Why An Independent Buy-Side And A Sell-Side Makes Sense… For Both Sides
There has been a lot of discussion of late about convergence between the buy and sell side – with a number of large players trying to build their own end-to-end stack. Here Joe Zawadzki, CEO at Mediamath, argues that an independent buy and sell side is in the best interests of the industry.
There is an interesting question being posed in ad tech right now: should the buy side and sell side be allowed to coexist within the same platform? Put another way, how much does focus and loyalty to a specific class of customer matter?
It turns out, a lot, for at least three big reasons:
Conflict.
In finance, playing both sides is what precipitated the financial crisis of 2008. Investment banks that had CDO factoring capabilities as well as retail clients to buy them – buy-side and sell-side – were at the heart.
They knew what clients wanted and how much they had to spend, their risk tolerances and rating systems.
CEO Trefgarne Says Video Ad Serving Core Differentiates LiveRail From Competitors With Display Legacy
Mark Trefgarne is Co-Founder and CEO of LiveRail, a video advertising technology company.
AdExchanger.com: Let’s start with a little background on you. How did your consultancy lead to video advertising technology?
MT: We started LiveRail about four years ago, which came out of a consulting company that I was running in London. The founding team for LiveRail was all working there. As part of the consulting business, we were helping clients develop and plan their Internet strategy – from small, local businesses to publicly-traded companies. Soon after, we built out some of the applications that we recommended to our clients for their online advertising strategy which included building out their intranet or e‑commerce system.
So, four years ago, when Google bought YouTube, there was a “lightbulb” moment that video was moving online. It was a time when video podcasting became a big deal. It was clear at that point that there was a path to a future in which all TV gets consumed over the web and we thought there was a big business opportunity to help content creators and advertisers.
Wall Street Keen On Internet Prospects, But Touts Commerce Vs. Ad-Supported Players
The influential Wall Street equity research team at J.P. Morgan released a 2012 outlook for the online industry saying it “remains positive on the Internet sector,” and expects the medium to “be driven by strong secular growth, increased online accessibility through smartphones and tablets, and strengthening trends around social, local and video.” That said, the securities firm said its favorite picks for the year are not the Internet’s ad-supported biggies, but major e-commerce players Amazon and Priceline.
“Amazon and Priceline are our top picks for the year,” opined lead Internet analyst Doug Anmuth in a note to investors, adding: “We continue to like Google at current levels, but believe the risk/reward is now more favorable in these other large-cap names.”
While J.P. Morgan did not tout any specific online advertising players, it is positive on the overall sector, noting that online ad spending will continue to be driven by display and is expected to rise about 16% in 2012.
“We expect online advertising to continue to see strong growth, driven by increasing consumer consumption of digital media and increasing allocations of branded ad budgets online,” the report reads, adding: “Consumers have greater touchpoints to digital media through the rapid adoption of mobile devices and tablets, supported with higher engagement trends through the use of social media and networks. We believe consumer time spent online will continue to increase, and the online advertising dollars to follow.
Read More: MediaPost
Brands Will Choose Online Video Over Display Ads in 2012: Adap.tv
Study shows that advertisers will increase online video spending this year, and that brands want viewer engagement.
Adap.tv completed a research report on the digital video industry shortly before the recent Streaming Media West conference in Los Angeles, and company co-founder and vice president of product Teg Grenager sat down at a red carpet interview to share some of its findings.
This is a good time to be in the online video advertising space, as nearly all the advertisers surveyed said they were sure they would increase their online video spending this year. In previous years, advertisers were more hesitant to jump in.
“This year there were some very interesting findings. The industry is changing and maturing a little bit,” said Grenager, noting that the market was due for significant growth.
That extra spending has to come from somewhere, and the loser in advertising budgets looks to be display advertising.
“Digital video actually is, in some ways, a replacement for some of what display was trying to achieve. It’s trying to achieve branding on the Web, and digital video’s just much better at that,” Grenager noted.
Advertisers’ goals are also changing this year. In previous years, they looked to online video ads to build awareness. Now they want brand engagement with their ads. Noting that engagement is more a tactic than a goal, Grenager explained that viewers who engage with an ad in some way are more likely to think about that brand and see it favorably.
Read More: Streaming Media
DataXu Thinks Global, Acts Hyper-Local: Acquires Europe’s Mexad
In a move it says gives it the biggest global footprint of local manpower of any demand-side platform (DSP), DataXu has acquired London-based Mexad, a leading European DSP with offices in Western Europe and Brazil. Both companies are privately-held and terms were not disclosed, but DataXu Co-Founder and CEO Mike Baker says the acquisition gives DataXu a competitive advantage in a sector that increasingly is about local service and market knowledge.
With 36 employees, Mexad manages real-time bidding campaigns and inventory in about 60 countries in Europe and Latin America, complementing DataXu’s local market knowledge in North America, he says.
“They have an on-the-ground presence in all the major markets in Europe right now,” Baker tells Online Media Daily, adding that “feet-on-the-street” is becoming a key differentiator for the DSP business, because it’s not just about having the best software, algorithms and access to RTB inventory that determines success in local markets, but understanding local cultures, ways of doing business in specific markets, and the ability to advise and service local marketers and agencies in those markets.
Read More: MediaPost
Yield Management Isn’t Just for Ad Operations Anymore
Tracking and managing ad inventory is as critical as it’s ever been for online publishers, but the concept of yield management has expanded beyond the ad operations group and today touches every part of a successful online media operation. It has become essential that all areas of a publishing organization have accurate and meaningful data points to make decisions to optimize ad inventory and maximize revenue. Let’s look at how effective yield management can benefit the various departments at an online publisher:
Ad Operations:
This is the nerve center for driving delivery for all those campaigns that the sales group has worked so hard to bring in. But just delivering isn’t enough. The ad operations team must have a clear vision of actual inventory on a real-time basis to ensure they don’t hold back too much inventory. This prevents under delivery, a practice that leaves money on the table for many publishers. Ad operations also has to manage their most valuable inventory and make sure premium impressions are monetized in the most effective manner. Having an effective yield management process allows ad operations to maximize the value of their inventory before it gets released to networks and exchanges or, even worse, goes unsold.
Read More: YieldEx
Yahoo! Begins Requiring Right Media Seats for Demand-Side Platform’s Advertisers
The other shoe appears to be falling.
If you’re a demand-side platform or ad network on Right Media Exchange, you may not be allowed to buy Yahoo! Class 2/remnant inventory on behalf of your client unless your advertiser gets its very own seat on RMX. (Having an advertiser get its own seat is not easy on RMX. It requires time, money – and approval.)
According to multiple, reliable sources, that’s the latest directive from Right Media account managers who began telling some of their DSP/network clients that they will have until December 2 to migrate their advertisers. Thereafter, the display ad inventory “valve” containing Yahoo! inventory which leads directly to the DSP, will be turned off.
As All Things D’s Peter Kafka reported two weeks ago, retargeters such as TellApart, Criteo and Dotomi have already had their “Class 2″ inventory (Yahoo! remnant display ads) shut off. This week’s move isn’t a huge surprise given the demand-side platform model is essentially the same between retargeters, DSPs and ad networks.
Read More: AdExchanger
TidalTV Taps Korrelate For Offline Sales
Advertisers and publishers are still struggling to connect online marketing messages with offline sales, which could boost demand and prices for online ads. To this end, online video ad platform TidalTV is tapping Korrelate for sales attribution using its census-based O2O (online-to-offline) measurement service.
The O2O service, which so far is focused on automotive purchases, is based on non-identifying data received from third parties about the past behavior of a user’s Web browser, based on the Web pages visited.
This data is used to put group users into segments, which are then targeted with relevant advertising. It is combined with offline data to determine ad effectiveness. The offline consumption information is drawn from RL Polk’s household-level make and model purchase data from vehicle registrations.
This method is sensitive to privacy concerns, according to Korrelate, because it doesn’t require any identifying information about the viewer, and no offline data can be tied back to an individual online user.
Read More: MediaPost
