Operative Blog

Operative’s Monday Mashup

August 29, 2011

A compilation of interesting news, articles and stories from the prior week…

We hope all our friends on the East Coast are safe and sound following Hurricane Irene and the wild weekend weather.

PaidContent: The Disintegrating Economics of Newspaper Circulation

More proof that convergence of traditional and online media is upon us.  In fact, it’s becoming necessary, in many instances, in order to sustain profitability.  But converging media channels can add yet another layer of complexity to a publisher’s business including the packaging and selling of inventory.  In order to handle the complexities that will come with convergence, publishers need a system that can provide one holistic view of ALL inventory and data sets including audience and sales channels, so that it can be packaged in a way that maximizes eCPM, enables strategic sales channel decisions and then allows those channels to put it in the hands of buyers.  Furthermore, it’s too costly for publishers to run two sets of processes and two sets of technologies.

PaidContent: Medianews Group Consolidates Eleven Bay Area Papers into Two

See above.  Enough said! 

Ad Age: Interactive Marketing Spend to hit $76.6 Billion by 2016

With Interactive marketing spend set to equal the same as TV ad spending by 2016, we have even more evidence that convergence is upon us.  While the two previous articles speak specifically to newspapers, don’t discount the need to roll in magazines and yes, television, into your future product offerings. 

Digiday:  Ad Techs Walking Dead Start-ups

In last week’s Mashup, we commented on another similar Digiday article entitled “Is Ad Tech Ripe for a Shake out.”  We agreed that it was, particularly because there are so many players in the space that just don’t have the value needed to survive, and by value we mean customers and a market to sell into.  There are many “Walking Dead” in Ad Tech and it’s only a matter of time before they meet their final resting spot.

CNNMoney.com: Yellow light on Facebook IPO

Rumors continue to swirl about Facebook’s intentions regarding an IPO. While it looks like it won’t be happening at least for 2011, it is important to consider what this might mean for the future of social media enterprises.

TechCrunch: Monetate Gives Control Of Consumer Experience Back To Marketers With New Testing And Targeting Tools

This marks a rising trend as marketers are gaining more control over how their ads are targeted. Now with the ability test their own campaigns, there could be a greater demand for more personalized advertising targeting programs.

New York Times: Led by a surge in Mobile Ad spend, Pandora increased its revenue 117 percent over the past year.

Congrats to our customer Pandora on their revenue increase!  Given the ability to package ad products and monitor inventory to get the most out of their ad space, we’re not surprised by Pandora’s success.

Operative’s Monday Mashup

August 22, 2011

A compilation of interesting news, articles and stories from the prior week…

ClickZ:  Digital Requires Remodeling of the Relic Agency Model

One thing “big agencies” could do is look at the model of partnering versus offshoring the more tactical tasks associated with digital campaign execution.  This would enable them to focus on higher value activities such as content and creative development – something that advertisers are eager for, and  something agencies need in order to evolve and differentiate in the digital media space.  We mentioned this in last week’s Mashup when we commented on WPP’s outsourcing of finance jobs to India.

Digiday: Lotame to Close its Ad Network

Lotame has realized that monetization of data isn’t as valuable as helping media companies unlock the power of that data.  Not surprising as some of the best technologies in the marketplace started from companies that had a media network, and a technology to support it.  Think DoubleClick’s media network, and then DFP was born.  Lotame is in a hot space, and going from making money in media, to making money by selling technology to enable media companies, will not only differentiate them but show that their true interest lies in helping the industry innovate.

Digiday:  Is Ad Tech Ripe for a ShakeOut?

Ad Tech is ripe for a ShakeOut- everyone in the business knows that.  As this article points out, in order to remain in the game and not be eaten alive, you need to show value.  You need to have real customers doing interesting and different things that will help their business evolve and grow.  The biggest challenge our industry is facing today is the amount of fragmentation that the ad tech “alphabet soup” has created for media companies.  Media companies, ad tech’s customers, run around in a “cloud of confusion” trying to discern what solution(s) are best for them and how to bring it all together.  With so many fragmented systems and processes, how can media companies evolve, innovate and grow?  Ad tech is supposed to help make media company’s lives easier, enable them to scale quicker and innovate for leadership and growth.  If ad tech truly wanted to help media companies, they would throw them a life line out of the alphabet soup and help them bring it all together.  They would help them reduce spend on transaction costs so that they can focus on bringing new and interesting products to market.  If ad tech can do this – the media industry will grow and those that help will grow.  The companies that do this will have created true value for their customers and hence true value for investors and partners.

Wired: Nielsen’s New Post-PC Analytics Track TV Streaming, App Habits

As TV streaming becomes more and more popular not just on the internet but on mobile devices as well, it is encouraging to see a company such as Nielsen putting in the effort to analyze streaming data across all sorts of platforms, from smartphones to tablets.

CNNMoney.com: Data is making the business case for Twitter

Though this might not be such a shock for those in the know, Twitter is actually proving to be a very enviable way of tracking real-time trends, both for consumers as well as the companies that they are buying from.

AdMonsters: US Publisher Forum, San Diego – See what the sponsors are looking forward to!

We are looking forward to hearing one of our first Operative.One users, Meghan Smith of AMI, talk about how she is using the platform in Ad Ops to improve yield.

Operative’s Monday Mashup

August 15, 2011

A compilation of interesting news, articles and stories from the prior week…

Digiday: Hypebusters:  Audience Targeting is Overrated

You need to understand what your audience wants in order to do effective targeting and the only way to do that is to have access to any and all data related to your audience in one central repository.  Mass-customization is achievable, at scale, if you have the right infrastructure and technology in place to support it. 

AdAge:  WPP Shops Planning to Outsource some U.S. Jobs to India

Given the high touch, fluid nature of media, “outsourcing”, which we consider to be the same as “offshoring”, is a dangerous play for media companies in general.  What agencies and publishers should be considering are “managed services”.  A managed service leverages more cost effective resources in countries like India, but manages customers locally in the US with a hybrid model.  The “managed” part creates the necessary resources to make outsourcing work; technology, process and local people managing it.  A managed company should already have expertise in media and infrastructure, so the service can be transparent to customers, with minimal involvement from the agency or publisher. Offshoring requires a TON of involvement and basically shifts the problem to the other side of the world to someone who has a small fraction of the experience the pre-existing team had…oh, and by the way…you still have to hire, fire, train, re-hire and manage those people.  The managed model is the way to go and preserves jobs in the US, while also delivering cost savings and scale.  Don’t try to cut too much…there’s always a GOTCHA that will wind up costing more in the long run….possibly a client.  Would that be worth the short term savings?

Digiday:  No Jobs Shortage in Ad Tech

That’s for sure, and Operative is hiring!   Check out our current job opportunities at http://www.operative.com/company/careers/

PaidContent:  The Onion Testing a Metered Paid Model

Experimenting with and evolving business models is more critical than ever, particularly for publishers if they want to maintain control of their inventory and audience. 

MediaPost: Ads on Tablets More Effective Than E-Readers

Tablets and e-reader may be lumped together as the same product- but they are not when it comes to advertising capabilities! Interesting article regarding advertising on e-readers vs. tablets and user behavior/technical limitations.

MediaPost: Wall Street Downgrades Madison Avenue: Major Impact of Economic Turmoil Will Be On 2012 Ad Budgets

With the possibility of advertising budgets facing turmoil in 2012 it is even more important to get on top of things now.  Making sure you are on a platform that brings together all the dynamic moving parts of running an advertising business will make your dollar go further.

eMarketer: China to Become the No. 2 Ad Market in the World

How long do YOU think it will take China to catch up digitally to Japan?

Ad Operations Online: Leading Marketers, Agencies and Publishers Agree on Ground-Breaking Guiding Principles of Digital Measurement

This is a great move by companies in the digital advertising space, from marketers to publishers, that acknowledges the growing need for industry consensus around how to measure across all varieties of platforms, and further highlights convergence within the ecosystem.

Techcrunch: Facebook Just Out-iMessaged iMessage – And SMS Is More Screwed Than Ever

Great news for Facebook messaging lovers, but does this signify that our one-on-one conversations will now be subject to contextual advertising as well?

Operative’s Monday Mashup

August 8, 2011

A compilation of interesting news, articles and stories from the prior week…

Click Z: Ad Exchanges Present Hurdles for Rich Media Firms

You can’t automate creativity – that is the issue with Ad Exchanges. They struggle to support Rich Media, which is what brand advertisers want. Ad Exchanges are a good way to make money but they can’t support the type of rich, online engagement brands seek today. Advertisers want to be able to manage their entire yield curve and it’s not possible with Ad Exchanges alone, or any automated buying platform for that matter.

Digiday Daily: DSPs Still Fall Short for Brands

Advertisers need a way to bring it all together – metrics included – so they know they are reaching their target audience. And they need to bring it all together in order to simplify their business. DSPs fall short in both these areas.

PaidContent:  We need a Bloomberg Terminal for Advertising Data

Yes, this would be interesting especially if the data everyone was looking at was the same (e.g. publishers view). But a Bloomberg terminal alone is not enough for a publisher, as it would be disconnected and too narrow to support a publishers business. A Bloomberg terminal would not provide a product catalog, or visibility into pipeline supply and demand from non-automated buyers. This is why traders don’t just use Bloomberg. They use sophisticated trading systems with the Bloomberg, Reuters, etc. data built into their sales and traders back office. It all needs to be connected in order for the business to run smoothly, to manage the whole yield curve. Publishers don’t just have data, they have people doing things with that data, in different ways.

CNNMoney.com – How Apple (unintentionally) Revolutionized Corporate IT

This article highlights the ever growing need for corporations to have all aspects of their business available not just at the office, but across all mediums. Apple started this phenomenon with a focus on personal productivity, but this has now become a need for all types of business, especially those in the digital advertising space, who need visibility across all platforms in order to make up-to-date decisions.

Mitch Gelman Named Vice President/Product at Gannett Digital

Operative congratulates Mitch on his appointment at Gannett Digital, as he takes on a pivotal role at one of the leading digital publishing companies.

Business Insider: ComScore Just Spent $22 Million To Make Sure People Are Actually Looking At Ads

Impressions are an outdated metric, but how do we get everyone to adopt metrics that provide more valuable audience insight?

Adotas: How Much For That Cookie In The Window?

Marketers need to look beyond action-oriented metrics (CPA, CPC, etc.) to understand the true value of their audience.

MediaPost: Execs Predict Rev Growth In 2012, Digital Is Key Driver

37% of those surveyed by KPMG predicted online advertising will be one of the top three revenue drivers in 2012!