Operative Blog

Ad Operations Training

Within the Ad Ops community, the turnover of people coming in and leaving can be nonstop.  It might seem like you are always training the newbie.  Training new traffickers can be a daunting task if you approach your employees with an overload of information.  The 5 steps below are guidelines we follow at Operative, that have proved to be incredibly beneficial to traffickers, as well as our customers.

1. Set the stage for what lies ahead

Learning to traffic is like learning a new language.  And with that learning, there can be a fair amount of initial frustration.  To combat this, communicate with your new trafficker throughout the entire training. Provide clear direction.  Take things one step at a time and don’t overwhelm them.  Always encourage questions!  If they don’t feel like they can ask you questions continuously, they will develop bad habits that could negatively affect your campaigns.

2. Reinforce the need for multi-tasking

Without the ability to manage several projects at the same time, your new trafficker will feel the weight of the pressure.  At first, start them off with simple projects like QA’ing creative or setting up a single Ad in the Ad Server.  After they grow comfortable with those tasks, and you are comfortable with their progress, add levels to their trafficking and so on.  Soon enough they will be trafficking a small campaign without even realizing how much they accomplished in a short amount of time.

3. Pay attention to detail

A main component of our day-to-day work as traffickers is spent on the details of a request.  Whether the details are simply the naming convention of a creative or the specific targeting that an entire campaign needs to achieve, the attention to detail is what sets apart traffickers.  When starting out with a new trafficker, reinforce the importance of details.  Slight pressure helps the traffickers learn faster because they are more sensitive to the task at hand.

4. Plan for errors           

Hmmm…errors.  While this is a touchy subject with all traffickers, errors are inevitable and unavoidable because our job function is very hands-on and extremely manual.  The challenge is to make sure to move on after an error is made and learn from your mistakes.  Much like a quarterback in football, throwing an interception is a momentary mistake but you have to get right back up, finish the game, and not dwell on it.

5. Prepare to be ‘last in line’

Lastly, it is critical to alert your trafficker that he or she is the last person on the assembly line of implementing an ad and ensuring it delivers on the web site properly.  What we do is considered the ‘finished product’ and with that, comes the need for increased visibility and accountability.  As traffickers, we need to communicate, juggle tasks, receive instruction, give feedback, and finish the project at hand on time and without error.

Once you complete these tasks, take a step back, see how your new trafficker is doing and then get ready for that next training because there is always someone else is waiting in the wings.

For more information, please click here.

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Patrick Bevilacqua, Operations Manager, Operative

Operative provides outsourced Ad Operations for both agencies and publishers across the globe. Patrick Bevilacqua one of Operative’s senior technical and tactical experts for all things Agency, providing advice to agency clients on a verity of subject matters including campaign and creative performance, troubleshooting, click tracking, reporting and rich media guidance.

The world of creative in online advertising is constantly evolving. It seems that every month we’re reading about new types of creative that can be implemented on a publisher’s web site. While many still use plain images to do their advertising (and there’s certainly nothing wrong with that!), we are beginning to see that advertiser’s want to directly engage the user…and when they do, it leads to quantifiable results.

While Flash® is still considered ‘Rich Media’ by many, it is quickly becoming ‘standard’ creative in this day and age. Flash® ads are now so common that even as a user myself, I do not feel that it captivates my attention like many of the newer brands of creative – ads such as push-downs, interstitials, and floating ads, while sometimes annoying to the user, also present a better opportunity to capture the user’s attention.

So if you are a publisher and want to get involved in the freshest types of rich media, here are 3 things to know so that you aren’t caught off-guard by the newest creative types.

1. Rich Media Vendors are the way to go.

If you’ve yet to take a dive into the world of rich media, know that there are specialists out there whose core competency is building and serving high-end rich media. Providers such as Pointroll, Media Mind(formerly Eyeblaster) and Eyewonder specialize in this type of work, and can handle any questions you may have about rich media as well as assist you and your advertiser in the creation of your product. Operative has developed partnerships with several of these vendors as well- reach out to us if you would like an introduction!

2. Rich Media creative is served differently than standard creative.

Standard ads are served through an ad tag on your website. These ad tags contain a specific size and directly correlate to a specific position on your page. There is very little complexity here. When delving into a high-end rich media creative, the equation changes. Take a “pushdown” for instance:  This ad is meant to load as a standard ad, but when you mouse over it, it “pushes” the content of your page down as the ad expands to a greater size. To create this type of movement, the code within the ad interacts with the code on your web page, creating this action. Obviously this can be a complicated process, which leads us to…

3. There will be some frustrations!

Most publishers can attest to the struggles obtaining creative in time for an on-time campaign launch. When using rich media, the struggle may increase. As a publisher, if you know you are going to be using rich media, it is best to plan for it! Rich media creative often require extensive testing in a custom set-up test environment (make sure you have one!) before setting the creative live to your actual web page. These ads often do not work the way you expect them to on the first try, so it’s imperative to test them before launch. This, of course, means you’ll need the creative in your hands well before the launch- so make sure you plan ahead for this when scheduling campaigns and working with a creative developer!

Diving head-first into the world of rich media is an exciting step for every publisher…and can lead to increased revenue. But know that a lot of work, and often times, a lot of patience is a part of the package! All in all however, employing rich media on your site can be a tremendous benefit to both you (higher CPMs), and your advertisers (more customers)!

For more information, please click here.

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Blogged by Christopher Lane, Operations Manager

Operative provides outsourced Ad Operations for both agencies and publishers across the globe. Chris Lane is one of Operative’s senior technical and tactical experts for all things Publisher, providing advice to publisher clients on a variety of subject matters including campaign performance to troubleshooting and product optimization.

Did you miss DPAC on June 24 at the Millennium Hotel? Are you interested in some of the results of the Operative and DM2PRO State of the Industry survey? Do you want a sneak peak into Operative.One?

No problem.

Download the Operative presentation by clicking on the below link. 

Operative at DPAC Conference_6-24-10

Also, for access to our white paper, State of the Industry: Digital Operations, CLICK HERE. Read more…

Operative Survey: The State of the Industry- Digital Operations

For the last 2 weeks, we’ve been working with the team at DM2PRO to survey the digital advertising community about the current state of affairs:

- Growing need for data integration among all players in the ecosystem

- Blurring lines between publisher, agency, brand and network roles and responsibilities

- As we continue to innovate, our inability to adopt those innovations is holding us back!

- Fragmentation is NOT going away….and agencies, publishers, brands, advertisers and networks alike need to stop losing money and bring our systems together to compete effectively. Read more…

Moments ago at the DPAC conference in New York, Operative CEO and President, Mike Leo and Operative Founder, Lorne Brown, announced the release of Operative.One- the business platform that allows media company’s to operate in one integrated, best of breed system.

We invite you to learn more about Operative.One!  Please click here.

Operative Announces Operative.One

Recently, an Ad Operations colleague at a publisher contacted me about ad discrepancies.  They started preparing for end of month billing:

• pulling their primary ad server campaign delivery reports
• pulling 3rd party ad server campaign delivery reports
• compressing the data from ad serving sources, and
• sending it all off to Finance for reconciliation. 

The publisher wanted to know, “Where exactly do discrepancies come from?  What causes them?”

After a long discussion about some of the known causes of discrepancies, including:

1. The daisy chain effect
2. Ad blockers
3. Defaulting
4. Multiple definitions of an ‘ad impression’

the publisher then said, “I’m not sure I understand what you mean by the daisy chain effect.”  In an attempt to draw a parallel between online ad discrepancies and real life, I came up with the below scenario.  Enjoy!

…and for those of you that I confused even more- I apologize- it’s not an easy concept to grasp.  For those who would like to carry on a dialog, post a message for me.

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The local high school decided to award their students with a treat. The principal called the owner of a concert hall, and finagled a deal for 1000 of his students to go see Britney live. The owner said it was OK to pay him after the show, and the principal said that was fine, he would have his assistant, Mary Pritchard, collect tickets at the door, and Erin Bain, a boy on suspension, count each student as he seated them. Then they would pay the owner an agreed price per student.

That night, Charles McSorley had kids piling up at the concert hall where he worked the door. As each approached him he gave them explicit directions to the box office, right down the hall and to the right, and added a tally of the students to his notebook. Entering the building, the concert goers approached the box office one by one, where Dr. Frank Payne checked their IDs for their age, and sent anyone under 16 to talk to Alex Nevins a little further down the hall to ask if he had any shows available for them to see. The rest were given a ticket to the Britney concert in theater 1, through a door to his left, past the bathrooms and the concessions. The Britney fans flocked to the entrance of theater 1, where Mary Pritchard collected their tickets, and gave them each a form with the instructions to write their name on it and then give it to Dr. Frank Payne on the way out if they liked the show (Payne would then take it upon himself to tell Mary). Finally, Erin Bain escorted each of them to their rows where they could watch the show, thumbing his trusty clicker as each was seated.

The following morning, the crew met up to figure out how well they’d done the night before. Charles had diligently tallied every patron, and said that he had let in 1000 people. Dr. Payne checked the register for the tickets he’d sold, and said that 150 had been turned away to Alex Nevins, and that 840 had been sold tickets to the Britney concert. Mary had kept all of the stubs from the Britney fanatics, and had 750 of them. Erin lifted up his clicker and smiled, having seated 720. Alex, with a shoe-box full of assorted receipts, rattled off three additional shows that he’d sent the youngins to, and how much he was able to talk each into paying. Frank then remembered the happy customers leaving the show, and that three of them had even handed him the form with their name on it. Mary frowned, because Frank had only handed her two of them the night before.

For how many tickets is the principal responsible for paying the concert hall owner?

For more information, please click here.

According to the Bain Study “Building Brands Online”, in the next 3 years, brand marketers will spend close to 40% of their budget on cross-platform campaigns (up from roughly 25%).  That’s about $52,000,000,000 being spent on cross platform campaigns in the near future.  Unless you start making changes in your organization to satisfy this new rise in demand, you won’t get a dime of it.

Let’s explore why.

What do these new demands look like for marketers?                            

A marketer looking for ‘cross-platform’ means they want to use multiple advertising platforms or vehicles to convey an advertising message.  For example, a brand like Nike may want to reach women at home, on the move, during recreation and at work.  To do that, Nike needs a number of options to distribute the advertising message: display media, online video, mobile, social media, TV, outdoor, newspaper and magazines.  And, the list continues to get longer.  For example, in the last 2 months, hundreds of publishers scrambled to build their iPad app, knowing that a decent percent of their audience will flee to the digital magazine version of their product. 

Marketers are starting to require multiple touch points in their campaigns, increasingly digital.  The people who spend the money are aware that digital is an accountable, efficient way to build brand equity and are putting pressure on their marketing departments to become more cross-platform as a result.  They are looking to get a single message to a consumer across different digital and non-digital advertising channels.  In fact, according to the Marketing and Media Ecosystem 2010 Booz & Company analysis, 89% of all marketers are developing ideas that cross media platforms, including digital.        

What can media owners and publishers do to keep up with these demands?

Let’s take a break from the macro-level talk and get into the day to day reality of the situation.  The media buyer that you met at a cocktail party nine months ago calls you up. 

“Hey – long time, how are you?… Great, great…Listen, we are doing this thing for my client and they are trying to reach men between the ages of 18-49 that are interested in buying a car.  And um…they are really trying to do this across multiple outlets…something that covers all the standard online ad units, but something that’s custom too.  So, if you could put together something that’s standard, custom, across video, mobile, online, social, that’s targeted to male car buyers between the age of 18 and 49 that live in the north east, that’d be great.  Oh, wait, I need it by this Friday OK?  Thanks, you’re the best.”

Only 1 type of publisher will get this order- the one who CAN execute.  If you can’t scale, you’ll spend all of your time reacting to these requests and looking for data.  This leaves very little time to sell, brainstorm and get creative. 

Translation – you likely won’t get this deal. 

So, what’s holding publishers back from executing cross-platform campaigns?

1.    Technology and data fragmentation is still a huge problem.  A typical publisher uses 30+ systems to run their business.  The data is fragmented, yet absolutely necessary to access to stay competitive in this new market place.  There’s one ad server for video, one for mobile, and one for display.  If you want to include a TV component or a print component, there’s a whole different set of systems to access to see if the inventory even available, and at what price.  If you plan to offer ad space on an iPad app, well you have that to deal with now too. 

2.    Business resources necessary to complete the RFP or contract oftentimes don’t even sit on the same floor- let alone same office. You may have other sales teams within your company that you may need to consult with to get them on board with your client’s ideas.  They are usually removed from your digital business goals, have not been vested in the process of selling to this client, and have their own agendas in mind. 

3.     Ad operations teams are typecast and segmented by the media they implement.  For many publishers, one team traffics standard and display rich media.  Another team traffics mobile or uses an outsourced mobile ad network.  TV and print production teams don’t even sit in the same office as you.  These are not ideal conditions for selling a cross-platform deal.

What can publishers do about it?

1.    Take a leadership role by getting all of your data in one place for Sales.  Plan for the future.  According to the Ecosystem study mentioned above, 67% of media owners said they need to upgrade their supply chain capabilities in 2010.  Part of this investment translates into having one screen to access your inventory, products and rate cards available for video, mobile, display, social and even TV, radio and newspaper.  This needs to happen, regardless of the number of ad servers or execution systems you may use.  Integrate it all into one central place so at the time of proposal, Sales has all the information they need when they get the call from that media buyer. 

2.    Centralize ad operations teams and production resources.  Fragmented ad operations teams are unable to help sales drive revenue that comes from cross-platform.  While it would be difficult (today) to have the same ad ops team that implements TV also traffic digital, there are steps you can take to move in the right direction.  Get everyone communicating with each other through one platform.  The carrot is integrating their specific ad system into the platform that everyone uses.  This will make them want to be on that platform.  By merging several departments onto one system, new proposals, orders, demands and alerts from a cross-media sales teams would be visible to everyone. 

How do these steps help publishers deliver cross-media campaigns?

By implementing these steps, Sales will be able react quickly to client demands.  They will also have more data to educate buyers and move upstream in the buying process, getting closer to the people holding the budget.  Executives can get a larger share of wallet from existing and new customers.  Ad operations and production resources can become a strategic partner to ad sales teams and help provide a competitive advantage over other publishers competing for the same dollars.

Of course, this is not easily done.  Someone with influence in your company needs to step in and be the VP of Change.  Someone who has power.  Someone that cares about revenue.  That cares about your brand.  Someone that is forward thinking enough to adapt before it’s too late.  If you can get the right people behind you, integration of data becomes easier, centralization of operations starts to fall into place and the company will start to rally towards a common cause- $52,000,000,000.

For more information, please click here.

That seems to be the latest measurement buzz word.  Now…let me ask in a different way. 

Can your Ad Sales and Ad Ops teams scale to achieve the NEW technical demands of media buyers?

In 2010, digital publishers in the US and Europe that are not a top 20 site in their market, will leave more than $500,000,000 of ad revenue on the table.  In fact, if you divide that number into the top 300 publishers on the internet, that’s $1,600,000 per publisher.  Most of that money will go to the big publishers who can get the job done…the ones that can easily execute complicated marketing programs because they have the staff, systems and processes to support them.

In the last 6 months, custom integrations and specialized marketing programs have been in high demand. This has not only become a trendy ad buy in the US, but even more so in the UK because of the market’s ability to be more progressive than most on the creative side.  The end goal is the same- create ‘engagement’ with the consumer. 

For those who don’t know what a custom integration is, don’t worry, you’re not alone.  In fact, these were less than 1% of all digital ad spend only 1 year ago.  Custom integration are media buys that typically come from an agency who is looking for the “big idea” or from a brand/marketer who wants to really create engagement with the consumer.  Things like micro sites, custom video and social media widgets are all non-traditional ways to create engagement with the consumer…a way to be PART of the conversation, not an interrupter.  The first successful custom integration I can remember was a few years ago when you were able to “Friend the King” as a MySpace user to earn points. 

So, OK…big deal right?  How does that lose me $1,600,000 this year?  Well, if you want to offer custom programs, you need to have a certain type of infrastructure to be able to support them.  Most publishers do not have scalable teams or borrowed resources to help execute these types of buys.  In the first 6 months of 2009, almost $1.4B was spent on rich media, digital video, and sponsorship display-related advertising, and according to eMarketer, well over $1B is expected to be spent on social marketing this year. $500MM across digital sounds very reasonable. 

So, what does this mean for the digital publisher?

Challenges for Ad Sales Teams

Sales people are not experienced enough to sell these types of deals.  These buys usually come with a big ticket price and involve multiple decision-makers to sign off.  It also takes an enterprise level seller and a bit of solutioning to pull it off.

Most digital sellers (not all) who started in digital media typically start out as Sales Planners or Sales Assistant roles. This basically means completing RFPs and taking orders from agencies as a full time job.  You can develop poor habits this way.  This is much different than starting your sales career selling traditional media or other “feet on the street” Sales jobs that require you to hunt for your dinner to make a dime. 

Challenges for Ad Ops and Technology Teams

This part of your Operations isn’t the easiest thing to scale.  It’s hard to predict customer programs and big effort integrations because of the nature of the sale.  These deals can be asked for in a week’s notice (sometimes days) and this puts a lot of pressure on the Ad Ops team.  Custom integration deals can also take months to close due to complexity, so it’s hard to staff for something that “may” be coming soon.

If you don’t have a dedicated team for creative development, you are likely borrowing from other resources.  If that’s the case, there’s no way you can keep up with the demands in the market for these types of buys.  Furthermore, these borrowed resources don’t feel part of the sale.  They are oftentimes being dictated to by Sales people- a sure recipe for disaster.

Keep in mind, this isn’t your typical trafficking request either. Creating these types of ads requires multiple custom developers, project and vendor managers to get the ads live.  These buys take valuable resource time away from other high priority work that needs to get done, putting other campaigns and revenue at risk.

What can you do about all this???  Glad you asked. 

Over the last 3 week, I pooled together some ideas that came from other Sales/Ad Ops Executives in the US and UK. 

If you’re a CRO/EVP/VP of Sales, start looking for enterprise level talent.  You can’t win a complex deal with the same resources as you did a year ago.  This is the type and caliber of sales person that can get to the advertiser or brand, convincing the agency to make a direct introduction.

Move the custom development and key technical resources to the sales department.  It’s just like having Sales Engineers for Sales people at an enterprise software company.  They are involved in the sale from the beginning.  This will result in fewer issues when it comes time to getting the ad up since it was properly scoped from the get go.

Ad Ops needs to create a check and balance system to approve the ads before they are sold and QA them before they go live.  The role of campaign management would then be owned by Ad Ops. 

Free up those key trafficking resources that are very technical, either by automating parts of the process or partnering with another company to provide you ad ops services in your local time zone.

Get your sales forecasting process tight.  If you use Salesforce.com, get your ‘opportunities’ for these types of deals in sync with your booking system.  This will give Ad Ops longer lead times since the opportunity will start in Salesforce.com, and not when the order is about to come in.  It will also give sales a more accurate forecast report since your booking system automatically updates your pipeline in Salesforce.

Want to ask me a question?  Post a comment or email me at lbrown@operative.com

The end of a decade.  A time for prediction, review and a double dose of ‘best of’ lists.   So, let’s think… just what does the future hold?

Well, Spain will win the World Cup.  In the UK, Conservatives will win the General Election.  And, according to this Government commissioned report, we’re set for fewer butchers but more prosthetic limbs.

As for the Online Advertising world, it seems as if just about everyone has thrown their hat into the ring.  There was one announcement which caught my eye in Q4 I which feel might impact in 2010.  Google announced a new tool for advertisers called ‘Insights’.  This analytics suite is similar to Atlas’ own ‘Engagement Mapping’ tool and helps measure the effectiveness of display campaigns by examining the entire conversion funnel. This technology hasn’t quite hit its stride, so if you’ve not encountered this as yet: It’s time for a quick primer.  A ‘review’ if you will.

Since the online equivalent of the big-bang, the capacity for advertising on the internet has expanded into some boundless ether.  This constant state of change means that the cost of online ad space has also had to evolve.

Now there are a vast number of variables that determine the price of this inventory.  But despite what an Ad Sales Executive might tell you, this price is ultimately driven by the bar graphs on the advertiser’s report.  As the old adage goes – “It’s only worth what someone is willing to pay”.

The early adoption of buying a number of ad impressions (CPM) proved to be self-defeating in some respects.  As more web pages appeared online, advertisers witnessed diminishing returns and demanded more proof that campaigns were performing.  Establishing a cost model based on the numbers of user clicks (CPC) helps to validate an ROI.  But whilst this kept the acronym fanboys happy, it also raises as many questions as it answers.  Essentially this amounted to a glut of resellers tripping over themselves to get to the front of the queue to register your click and take your order online.  Cue the rise and rise of Search Engine Marketing (read: Google).

Post-click tracking has helped advertisers validate these clicks by identifying (anonymously of course) which users actually ‘converted’ e.g. went on to buy a book, sign up for the newsletter etc.  Here we can see a real correlation between the ad and the sale.  As a result online inventory is now commonly sold on a CPA basis (cost per action) i.e. a website will display your banners ‘for free’ but will take a payment based on resulting sales performance.  CPA deals represent a guaranteed return for your advertising budget.  Everyone’s happy right? <shakes head>.

This pricing scenario has thrown up its own unique conundrum.  When an online ad campaign appears across several websites, it’s possible that a user may see, or click the ad more than once.  Now should the user ‘convert’ (i.e. make the jump from clicking an ad to purchasing a product) which website should take payment for a successful sale?

Currently the general consensus is as follows: A successful sale will be acknowledged to the last / most recent click as this is assumed to be the most valid.

This ‘last click’ methodology is flawed as it ignores user engagement.  A user could see a banner displaying a ‘half price sale’ promotion on 5 different occasions – each in premium positions across several publisher sites.  It’s possible the promotional message has successfully registered with the user via highly interactive rich media ads.  If / when they decide it’s time to make a purchase, what do they do?  What would you do?  Well it’s pretty common to ‘google’ the advertiser’s website and purchase.  Payment for the conversion is therefore collected by Google/the reseller and not the websites who originally displayed the ads.

These new tools help calculate the value of all media exposure, allowing marketers to uncover deeper insights into each touch point.  Thus potentially giving credit (and by that I mean payment, not just a smile and nod) to the publishers displaying the ads.  Given that the analysis of user engagement is a complicated one, there will be no simple replacement for the ‘last click’ methodology.  I don’t expect Publishers/Advertisers/IAB to unanimously agree a ‘one-size fits all’ solution – but it does arm advertisers and agencies with more information to make purchasing decisions, and ultimately this will reflect in the price of the ad space.

So that’s it, a prediction, a review… I don’t have a ‘best of’ list.  There are too many of them anyway (but if I did Mamma Mia wouldn’t be anywhere near it!).

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Blogged by Jonathan Hall

Operative provides outsourced Ad Operations not only for publishers, but for a number of major Agencies across the globe. Jonathan Hall is one of Operative’s senior technical experts for all things Agency, providing advice to agency clients on a variety of subject matters including campaign planning and execution to report generation and troubleshooting.

For the last session of the day, Operative CEO and President, Mike Leo, lead a discussion with Rob Deichert, Senior Vice President, Global Sales Development and Operations, AOL Advertising and Mark Ellis, Executive Vice President, Sales, AOL Advertising.  The panel explored how Sales and Ad Operations  work together to drive revenue, increase customer satisfaction, and continually optimize the consumer’s experience. 

We are in an industry of mass customization.  Everyone and every web site needs something unique and specific and customizeable - but are we there yet?  How do we deliver a custom product but on a mass standpoint?

Question: How does Sales work with Ad Ops? 

Answer: First and foremost, the work starts when the sale happens.  Ad Ops is a major partner, not an obstacle to winning and closing deals.  It’s common that the Sales person always wants to push the envelope with an agency buyer.  This is where Ad Ops has problems- a new custom environment for every agency client. 

Question: Is there one part of customization that would dramatically help? 

Answer: Optimization and billing would have a major impact on making the sales cycle better. 

Question: Does Sales appreciate Ad Ops? 

Answer: Yes (smile).  “All custom = no profit.  And all mass = no innovation.”   The key for any publisher is to find the happy medium because that is how a publisher can advance to the next level. 

Question:  Lets look at an example- AOL’s largest spending customers get the best and brightest opportunities because they have real dollars to spend.  Can we spill less blood than we did 2 years ago, if so, how do you do it? 

Answer:  The major change is that there are definitions for all products (Project Management), like an Operations role.  But in 2009, Ad Operations emerged as a major part of all implementations once a sale happened.  The majority of time though, even today, Ad Ops and Sales are not on the same calls.

Question: How do you manage inventory? 

Answer: The forecasting is more accurate when you add in multiple areas.  There is a balance between very specific sections and the ability to sell the entire site.  Managing inventory is entirely based on the market conditions.  The order of magnitude of creative in online versus TV is so different.  Online averages one piece of creative to 70k users versus a broadcast campaign which over 1 million.

Question: If the agency knew it was easier to do business with a publisher and that made business a lot easier, would the agency move more of the budget to them?  

Answer: Yes, the ability to provide fully baked programs at a strong value creates a much better relationship. 

Question: Is it part of your sales pitch, that “We are better at Ad Ops”? 

Answer: Yes, but it is subtle.  When you don’t have the best product, cheapest price, or largest site, customer service drives a large part of sales. 

Question: What improvements in the sales process have helped the most?  

Answer: One sales person, one person to talk to, one insertion order = huge win.  The online offline combination has a long way to go.  Video and TV will be the first to converge.  Others will follow.

Question: What will be the Big Wins in the next 3 years?  

Answer: The system between agency and publisher with regards to creative and discrepancies. 

“Looks like its cocktail time…”  Mike Leo