or click activity without any user interaction. In addition, we continue to educate our customer base about Right Media Exchange tools and policies and how customers can work to prevent the introduction of harmful content, viruses and other malicious code into our ecosystem. By implementing their own controls and being more diligent about whom they do business with, we can work together to preserve our vibrant and secure marketplace.

For the full article, visit AdExchanger.com.

Open Will Win Over Closed

The following is an excerpt of an AdExchanger.com article by Frank Weishaupt, Yahoo! VP of North American Marketplaces. For the full article, click here.

One reason I love this business is that it’s always evolving. Change is essential to success in online advertising…especially when it comes to ad exchanges.

As the needs of ad networks, publishers, agencies and advertisers continue to change, exchanges have had to stay ahead of every impression and develop marketing solutions that can help these players improve and differentiate their businesses.

We know these players are already doing part of the work on their own—gathering the data and insights necessary to manage yield and return on ad spend. But it’s not enough. Exchanges provide a larger marketplace that’s needed to efficiently leverage that data and quickly turn it into revenue. There is no better place to do that than in an open exchange ecosystem. Here’s why:

- An open exchange helps participants in the digital advertising ecosystem conduct business with each other in a seamless fashion.

- An open exchange delivers marketers the greatest number of options in how they define and reach their relevant audiences.

- An open exchange helps solve supply fragmentation by offering a complete, multi-level solution for servicing marketers’ needs. A closed network cannot accomplish this… .

…Marketers take note: We get it. Budgets are precious and the market is increasingly fragmented. We know you work with multiple exchanges and we look forward to working with them and integrating with them for our partners. Hopefully, they will follow our lead and embrace openness because the industry will be best served by transparency and liquidity.

—Frank Weishaupt, Yahoo! VP of North American Marketplaces

The health and safety of an exchange depend upon its participants ­ ­

Online security is a problem as old as the internet itself. Despite the ongoing efforts of the computer software and security industries to combat threats such as viruses, worms, Trojan horses, and other malicious code, we and other online businesses, find ourselves in an arms race with the perpetrators, who continue to launch attacks with increasing sophistication. Unfortunately, advertisers, agencies, networks, publishers and consumers are becoming more vulnerable to these insidious new threats, which threaten not just the online advertising industry, but the Internet economy as a whole.

What can you do?
As frictionless trading between ad networks becomes more and more important, advertisers are looking for innovative ways to maximize their return on investment and publishers are looking to limit the amount of unsold inventory. Liquidity in the marketplace should not come at the expense of quality, and we are committed to balancing the revenue or performance goals of our customers while at the same time helping them to drive a positive user experience.  This means that all stakeholders must be even more diligent about whom they do business with and use reputation as one of the determining attributes, instead of relying solely on revenue. If we sacrifice quality, there is a much higher risk of driving away brand advertisers who are turning to performance advertising as a more targeted, measurable and cost-effective marketing strategy.

Since the Right Media Exchange is an open technology platform that our customers—advertisers, agencies, networks and publishers—use to do business more directly and with greater visibility and control, we are not involved in ad creation or in the purchase or sale of online media.  That’s why the overall health and safety of our marketplace depends on the efforts of all platform participants.

The Right Media approach
Our approach to combating threats to the Exchange includes trying to proactively implement industry-leading safeguards that protect our customers, their constituents and, ultimately, their end-users.

For example, all creatives or ad tags that run through the Exchange are tested by our Creative Tester technology (part of Media Guard) in an effort to detect and ban creatives exhibiting malicious behavior such as viruses and program installs, or that display attributes we consider to be high risk. Creative Tester subjects every creative or ad tag trafficked into the Exchange to a series of tests which simulate an impression, load the creative and record the technical attributes detected during the creative load. When Creative Tester detects certain types of malicious behavior, it automatically deactivates the creative and notifies the Exchange member who trafficked the creative or ad tag.

The Exchange also uses an automated detection program called SCOUR that checks Exchange traffic regularly, searching for patterns exhibited by desktop software and flagging sections that exhibit what, in our opinion, may be malicious traffic patterns.  If we detect that some or all impressions from a particular section of a site on the Exchange have been initiated by applications that are prohibited by our policies, they are automatically deactivated (thereby making them ineligible to receive further ads via the Exchange and to generate any revenue for the publisher).

Keeping up the fight
Our continued investment in protective measures and the implementation of mechanisms like the ones highlighted above are helping Right Media protect all participants in the Exchange ecosystem from potential harm. However, attackers continuously find new, sophisticated ways to circumvent safeguards and malicious software applications continue to evolve in their behavior and delivery methods. We’re always working to understand these new threats so we can develop tools that can weed them out as quickly as possible.

Although the task at hand is challenging, we believe that by partnering with Exchange participants who are equally committed to eliminating these threats at their source, we can make meaningful progress. Right Media welcomes all thoughts and suggestions on this important issue because we believe that if we work together, we can maintain our leading position as the largest, healthiest and most successful online Ad Exchange on the market.

—Nilesh Zacharias, Director, Policy and Operations

Everyone’s talking about real-time bidding capabilities

I remember the day I realized that media exchanges like Right Media had technology that facilitated the selling of inventory on a per-impression basis, by allowing bids to be made on each and every opportunity. I was so excited by it that I immediately kicked the guaranteed world to the curb, and jumped head first into Right Media.

The concept was simple: The highest bidder won the impression. I was amazed that bids could be evaluated so quickly and a winner chosen in real time, and even more so that the value of the inventory could be decided in real time based on market demand. Once I learned this, I was unable to focus on anything else transpiring in the industry, especially guaranteed or reserved buying.

Now we’re heading into a new era. It is still real time, but now it is real-time bidding. Advertisers are rushing to get set up with their own real-time bidding capabilities and hook directly into Right Media’s supply pool. In fact, it is a topic of discussion in every client meeting I attend. Every moment matters and they want to optimize their bids—in real time.

Bidding through third-party integration
Third-party integration requires two key platform capabilities: auction broadcasting and real-time bidding systems. What’s needed is the capability on the supply side to externalize the auction (auction broadcasting), while partners on the demand side provide the real-time bidding systems that are able to respond to that broadcast in real time.

If all of this sounds awfully similar to what Right Media already does on behalf of our demand and supply customers on every ad request, you’re correct: We’ve been doing real-time bidding for years. We were the first to offer it, we became the largest provider, and we are still the largest supply pool of real-time, bidded, non-guaranteed inventory.

What’s so special about this?
Externally broadcasting supply opportunities allow demand aggregators (large publishers, networks, agencies, and tech providers) to use their own predictive engines to decide on a unique bid value per impression. Traditionally these bid values were static, set per line within Right Media, and Exchange members relied on Right Media’s predictive technology to bid on their behalf within pre-configured constraints.

Today, Right Media’s dynamic pricing evaluates impressions and bids differently for every impression, based on many parameters in our predictive algorithm. In the new era of real-time bidding, external third parties will be able to use and control their own prediction mechanisms outside of the Exchange, and to use their own ad selection logic and optimization.

Who needs real-time bidding?
Real-time bidding won’t be for everyone. For many of our customers who bring demand to the ecosystem, using Right Media’s predictive algorithms is the best path to take, as it’s in real time and is dynamic. You won’t need to make large capital expenditures to build out the capabilities needed to participate in real-time bidding. Also, you’ll be able to get very sophisticated with your Yield Manager set-up, including automating the adjustments of bids per line item by using Right Media’s APIs.

Stay tuned for more on this exciting new technology, and please share your thoughts on real-time bidding by posting comments on this blog. Is this good for the industry, or bad? What are your concerns as an advertiser, or as a publisher? Will it raise publisher CPMs and performance? Comment below…

— Pedro Ponce de Leon, Senior Manager, Professional Services