Operative Blog

Operative’s Monday Mashup

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

Digiday: Does Ad Verification Need Verifying?

This is yet another scenario of middlemen mucking around in publishers and agencies businesses, creating a lot of fear and hype and adding little value.  There are more efficient ways for agencies and publishers to take control of the ad verification process that begin by engaging with partners that enable them to be successful, both financially, and from an execution standpoint.  Point solutions are not always the best option and in many instances they are creating more chaos and fragmentation for our industry, and in some instances, chewing away at profit margins. 

PaidContent: Agencies and Marketers see Improved Online Ad Sales Satisfaction this Year

Many Operative clients receive top rankings in Jack Myer’s most recent Online Ad Sales Satisfaction survey, including Pandora, Wall Street Journal, and MTV.  Check it out!

PaidContent: Time to Change the Lens – Media as a Service

Great article by Mika Salmi, former president of Global Digital Media at Viacom/MTV Networks, on the concept of Media as a Service – the new model for media companies in our interactive, social world.  Mika throws a shout out to SaaS providers (thanks Mika), encouraging media companies to adopt a similar approach to their business.  Many great new product ideas are presented here, particularly on the TV/video side of our business.  But we have to ask – how will the media company of the future know how to package these new offerings?  Unique and sophisticated productization and inventory management skills and solutions will be required for media companies to evolve their solutions set while ensuring maximum profitability. 

Ad Operations Online: Casale Media and Turn Integrate

An important integration that highlights the benefits both marketers and publishers can gain from a more open partnership. Just another step further towards less fragmentation within the space!

TechCrunch: Tech Media Publisher TechMediaNetwork Raises $33M in Funding

Congratulations to our client, TechMediaNetwork, on their latest round of funding! 

Adotas:  Ad Networks Raking in More Display Spending

This should be a wake-up call for publishers and agencies!  Both sides of the industry have the ability to create a more direct relationship with one another but continue to allow middlemen to chew away at their profit margins.  The YOY increase is astounding!  How much of a decline in direct revenue do you think publishers and agencies are seeing because of this?  I encourage everyone to discuss and debate this issue.  It’s one we’ve discussed many times in the past, including during our iMedia Publisher’s Breakfast this past May titled “Hey CROs – Is your Comp Plan at Risk.”

Operative Blog: MediaOcean: The Merger Between DDS and MediaBank

Did you read our blog post on the DDS/MediaBank merger last week?  If not, check it out and let us know what you think by posting a comment back!

The deal between Donovan and MediaBank is great news and much needed. Our industry is blessed with a tremendous amount of innovation.  Unfortunately, many innovators in our space have lacked the foresight to adopt a long term approach to enabling successful, profitable relationships between buyers and sellers. As a result, these middlemen that disintermediate between buyers and sellers have fostered an unsustainable ecosystem that robs each side of the value they create. The merger is a welcome landmark step in filling a gaping hole in our space today—THE Operating System on the buy side.

Dealing With The Devil

As an industry, we have made a deal with the devil. Indirect sales channels burst onto the scene promising more revenue with less effort. Easy money, however, comes at a high price.  Traditional technology infrastructure claims only 2-5% of revenue, while these so-called revenue-boosting partners unabashedly take a hefty 30-70% ransom after all is said and done.

Buyers and sellers depend on these players to run their advertising business. But business infrastructure has been usurped by a myriad of brokers, each taking a cut along the way. First came the ad networks. Then came audience extension platforms and ad exchanges. Re-branded efforts produced yield optimizers and then RTBs.  As everyone knows, if you take a look at the business model, they’re still all networks who are paid at exorbitant rates.

Everyone argues about whether it’s the buyer or seller who holds the position of power, when in reality, these intermediaries hold both of them hostage. Not only are their margins at stake, but their ability to compete against traditional mediums are hindered. Where is the capital to invest in better content? Where is the capital to invest in better creative? It certainly feels like it’s going to the VCs, rather than to advertisers and publishers.

How is this sustainable? Buyers and sellers have known for years that they have been losing a disproportionate amount of revenue to indirect and remained concerned that their partners are commoditizing their data, audience, and inventory. In the end, they ask, “Are my partners intent on competing with me?”

Even the titans in our industry are banding together to fight against the middlemen—just look at the recent AOL, Yahoo, Microsoft announcement.

Change Is In the Air

Both buyers and sellers are fed up. The leakage from the spread between the buyer and seller has become large enough. It has come to the point where they are realizing they are mortgaging their future by not partnering with people that allow them to build value on their own. As Michael Donovan noted to partners yesterday, the deal is addressing their clients’ outcry for “a single, neutral and universal operating system for advertising technology”. Over the past several years, we’ve seen no different on the sell side—publishers are demanding an operating system that enables them to work more easily and directly with buyers while increasing their margins. It is high time that buyers and sellers repatriate their assets and capture revenue for the value they deliver. The key to doing so is to work with partners whose business model is to provide infrastructure, not to compete.

Now, we are one step closer to enabling our clients to succeed. The Donovan and MediaBank merger paves the runway to building tighter buyer-seller relationships by providing this much needed infrastructure on the buy side.

There is no doubt  MediaOcean still has challenges ahead—two different companies, two different cultures, a huge technology challenge to integrate multiple platforms. My hope is that this team knocks it out of the park. This is by far the healthiest thing in a long time that has happened in our ecosystem.

Operative’s Monday Mashup

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

WSJ:  Rival Ad-Tech Firms to Become One

The deal between Donavan and MediaBank is brilliant and needed.  Innovators have, time and time again, stepped in between the buyer and seller in an effort to disintermediate and steal a portion of their revenue. These innovators have fostered an unsustainable ecosystem, robbing the buyers and sellers of the value they create.  Instead of enabling the sell side and the buy side to work directly together and thereby, retain value, they have continuously disrupted the value chain. The merger fills a major gap in our space today by providing an operating system (OS) on the buy side – one that will connect buyers and sellers in a healthy, unthreatening way.  We’ll be blogging more about this news story this week.  Check back later today and throughout the week for further posts.

AdMonsters:  Publisher Headaches:  The Systems Integration Identity Crisis

Who’s job is it to make sure a publisher’s systems, data and processes get integrated?  Publishers definitely should NOT have to worry about systems integration.  While it’s true, they are knee deep in technology, particularly on the digital side of the business, their jobs should be focused more on content, audience and product development – on innovation – as opposed to execution.  Publishers need a platform that integrates with the larger ecosystem of ad technology providers, including CRM systems.  This will not only help them remain focused on innovation and growth, but also help them better manage costs.  Such a platform exists – it’s called an Advertising Business Management platform.  Check it out Chris – www.operative.com!

AdExchanger:  Bridging the Online-Offline Gap with Collective and Rentrak

Publishers need a lot more to bridge their online and offline businesses.  What about all the back-end systems that enable the two businesses to operate?  While this is certainly a step in the right direction, it helps bridge only a small fragment of what media businesses need in order to see real lift from converged media.  Publishers need an operating system (a platform) that can bring together all technologies, people and processes that aid the sale of an ad slot – start to finish – from RFP, to trafficking of the ad, to campaign analysis and optimization, to billing, and then they need the ability to analyze the performance of the product/package that was sold.  Publishers still need a business layer that ties it all together in order for the real labors of “online-offline convergence” to bear fruit!

Ad Operations Online: New Research Shows Incentivized Brand Advertising Works to Capture the Active Attention of 91% of People Who Interact with a Brand’s Message

While it isn’t rocket science that providing incentive would boost attention among a target audience, 91% is certainly a large wake-up call for advertisers looking to deepen brand awareness. It would not be surprising to see a push towards innovation in how display ads run in order to incentivize conversions more.

TechCrunch: Facebook Unveils Timeline: The Story Of Your Life On A Single Page

You have to hand it to Facebook. For all the complaints about recurring changes to the layout, a perceived overload of third-party functionality, and its general ability to take over far too much of one’s time, the company still finds itself at the head of social media. Timeline represents a big step forward, going beyond sharing data in real-time, but storing data from over time, and allowing your profile to be representative of your life in motion, not just the most recent 5 minutes of it.  Continuous product innovation is what keeps millions and millions of eyeballs on Facebook – and advertisers coming back for more and more!

Business Insider: The Brand New And Blazing Fast Pandora Launches Today With UNLIMITED MUSIC

Congratulations to our client, Pandora!  Always on the cutting-edge of innovation…

Operative’s Monday Mashup

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

PaidContent:  AOL, Microsoft and Yahoo Seeking to Form Ad Alliance

If there is a content play here, this “alliance” may make sense.  But it seems as if there are still a lot of details to be ironed out, such as how and why a sales person – at say Microsoft – would want to sell his/her competitors (Yahoo and/or AOL) inventory?  And how much additional value will each company generate by cutting out the ad networks?  At the end of the day, brands still need to reach their target audience for the best price possible.  Microsoft, Yahoo and AOL will need to ensure they are delivering more value to the brands if this alliance is going to work.  If all three had a central “hub” they could hook into to view one another’s available inventory, in real-time, and package that inventory in a unique way that delivers more value to the brand, this concept could work.  Alignment of goals and operations will be key here!

Digiday: Mediabrands’ George on Bridging the Silicon Valley – Madison Avenue Divide

As George said, “What we’re likely to see is that clients will hold agencies to be more efficient in what they do and the smart agencies are figuring out that technology can enable that.”  We work with many agencies today and we are hearing the same thing from them – they need to improve profit margins WHILE simultaneously improving customer satisfaction.  Brands want the next big thing – the biggest and best creative – with the most relevant eyeballs.  The agencies that are able to deliver both will have also embraced technology and improved efficiencies, freeing up their creative resources to deliver the next big thing.

ClickZ:  Walmart Buys Ad Targeting Firm OneRiot

It’s no surprise that more and more e-retailers are embracing and investing in ad technology – they have the eyeballs going directly to their sites, and can enable a highly engaging and social experience for shoppers.  Walmart is creating more value for their consumers and the brands they market and sell, by taking ownership of their site “audience” and data and creating a unique shopping experience.  Watch for more e-retailers to follow suit.

MediaPost: Asian Allure: $123B Ad Spend Predicted For 2011

Operative is investing in the Asia-Pacific market as well.  We appointed a General Manager, Dean Jenkins, earlier this year to spearhead and lead business development and growth initiatives in the region.  Through the acquisition of Solbright in October 2010, Operative now estimates it manages nearly 60% of Australia’s display advertising spend. While our initial efforts will focus on Australia and Singapore, we are keeping our eye on the ever-expanding markets throughout the rest of the Asia-Pacific region. Southeast Asia is one of the fastest growing markets in the world for Internet usage. As usage increases and connectivity improves, we expect to see an increased demand for online advertising solutions. Having and developing further a local presence in the region will ensure we are able to support market growth as it unfolds.

AdExchanger: New Mediabrands CTO Wenzek Discusses The Agency and Technology Nexus

Wenzek – “When I look at the media industry, I see a lot of similarities to late 1990s to early 2000s, in the manufacturing industries, where many eTools on behalf of eBusiness were implemented. The media industry is still missing a lot of these tools and automated processes.”  Exactly – that’s what we’ve been saying for AGES now!  The media industry is missing the equivalent of enterprise resource planning (ERP) that many manufacturers began implementing in the late 1900s.  Advertising Business Management is the solution to this.  Let’s do lunch, Mr. Wenzek!

Operative’s Monday Mashup

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

Paidcontent:  What Publishers can Learn from Online Retailers

Publishers are no longer simply selling products that are served by a commercial display ad server, such as Ad Tech, OAS and DFP.  They are also selling products served by mobile and video ad servers, such as Ad Marvel.  Furthermore, they sell inventory that is being retargeted from other sites, or other publisher’s inventory which they may or may not own.  Like the user on Amazon.com, a publisher’s sales people should be able to put together a set of products that are relevant to, and meet the needs of, a brand or agency regardless of who is serving the inventory or what ad server is delivering the final product.

Paidcontent: Three More Papers Put up Paywalls, with Some New Twists

Online memberships are a great way for newspapers to generate new sources of revenue, whilst revenue from traditional print subscriptions and sales continue to dwindle.  We’ve long taken the position that publishers need to evolve their business models – they need to offer new products and package them in new ways to ensure they both retain and grow their audience base.  Pulling more and more of their business online will enable them to do this, but in order to do it effectively they must get control of their inventory and sales channels, and they must become more strategic and more creative in how they deliver their inventory to the market.

ClickZ: Digital Publishing, A Virtual Snowstorm in the Making

A snowflake – that is exactly what every eyeball on a publisher’s site is like – individual and unique.  The challenge publishers have, as pointed out in this article, is delivering the right content to the right eyeballs.  There are any number of providers in the ad technology market today that claim to help publishers with this challenge, but the best way publishers can get a handle on it is by owning and analyzing their own data themselves, and then deliver products that can speak to all the “snowflakes” out there. Mass-customization can be achieved at scale, but only with the right technology infrastructure in place.

ClickZ:  Yahoo Fires Bartz, Looks to Turn Around Fortunes

As this article points out, Yahoo must get a better handle on their advertising business in order to effectively compete with the likes of Google again. They have not done enough to innovate – not at the product level – nor at the operations level – and have fallen behind as a result.  One easy way they could begin to differentiate themselves is to embrace best-of-breed ad technologies that will enable them to scale quicker and accelerate the pace of innovation at the product and packaging level.  They need a step-change, and that may mean developing and embracing a completely new business model – one that leads, rather than follows the likes of Google, and one that doesn’t compete with its clients – as Google’s model does.  Maybe they need to take a page out of AOLs book and get a guy like Tim Armstrong…someone who can look at Yahoo’s assets and predict what their clients will need in the future.  They should also invest in areas they know have lots of opportunity for growth, e.g. Patch.com.

AdMonsters:  Mobile App Inventory on Track to Map Online Display Ad Spend by Year-End

Mobile, display, or even video for that matter – publishers still need the ability to look across all types of product inventory in order to package and sell more effectively.  Brands want to market cross-channel, cross-platform and will be looking for proposals that tie in all types of media in order to reach their desired audience and achieve their desired results. 

TechCrunch: Google Acquires Zagat to Flesh out Local Reviews

Google competes with more of its clients – are you going to be next?

Ad Operations Online: Cox Digital Solutions Unveils New Food Brand, Appetite Media

We congratulate Cox on their recent expansion in the online digital space!

Nextmark Blog:  The Online Display Media Order Process

This is exactly why we exist – to help simplify this process!

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!

Hi all, I am Dean Jenkins, the new General Manager for Operative’s Asia-Pacific operations. I wanted to formerly introduce myself to the Operative blogosphere and tell you a little about my background and the opportunities we have within the region.

I recently joined Operative to drive and lead business development and customer support initiatives within Australia and the Asia-Pacific region. My appointment marks initial steps in Operative’s global expansion plans, as the company aims to simplify the way in which media companies around the globe operate. My responsibilities include expanding and further developing Operative’s Australia business, with a particular focus on growing existing accounts, as well as developing new business opportunities.

I bring to Operative more than 15 years of experience in the digital media industry, from Deloitte, Seek Limited, and most recently as General Manager for Sensis Media Network, a leading digital Publisher based in Melbourne, Australia. While at Sensis Media Network, I was responsible for the advertising platform, product development and growth of the network to more than 130 online and mobile sites, as well as delivery of behavioral and demographic targeting capabilities for over 14 million users across video, online and mobile inventory.

Through the acquisition of Solbright in October 2010, Operative now estimates it manages nearly 60% of Australia’s display advertising spend. With the market predicted to grow at a compound annual growth rate of nearly 10% over the next 4-5 years (according to Frost & Sullivan), expanding in the region makes a lot of sense from both a growth, as well as a client support standpoint.

Initially, we will focus our efforts in Australia and Singapore, while we keep our eye on ever-expanding markets throughout the rest of the Asia-Pacific region. Southeast Asia is one of the fastest growing markets in the world for Internet usage. As usage increases and connectivity improves, we expect to see an increased demand for online advertising solutions. Having and developing further a local presence in the region will ensure we are able to support market growth as it unfolds.

Since starting at Operative, I’ve enjoyed meeting and working with our local clients, including Cricket Australia and REA Media, both of whom were generous enough to participate in today’s press announcement. Clients are expressing a desire and need to simplify their advertising operations in this market, just as they are in the US and Europe. Complexities exist throughout the digital advertising ecosystem on a global basis – and now Operative can help media companies solve them – on a global basis.

I am heading to AdMonster’s Singapore tomorrow, to meet with both new and existing clients alike. If you are planning to be there, please drop me a line at djenkins@operative.com and we can schedule a time to connect.

Cheers! Dean