Is Your Comp Plan at Risk?
Hey CROs – Is Your Comp Plan at Risk?
The online media buying and selling process has changed – direct relationships with agencies and buyers has been reduced by the proliferation of ad networks, ad exchanges, social media platforms and RTB players that have cropped up en mass over the past twelve years, aiming to compete with a publisher’s direct sales channel. Forrester research estimates that 30% of ad spending will be done via DSPs and RTBs in 2011, while Google estimates that more than 50% of online advertising will be done via these platforms over the next few years.
What does this mean for CROs at online publishing companies? It means your compensation plan could be at risk. If you are a CRO or senior digital media sales executive today, you are no longer competing head to head with other publishers to win the big RFPs. Rather, you are competing with something much faster, and with a different skillset than your human sales team – you are competing with MACHINES.
Many of you have already embraced, or will embrace, this machine-based buying process. You will compete with yourselves for inventory, most of the time by accident, because you lack visibility into the true value of your impressions. In addition, many of you will compete or are already competing with machines today. DSPs, exchanges and RTB players have the power to buy the same or very similar audiences, to the ones you represent today. Your high reach, high frequency inventory, which used to be the reason you were so successful is now under fire by the machines and, because of this, the direct sales model of today and tomorrow is at risk.
Your revenue is at risk.
The way you and your sales people get compensated for deals will breakdown, if it has not already.
So how do you compete with something that’s faster than you, smarter than you, and doesn’t need sleep in order to be effective?
To hear what some of the leading online publishers think, come hear our presentation at the iMedia Agency Summit in Bonita Springs, Florida on Monday, May 23rd.
Operative is hosting the Publisher’s Breakfast and will lead an enlightening, engaging conversation about the shift in online media buying and selling, and how these shifts are impacting, or will impact, your company’s revenue and compensation plans.
To help support the discussion, we brought together four of the “founding fathers” of online media – four gentlemen who are arguably the most recognized, well-respected thought leaders in the field of digital ad sales. We invited them to participate in a pre-event Q&A and were pleased to even get on camera. Our esteemed cast of characters includes:
- Nick Johnson from NBC Universal
- Kevin Arrix from MTV Networks
- Mark Westlake from Techmedia Network
- Brian Quinn from Triad Digital Media
During the session, you will hear this group talk about three things that publishers need to improve in order to grow their direct sales teams and drive more revenue through the channel.
These include:
1) Plumbing – Compared to the machines, the current pipes that run water through publisher infrastructure are old and rotting – systems are fragmented and decision-making is hindered. Imagine an Old Victorian water system, where every time there’s a leak, an entire street needs to be dug up in order to identify and locate the issue.
2) Inventory – Inventory continues to become more complex to manage and understand, and often comes from multiple data sources. It’s rare that a seller knows exactly how much inventory is available for a segment, target or piece of inventory at the time of proposal. That’s unacceptable.
3) Product Packaging – It’s hard to create meaningful packages to takes to customers and impact your average price given issues 1 and 2.
We hope to see you next week at the iMedia Agency Summit…!
iMedia Agency Summit Publisher’s Breakfast Details:
- Date: Monday, May 23d
- Time: 8:00 – 9:00 a.m. EST
- Location: Hyatt Regency Coconut Resort & Spa, Bonita Springs, Fl.
- Room: Blue Heron Room
