Operative Blog

It seems like the digital ad market & ad revenues are starting to pick back up.  If you’ve read my previous blog on the 212 Boat Cruise or are in the interactive ad industry, you know things have been on an uptick over the last month or 2.

Typically July and August are slow, but from Operative’s vantage point, it’s been the opposite because agencies are racing to spend ad dollars for the 4th quarter media buys, ensuring their own revenues for 2009 are maximized. 

This made me think of how important the role of Ad Ops will be in the 4th quarter of this year.  After Labor Day, both publishers and agencies will be selling and buying media as if it was thier last opportunity to do so.  As most companies have cut resources earlier in the year, their resources are not in line with these types of volumes and most companies will be significantly understaffed in ad operations.

Not only that, in some cases junior and less experienced resources will be used to execute complicated media types, which is almost worse than having no one to traffic ads at all because that leads to errors…you don’t want to make errors at a time when your customers are figuring out who to spend with in 2010 because there are unlimited options.

This made me think of an article I read back in April about the influx of complex media types, which I think is more relevant than ever before.  It was called Don’t be Left High and Dry, written by Erica Crossen from Brightcove, who spoke of the importance of having your ad ops resouces in on product and ad revenue strategy as early in the process as possible to ensure client satisfaction at the point of transaction.  Cool article, thanks Erica.

As you take off for Labor Day and drive out to the Cape or your house in the Hamptons, you may want to ask yourself a couple of questions, keeping your Q4 ad revenues in mind. 

1. Do you have the right amount of resources in place to handle your Q4 ad trafficking volumes? 

2. Furthermore, do you have resources that have the right technical experience in more complex media types? 

If you answered no to either question, you may want to get ahead of the curve sooner than later.

Have a good weekend.

Lorne

—-Thanks for all the comments everyone’s been giving.  Makes for a more interesting post.  If you have something to say, say it.

Margins is a buzz word. It is a quest. It is an altar at which many in the industry find themselves worshiping.

In this economic environment, the million dollar question is: can the margins be driven without impact on client satisfaction?  One way to approach driving margins is to knock on the client’s door and ask them for more money. The other approach is to focus on your operational efficiency and control the cost of quality, thereby driving up margins.

In this post we will talk about a few areas that need more focus in the Ad Ops world.

The 50-50-90 rule

Anytime you have a 50-50 chance of getting something right, there’s a 90% probability you’ll get it wrong.

How often does it happen that Sales sells a product that’s overbooked? Or your operations team traffics key words that don’t exist?

Standardization is the key. It makes the process repeatable and prevents mistakes from recurring. Creating Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs), Trafficking Guidelines, Process Documents, Workflow diagrams, etc. help initiate and encourage standardization. Updating these documents frequently and training your resources to effectively use them are equally as important as creating the documents.

Honk if you love peace and quiet

Case in point:  in many shops, the situation often occurs that a web developer makes some technical change on the site that Sales or Operations folks have no clue about. Communication is name of the game. Define a clear process and path of communication that will ensure accountability in your organization. This will keep everyone up-to-speed on all developments and changes.

In many cases web masters/developers do not know the importance of proper site tagging – this results in incorrect inventory projections, delivery of campaigns and problems for troubleshooting.  In this scenario, if there is a defined communication and approval process between the relevant stakeholders (i.e., Sales and Operations) it is likely to reduce potential business conflicts up to 40%.

A little risk management saves a lot of fan cleaning

Late creative, third party discrepancy, inventory management, campaign pacing, etc. are common issues for all publishers. Proactive planning and risk management are key. “We are in a rush and don’t have time to do all of this work!!” is a typical scenario. The approach should be to implement processes that force you to follow certain risk management and planning steps upfront. A simple example of this would be a process that requires an inventory check before selling a product.

In God we trust; all others must bring data!

It’s a dead horse that gets beaten all the time. Collect data around your operations, determine how you measure performance and use it as a feedback loop to improve your processes. Data collection is often difficult — either it’s insufficient or there’s just too much of it and no one is sure about how much of it to trust. Make data “simple” and “connectable” – it is key to ensuring you can effectively use it to make sound business decisions.

Final words:

Some companies have successfully deployed structured workflow management by implementing a unified technology platform (such as Operative Dashboard) to achieve efficiency throughout their operations. Partnering with an expert who can provide a bird’s eye view may bring new perspectives and clarity around ways in which to streamline processes and increase these efficiencies.

Being successful in today’s complex, competitive environment means effectively balancing customer experience with operational efficiency.  We’ll look forward to taking further deep dives into this subject in future posts in response to your comments.

Everyone  has seen those little online popup windows that show a surveillance camera or a TV monitor with some sexy women on it.  Let’s be honest – it tempts us to check out the name, address and  …….. while some us find it annoying as hell.

Back in the days…well to be specific in April 2009, the Online Publishers Association announced that a broad set of its members would be adopting new larger ad units. Even though it is OPA’s intent to increase innovation and efficacy in the online space, is this particular move one that could easily backfire in the long term?

Let’s take a look at some points put forward by experts in the industry and classify them as ‘Pros’ or ‘Cons’.  You be the judge on whether these non-standard ad units should be used or not.

The top 5 YEAH…

• On a limited basis non-standard banners and pop-ups resulted in a lift in CTR, engagement, and possibly even conversions or transactions.
• They also create new revenue stream for publishers, while creating extremely high impact placements for advertisers.
• Create scarcity – Limiting the number of these “non-standard” units you sell in a month will help mitigate user burnout or creative fatigue.
• Pop-ups can help establish a brand while offering transactional services and opt-in or contact opportunities.
• The interstitial ad creative uses “dead time” to show an ad message, at a time when the site visitor is on hold and attentive to the message that appears.

The top 5 NAH !..

• These ads might be testing well initially, but at some point the novelty will wear off for users, and the innovation that seemed to flow so freely at the beginning may reduce to nothing.
• These new-size banners aren’t cheap and the same goes for pop-ups.
• There is a relatively small but vocal minority of users who have a low tolerance for pop-ups.
• Pop-ups tend to physically blot out the content that the consumer is actually seeking.
• Another drawback to consider for interstitials is that these ads can attract a lot of attention, but do not always generate a large number of clicks.

What do others think?

A Doubleclick study found that banner ads increased brand measures 56%, large rectangles 86% and interstitial ads increased brand measures 194%.

The IAB’s own study, conducted by Dynamic Logic, found that the new larger ad units are 25% more effective in lifting key brand metrics such as brand awareness and message association. The research also shows that additional exposures significantly increase persuasion metrics such as purchase intent. The research was based on 8750 respondents, four advertisers and 12 creative units.

As for ad shape, so-called skyscraper ads — long, skinny upright banners, proved most effective. Ad placement made a difference as well, with ads displayed during a transition from one Web page to the next outperforming those placed within or on top of a page.

Final thoughts …

“When used with enriched ad technology, the new units are two to three times more effective in increasing message association than standard banners.” said Jed Savage, Director of National Sales for MSN at Microsoft Corp.

Media buyers claim that pop-ups deliver a click-through rate of anywhere from 2.5 percent to 19 percent.  That’s many times the click-through rate of the banner ad, which hovers around a negligible 0.3 percent.

Three suggestions for sidestepping the annoyance factor:

1. Target pop-ups as carefully as possible, because pop-ups don’t work for every type of web surfer.
2. Avoid repeated pop-ups in the same visit.
3. Be sure the pop-up is either very informative or very entertaining, since either of these attributes will help the ad seem less annoying.

As a whole, you need to be conscious of your brands integrity. Just because an advertiser has budget doesn’t mean they should be allowed to spend it. Make sure they are relevant to the users and the content. Any online media campaign should have a healthy mix, a variety of different sizes and types of messages.