“Advertising Operations is 50% more complex than it was 3 years ago.” How can this information help you save money – IAB Ad Operations Summit
Dan Murphy, SVP at Univision Interactive Media and LONG TIME supporter of the IAB, gave an update on the IAB Ad Operations Council.
The joke of the day is that Ad Ops has become a REAL job- where everyone is wearing suits and leaving the jeans and sneakers at home. According to Dan, both the agency and the publishing sides have value to bring to the table. 6 years ago, the industry was talking about all of the same problems we continue to address today (late creative, intrusive ads, audience measurement, rich media specs and discrepancies). 6 years ago, Ben Reid (when working for About.com) spearheaded the “OARS- Online Ad Reporting Standards” project (ebusiness). Today, Operative still has a stake in the eBusiness initiative: Geoff Petkus has continued to work with the IAB committees on standards and specs to unite both publisher and agency processes and data models.
The new IAB audit will go a long way to standardize the industry. An overwhelming amount of impressions are audited throughout the web, and verification systems will need to help the ecosystem and not hurt the process. According to a survey Dan initiated, “Ad Ops is 50% more complex than it was 3 years ago”. Fragmentation is out of control right now because of the different sites and structure in the marketplace. While innovation and growth are not slowing down, the largest concern for media companies is “Inventory and Yield Management”. A close second is “Billing Discrepancies.”