OpenX Publisher Conference Guest Post Series

As he prepares for the conference, Greg took some time out of his schedule to answer the following questions about the recent developments he’s seen in online advertising. Greg Coleman, President of Criteo, will be speaking at the forthcoming OpenX Publisher Conference on May 14 where attendees will hear his thoughts on the challenges and opportunities within the digital advertising landscape.
1. What would you say are the main challenges facing digital advertisers today?

On any given day, there are past, present, and future challenges faced by digital advertisers.  In the ‘past’, advertisers review how sales occur within a given time period and understand, retrospectively, which marketing efforts led to those sales in order to attribute marketing credit to those efforts.  As the number of marketing channels proliferate, the ability to provide proper attribution to those channels becomes more difficult.  In the ‘present’, the staggering amount of data that digital marketers have access to means that there is a real need to understand how to contextualize the data, and frankly to understand what’s relevant and what’s not.  For example, what’s the value of a facebook ‘like?’  And in the ‘future’, marketers need to understand how to allocate their marketing dollars in a world where attention is more and more fractional, and split over many screens, sometimes simultaneously.  But these issues are all on a marketer’s mind, all the time.
Read more: OpenX

Big Data Is Never Too Big When You Can Act On It
We all know that a tremendous amount of online user data is being compiled at an extraordinary rate. An unbelievable, somewhat unfathomable, amount of data is gathered every second of every day. But is all of this data being used to its potential, or are we (collectively) just spending a lot of money to mine and store massive amounts of useless information?

This phenomenon of data overload, known as Big Data, refers to data sets whose size are beyond the ability of commonly used software tools to capture, manage, and process the data within a tolerable elapsed time, and it isn’t a new concept. In fact, Doug Laney has been talking about it for over 10 years. Laney is considered a pioneer in the field of data warehousing, and in a research report dating back to 2001 he described the emerging “Big Data revolution” as the outcome of the effect of the e-commerce surge. According to a study* commissioned by the Columbia Business School and the New York American Marketing Association, 96 percent of marketers said they believe successful brands use customer data to drive marketing decisions.

However, 36 percent of these respondents said they have “lots of customer data,” but just “don’t know what to do with it.” Even more troubling, 39 percent of these marketers admitted they “cannot turn their data into actionable insight.” This is a big problem, because in the universe of e-commerce, being able to interact with your customers based on the behaviors they’re displaying in real time is invaluable for driving revenue, creating brand awareness, and engaging with your customers. The key is being able to react to data instantly.

Read more: ClickZ

Behavioral Segmentation: How to Make the Most of Your Data
From Hello Kitty Band-Aids to artist-licensed iPhone skins and Subaru’s First Car Story animation app, the consumer demand for customization continues to increase across all industries. Advertisers in every industry are looking for ways to create unique user experiences that appeal to the different personalities of their customers.
In order to deliver a tailored experience to different shoppers, retailers must be able to segment their visitors effectively. Capturing data about how many people are visiting your site and how many pages they visit does nothing to inform you about the types of buying behaviors they exhibit and what factors actually play a role in their converting to paying customers.

This is where behavioral segmentation becomes crucial in optimizing your marketing efforts. Real-time data about the purchasing triggers for different segments of shoppers is essential when marketing teams are working to increase purchase conversion rates and average order values.

This behavioral data is also extremely helpful for increasing engagement rates for your brand loyalty program and email/newsletter sign-up efforts. When you know what people are seeking in an experience with your brand, or if you can narrow down shopping patterns or ingrained behaviors within a particular segment of site visitors, then you are able to serve ads and offers that are specifically designed to direct each segment’s behavior with the best possible conversion rates.
Read more: ClickZ

DoubleClick Experiment Could ‘Re-imagine’ IAB Display Metrics
Google said it will run a DoubleClick for Advertisers experiment, with help from brand measurement research firm Vizu, that could change the way companies measure brand lift from display ads.

The company will present the findings to the Interactive Advertising Bureau.

DFA experiments began in mid-2008, but this could be the first with findings presented to the IAB that change brand lift measurements. The pilot aims to show that the use of experimental design principles — a research term — is a good way to address brand measurement challenges and to provide actionable insights to brand marketers.

Sherrill Mane, SVP of research, analytics, and measurement at the IAB, notes that if successful, the research could have far-reaching implications for the future of brand impact measurement of online advertising campaigns.

Surveys are a measurement tool already used by marketers to measure the effectiveness of a campaign, but, there are some challenges today with experimental design and how the responses are collected.

“We hope to move the industry forward by establishing a true experimental design form for this measurement,” said Sanaz Ahari, senior product manager at Google. “Online brand measurement for display is a pretty significant investment for the industry, and the IAB has been talking a lot about a solution around true experimental design, which is our focus.”

Read more: MediaPost

The State Of Rocket Fuel: CEO John Sees Impressive, Real-Time Bidding Impact

George John is CEO of Rocket Fuel, an online advertising technology company.

As part of its “State of…” series of articles with industry executives, AdExchanger.com spoke with John to discuss his company, his views on the space, and the state of Rocket Fuel today.

Click below or scroll down for more:

•RTB Impact On Display •The Ad Network & Company Positioning

•Revenue, Momentum •Trends Ahead for 2012 and 2013

•Mobile, Social And Rocket Fuel

•Milestones

AdExchanger: Are you seeing the impact you originally anticipated with real-time bidding (RTB) for PC‑based display?

GJ: It’s much better than I thought. If you consider the layers of sophistication around leveraging exchanges and liquid inventory, where “1.0″ was the original Right Media Exchange, and you’d log in and define your targeting rules and your bids, then “2.0″ was real-time bidding – but it doesn’t add anything to that style of buying.

Read more: AdExchanger

Replacing the dinosaur in the cockpit Can a major construct of an industry that is only 15 years old be considered a dinosaur? It may seem counter intuitive, but in an industry where the landscape is as quickly evolving as online advertising, the answer is yes. The fact that we are relying almost solely on the same cookie-based targeting strategies that were born at the dawn of the industry is like allowing a Tyrannosaurus to pilot a jet plane.
From the beginning, cookie-based behavioral targeting attempted to leverage the strengths of the online world while downplaying its limitations. But, this online targeting relic has begun to show its age, and while the expectations of online marketers have evolved, the strategies for targeting online audiences largely have not. Now more than ever before, there is a desire for a new targeting paradigm that delivers on the promise of pinpoint focus and scalable reach. Our complex and powerful jet plane of an industry deserves a pilot with more finesse than a prehistoric carnivore.
IP audience targeting is an online targeting strategy that brings the strength, accuracy, and flexibility of offline direct-mail campaigns into the online era by mapping IP address ranges to real-world addresses and leverages the publically available information known about those addresses. Continuing the analogy, partnerships between old-school, offline data-crunching tech companies and online distribution engines are now replacing the Tyrannosaurus in the cockpit with skilled and stealthy Air Force academy graduates.
Read more: iMEDIACONNECTION
DoubleVerify Offers Data To RTBs
To further pique interest in online ad verification among buyers and sellers, DoubleVerify is expected to make its services available to real-time bidder (RTB) exchange environments. Specifically, the ad verifier is making its data available to agency trading desks, ad networks and DSPs.

In the first of several planned RTB integrations, DoubleVerify’s data will be applied to campaigns running through the AppNexus platform.

“Bidders can buy brand safe inventory at scale with confidence, and avoid paying for impressions that are not targeted, safe or relevant for the brand,” according to Oren Netzer, CEO of DoubleVerify.

Driven by rising digital advertising budgets, online ad verification has become big business. Quantifying its worth, comScore agreed to buy ad verification company AdXpose for $22 million late last year, while earlier in 2011, DoubleVerify closed a respectable $33 million funding round.

The verifiers, however, say they’re not the only ones benefiting from their rise in prominence. According to DoubleVerify’s semiannual Trust Indexes, advertisers and networks are increasingly standardizing brand protection and compliance verification as part of their media buys.

Read more: MediaPost

Mobile video now accounts for half of all mobile traffic; and on some networks, that number is as high as 69 percent — a testament to the rise of smartphones and tablets as the mobile devices of choice for consumers, and their growing interest in using these devices to do a lot more than just make phone calls.

The data, from quarterly report on mobile data usage out today from mobile analytics firm Bytemobile, also found that Android is generating more mobile ad volume than iOS devices, and that Google now accounted for 75 percent of ad-generated data across all platforms.

Bytemobile says it has collected this data from a cross-section of its mobile carrier customers. It focuses on usage of two main platforms, Apple’s iOS and Google’s Android.

As many have already suspected, tablets are driving significantly more data traffic than smartphones. On Apple’s iOS platform, an iPad user generates three times as much traffic as someone using an iPhone; while on Android, the figure is twice as much when comparing Android tablets and handsets
Read more: TechCrunch
Real-Time Advertising Bidding Offers Publisher Control

As publishers attempt to make online advertising a profitable and engaging business model, real time bidding on Web inventory by prospective clients is becoming more prevalent. Conde Nast launched a private Web ad exchange with AdMeld for select clients in late 2011, and now smaller publishers are getting in the game.

Tech company Casale Media designed real time bidding (RTB) platform CasaleX after several clients expressed interest in the burgeoning model. Andrew Casale, VP of strategy, says the draw of real time bidding lies in publisher control. “There are two extreme models of real time bidding for publishers,” says Casale. “The first is when a publisher has all their inventory in a private exchange, so a human interaction is necessary for a sale to take place.” Another option is for publishers to place online space not sold during more traditional sales efforts on the virtual block. Casale client GateHouse Media, a local newspaper network, sells the majority of its ad space through the RTB platform.

Casale says that valuable space, like homepages, are landing top dollar through the live bidding process.
Read more: Folio

As retailers increasingly embrace mobile to boost foot traffic and drive m-commerce, mobile advertising is expanding as well. To capitalize on that trend, mobile ad network Jumptap has partnered with hyperlocal data provider PlaceIQ and appointed a director of retail to oversee ad efforts in the category.

Through the alliance with PlaceIQ, Jumptap says it will allow advertisers to reach the precise areas most likely to contain members of their target audience, whether luxury shoppers, tourists, students or travelers.

PlaceIQ claims its ad-targeting technology creates a “hyperlocal digital index of the physical world,” by understanding not only what is there, but who is in a place, when, and what they’re doing.

While some of this is static data about a location (down to a city block), much of it is gleaned from user actions, like searches people perform or ads they click on in a given spot at a certain time via mobile devices.

The start-up claims its technology is “privacy-friendly,” since it profiles locations rather than people, without gathering or storing personally identifiable information (PII).In December, PlaceIQ landed $4.2 million in first-round venture funding.

Jumptap works with third-party data providers including Acxiom, TargusInfo, Datalogix and Polk to provide information about consumer demographics from purchase history to income level to what cars people own. That anonymized data helped double click-through rates for retail campaigns in the fourth quarter.

In addition to teaming with Place IQ, Jumptap announced its hiring of Matthew Mulderink as its first director of retail to lead strategy for retail publishers and advertisers. Prior to joining Jumptap, Mulderink was director of strategic accounts at ad optimization firm at Dotomi, acquired last August by ValueClick. He was previously in a similar role at Yahoo, working with retailers including Best Buy, Target and Sears.
Read more: MediaPost
SpotXchange First to Provide Auto- Versus User-Initiated Video Advertising Information to Real-Time Bidding Buyers
DENVER – February 21, 2012 – SpotXchange, Inc., the largest global marketplace of video ad inventory, today announced that it is the first real-time-bidding (RTB) supply source to offer its partners initiation type (auto-initiated versus user-initiated) information for video ad inventory in real time with every bid request.  This information will help SpotXchange’s RTB partners valuate inventory more effectively and make more efficient buying decisions.
There is a significant difference between auto- and user-initiated video ads, which results in two different user experiences.  An auto-initiated ad plays automatically when a user visits a web page, but the video ad does not block the user from viewing intended content.  User-initiated ads must be viewed by consumers before reaching their desired content, such as a video or game.  Because higher levels of consumer engagement are associated with user-initiated video ads, advertisers are willing to pay a premium for them.
Historically, however, user- and auto-initiated placements have been bundled together in brokered deals by ad networks and sold at a flat CPM.   With SpotXchange providing partners with initiation type information in real time with each bid request, SpotXchange’s RTB and direct buy partners can value each placement opportunity independently. This transparency coupled with robust audience data, leads to higher ROI for advertisers and increased yield for publishers, by providing high-quality inventory to the exchange.
Read more: SpotXchange

Modeling an audience segment that targets consumers traversing the Internet has become more of a science than an art, especially when large brands must make quick changes to campaigns and need the data to verify decisions.

Supporting the need to create custom audience segments, eXelate built maX Data — modeled on audience eXtension — a data platform the company plans to roll out Monday.

Audience segments are built in real-time based on the goal of the campaign, rather than the brands settling for generic or pre-populated segments. The platform that creates data sets specific goals for target audiences, based on the clients’ impressions to conversion data, combined with eXelate third-party data, according to Damian Garbaccio, eXelate’s chief revenue officer.

For example, a car manufacturer markets a new car. In mid-campaign, the results suggest a new segment to target — college graduates with specific demographic patterns who have a proven record of generating results, based on showroom visits with their parents. The goal is to get them to sign up for the auto email newsletter online or opt in to “Learn More” on the Web site.

Read more MediaPost
Social@Ogilvy Spans Agency To Integrate Digital Strategies
In response to social’s spreading influence, Ogilvy & Mather has realigned its related assets into a single practice. Social@Ogilvy aims to connect over 550 dedicated social media experts around the world — and strengthen ties with another 4,000 digital experts.

What was once a specialty offering within Ogilvy Public Relations now spans all agency disciplines, including marketing, communications, CRM, sales and shopping insights.

In addition to social media marketing and communications, the practice now covers social shopping, social CRM, social care, social business solutions, listening and analytics and the agency’s standard measurement model “conversation impact.”

“That [equals] access to social experts deep in every marketing and communications discipline,” said John Bell, Global Managing Director of Social@Ogilvy.

Bell said the agency spent the past seven years defining and applying “best practice” use of social media to business. It wasn’t easy, he said, but it was necessary. “The real power of social media for business in 2012 and beyond lies in fully integrated solutions, not stand-alone social programs,” Bell notes.
Read more MediaPost

While both iPad and Kindle traffic increased over the holidays, Kindle jumped from holding a 10% share of tablet traffic at the beginning of December to a 30% share at the start of 2012. At the same time, the iPad’s share over December shrank from 59% to 44%, while that of Android and other tablet platforms dropped five points to 26%, noted mobile ad network Jumptap.

Thanks to the proliferation of Android-powered smartphones, however, the Google platform strengthened its position as the dominant mobile operating system overall on Jumptap’s network, which reaches 95 million U.S. mobile users per month and 142 million worldwide.

Android’s traffic share jumped 21 percentage points in 2011 to finish the year with a commanding 59% piece of the market. That gain came at the expense of both Apple’s iOS, which dropped seven percentage points to 22%, and BlackBerry, which fell 11 percentage points to 15.7%.

Throughout 2011, however, iOS outpaced Android in ad click-through rates. For its year-end report, Jumptap compared click rates among the latest three versions of the rival platforms in wide use. While the rate for iOS has improved with each successive release, the opposite is true for Android. Apple’s new iOS 5 release had a click rate of .91% compared to .74% for iOS 4 and .61% for iOS 3.

By contrast, Android 3.0 had a rate of .59%, down from .69% for Android 2.0 and .75% for Android 1.0. The study didn’t evaluate click rates for Android 4.0, the latest version of Google’s mobile platform, also known as Ice Cream Sandwich.

The report also shed light on another long-running mobile rivalry — apps versus the mobile Web. While many predict HTML5 adoption will ultimately make the mobile Web triumphant, the Jumptap data showed apps actually narrowed the gap in traffic share last year. The two formats ended 2011 in a virtual dead heat after the mobile Web began the year with a 55.1% to 44.9% advantage.

Jumptap says marketers don’t necessarily have to have either a mobile site or app to advertise in mobile, however. Roughly one-third of its advertisers don’t have either, but are using mobile landing pages in their ad campaigns. Of course, if an ad is meant to drive traffic to a company’s own site, it’s best to have one optimized for mobile devices.

The study also looked at the effectiveness of data-targeted campaigns in the fourth quarter. The company works with third-party data providers, including Acxiom, TargusInfo, Datalogix and Polk, to provide information about consumer demographics from purchase history to income level to what cars people own.

Read more: MediaPost

Time Matters: The Role Of Real-Time Bidding for Publishers

Perhaps no single technology has as much potential to disrupt the advertising ecosystem of online publishing as Real Time Bidding (RTB). For an imperfect but simple 30 second visual primer on what RTB does, click here.  There is a shift happening and the surge of inventory that flooded onto exchanges in 2011 attests to it. As Demand Side Platforms (DSP) became ever more an executional tool of choice for many advertisers, the supply side has been pushed to follow suit and make their inventory available through marketplaces. Thus, the tried and true world of direct and network sales is threatened with disruption and the potential commoditization of inventory.

For small publishers, the advent of real-time, exchange-based marketplaces has been nothing but good. In many cases, it allows their impressions to compete on a level playing field against much more established titles, fueled by the individualized audience and interest information readily available through online data providers.

Large publishers, however, should be concerned that the growing importance and availability of targeting data on RTB platforms separates the importance of context from determining the value of the impression. In other words, if you can know what a person wants specifically, it matters less where you serve the display ad because you do not have to infer quite so much about them from where they are.

The impression transparency inherent in RTB environments causes some in the industry to fear that their use will cause CPMs to begin a “Race to the Bottom” as inventory becomes commoditized. Others think it a natural progression towards efficiency, especially for impressions that will always generate less demand such as those for remnant inventory. The Rubicon Project recently published a study that concurs with the latter and this study from Ignition One offers evidence for the former.  Obviously, the jury is still out.

So, if you represent a large publisher, what are you to think about the potential role of RTB in your organization? Is it friend or foe? There is no “one size fits all” answer to this question, but I do have some considered advice on an approach to find your own:

Read more: AdExchanger