RTB Platforms: Lessons From Wall Street?

Real-time-bidding platforms are the buzz in the digital advertising space, heralded as the future of the ad biz with the potential to return the industry to the profitability of Mad Men glory days. Proponents argue that the efficiency that RTB platforms provide will have a transformative effect, altering Madison Avenue’s business from selling “sizzle” to the Wall Street model of delivering returns. Yet given the evolving state of the advertising business and Wall Street’s recent flirtation with our economy’s collapse, are we ready to bet the future of our industry on an unproven model? More importantly, what lessons can be taken from the recent banking debacle to ensure that RTB platforms are able to deliver on all the hype?

1. Standards – Financial markets are predicated on the idea that information about assets is what drives market efficiency. If RTB platforms are to deliver on the promise of efficiency, the display markets need a trusted source of information. Even in light of the recent economic crisis, few would dare buy a financial instrument that had not been rated by an independent, third-party authority. Like financial trading markets, RTB platforms will require a standardized system of metrics that enable buyers and sellers to evaluate transactions across common terms. And in the case of digital media, such standards must encompass the quality, the brand safety and value of those impressions being traded. Without a standardized set of metrics through which to evaluate inventory, RTB platforms will just be another iteration of rate-card-based buying.

Read More: MediaPost

A New Data Player

An old Ad.com colleague of mine, Mike Peralta, recently joined a newly launched start-up called Magnetic, which you can read more about here. In short, the company provides DSPs and their kind with search behavior data to use in display retargeting campaigns. I told Mike, I find it odd that this is the first time I’m hearing of a provider who does this. Especially since Yahoo! based their entire behavioral targeting business on this principle years ago. But here we are, with another way to retarget valuable customers, and I think its a really good one for a few reasons (not just because Yahoo already did it, which isnt always a good reason.)
- It will get more display marketers thinking about the interplay between display and search.
- Unlike offline data, search data is easy to update in real time or near real time.
- There is a lot of it, so a lot of people can play and experiment to find what works.
So while I have publicly cautioned against the “more is more” pile-on effect we are seeing in the data space right now, I do think search data has a justified place at the table.

Read More: Blogs.Forrester.com

News Corp. Looking To Sell Fox Audience Network, But How?

News Corp (NYSE: NWS) has been mulling selling off part or all of prized revenue-making digital ad unit Fox Audience Network for a long time now, and it is finally making the move, we have confirmed. The company has gone around the block with this idea for almost 8-10 months, our sources say, mainly because of the complications in separating the online ad network from MySpace and other properties; News Corp.‘s digital properties are the biggest component of FAN’s network, and selling it off (or even an IPO, a possibility that has also been mulled internally, but shelved later) would put a majority of MySpace ad network revenues in the hands of a third-party owner. One senior source I spoke to last week put it thusly: “it is like Google (NSDQ: GOOG) selling off AdWords.” The news was first published 30 minutes ago by Techcrunch.

Read More: PaidContent.org