Yesterday Omnicom Media Group Digital CEO Matt Spiegel told us
about their $2 billion digital spend, the future of trading platforms,
impression based bidding, if there is a future for blind buys and
Forbes vs. long tail finance content. In the second of a two-part
Q&A, Spiegel talks about the substitutability of media and what he
did last Saturday. And now the Q&A:
Do you believe in the substitutability of media?
Quantcast says you can reach 13 million users looking at sports content on ESPN and you can reach 16 million users looking at sports content on the ADSDAQ Exchange and that both audiences have similar demos. Say pricing for ESPN is $30 (CPM) and ContextWeb's ADSDAQ Exchange is $8 (CPM). Discuss.
Why either or, there will be a place for both and in many cases on the same plan.
Tell us about you.
What did you do last Saturday?
I spent last Saturday chasing my 2 year old son Leo around the children's museum getting wet from the "water room" and being mesmerized at the length of enjoyment someone can get from a golf ball rolling through a maze.
What's the best conference you attended in the last two years?
Possibly biased by the recency of the event, but the Wired Summit last week was very worthwhile. Seeing a number of senior leaders (Jeff Bezos and Jeff Immelt as examples) discuss their view on the evolving business world and their advice for leading companies was certainly interesting and educational.
If you could be appointed to any position in a US Presidential cabinet post, what position would it be and why?
I'd select Department of Energy; I believe there is a huge opportunity for the US in the "green" economy and would be interested in helping chart that course.
On what specific day will the US Treasury Secretary declare the recession in the United States is over?
Still looking for a ticket for the July 14th panel (8-10am) in New
York? Call your rep from ContextWeb's ADSDAQ Exchange to come as our
guest or visit the AdClub to register online.
Still looking for a ticket for the July 14th panel (8-10am) in New York? Call your rep from ContextWeb's ADSDAQ Exchange to come as our guest or visit the AdClub to register online.
In the first of a two-part Q&A, Omnicom Media Group Digital CEO Matt Spiegel tells us about their $2 billion digital spend, the future of trading platforms, impression based bidding, if there is a future for blind buys and Forbes vs. long tail finance content.
I lead the development of the digitally based solutions our agencies need to be successful over the next 100 years. In a nutshell, I strategize, develop, execute, evangelize, teach, listen and learn, ideate, and solve problems for today and tomorrow.
Your Company:
Omnicom Media Group is the global media division of Omnicom Group Inc. Its businesses include leading media service companies OMD Worldwide and PHD Network, as well as a number of specialized companies in areas including search engine marketing, branded content production, out-of-home media and others. OMG operates in more than 100 countries with a client list that includes Pepsi, HP, Intel and Nissan/Renault.
How much digital media spend does your agency control?
OMG Digital oversees $2 billion in digital media spending on behalf of its clients.
How many publishers did your agency purchase from last year?
Many. There is no doubt that with the current systems it is very hard to buy from a lot of publishers. Developing an infrastructure to make this more sustainable is certainly a priority for the industry.
How many ad exchanges and ad networks did your agency purchase from last year?
Again, many. Long term it is likely that trading platforms (be them what we today consider exchanges or future models) will be the go to intermediary for most purchases.
What percentage of your media spend in 2008 was allocated to ad exchanges and ad networks?
Going forward we will increase our use of trading platforms that allow us to have transparency, accountability, and flexibility in the way we purchase media.
Describe your demand generation platform.
Our focus is to develop solutions that help our client's better access the target audiences they are looking for and to provide service and technology solutions that continually learn and optimize against their performance metrics (be them direct response of brand engagement objectives).
Are these demand side platforms complimentary to or in conflict with current ad exchanges such as Yahoo!'s RightMedia and ContextWeb, Inc.'s ADSDAQ Exchange?
Mostly complimentary; sales side platforms provide the access we on the buy side need to consumers. Platforms that are truly designed to serve as technology and infrastructure support to the industry shouldn't see any conflict.
You have many large, Fortune 500 clients such as Intel, HP, Visa and Pepsi. What language do you use to describe the opportunity around your demand generation platform to a client? And what scale does this solution have to provide in order to be relevant and capture their attention?
Our clients are looking for continued improvement in their media performance. We focus on solutions that provide that performance improvement through flexibility, accountability, and targeting visibility.
In an agency demand side platform, how important is impression based valuation and bidding? And what common attributes of an impression do you use to assess value - Context? User cookies? User location?
Impression based bidding is an important element of the ecosystem. It is not likely to be the only method of purchase but an important one that provides for real time targeting and creative decisions that are likely to improve performance for the advertiser and therefore translate to increased value for publishers.
In this new real-time world, will there continue to be "blind buys" or "blind network buys"?
Unlikely, so no.
(PHOTO: ADSDAQ Exchange's Agency Trading Desk) Many in the media world have argued over the substitutability of media - that if one can find the same audience looking at finance content on the Long Tail for $7.00 vs. the same audience looking at finance content on Forbes.com for $30.00-then the Long Tail deserves its place on the media plan. Is it reasonable to use content as one valuable common element to look across multiple media vendors and associate campaign value not with the specific media vendor per se but with the specific content of each single impression?
Context is certainly a factor in targeting and audience. There will be times that it's important to be on Forbes vs. any long-tail finance content and other times that won't matter. It will be important for Forbes to invent opportunities outside of standard inventory that helps them justify and earn premium CPMs.
As you continue to implement your agency's trading strategy, does it permeate across the agency, requiring new skill sets among employees and new workflow for the purchase and assessment of media? Or is the strategy concentrated in a trading group or division that acts in a service capacity to existing client account groups?
Evolution is natural and will occur much like what has happened in the digitized media space overall. There will be both specializes and generalists that work together to encourage innovation and integration at the same time.
At the 2008 IAB Annual Meeting, Rob Norman, Global CEO of GroupM Interaction Worldwide said: "Today, we plan and trade on behalf of our clients. Tomorrow and in some places today we also trade on our own behalf where we can create value and deserve our place in the chain... We charge at the moment for the cost of inputs but again if we charge on the basis of the value of the outputs we are perfectly entitled to do that too."
Should it be permissible for an agency to conduct arbitrage? -to purchase media for the "house" and re-sell it to clients, making a spread?
I don't think it is appropriate to ask if something is permissible. If a client and agency deem there to be an appropriate value exchange, however it is derived, it should be acceptable to others. There needs of course to be clarity in that process and agreement.
Tune in tomorrow for part two of our Q&A with panelist and Omnicom Media Group Digital CEO Matt Spiegel.
ContextWeb and its ADSDAQ Exchange allow for some pretty interesting keyword targeting across our billions of page impressions each month. Recently we targeted content pages that had the keyword "salmonella" for a CPG advertiser who wanted to advertise their food product and explain it was safe (there was a salmonella scare at the time).
Other advertisers have the exchange show an ad when a CEO's name is on a page to refute certain things, others want us the show ads on certain pages except when the CEO's name appears. To each his own - the ADSDAQ Exchange simply provides this control.
In an effort to greater understand keyword trending, here is a monthly analysis of keyword performance. By comparing the percent growth month over month, one can shed some light on what keywords have been in the limelight and relate the increase (or decrease) in traffic to "real life" - current news, hot topics, seasonality, etc.
In the world of entertainment, movie releases garner quite a spike in Internet traffic as the official release date nears. As the chart below highlights, those responsible for media buying in promotion of the movies Terminator Salvation, Star Trek, and X-Men Wolverine could have greatly benefited from purchasing keyword content relating to their movies or by adding keywords onto their existing buys.
Keyword
April 2009 Impressions
May 2009 Impressions
% Growth Rate
(April to May)
Star Trek
5,523,856
8,049,211
217.66%
Terminator
4,520,515
5,849,222
29.39%
Wolverine
2,756,935
3,100,768
12.47%
Seasonality also holds a strong suit in increasing keyword traffic. As summer comes to an official start, outdoor activities such as surfing gained popularity (17.23% increase) while indoor activities such as TV saw a drop in impressions (27.23% decrease).
Here are several keywords that performed in ways contrary to what common sense might have suggested. Barack Obama loses popularity in the digital world, yet Campbell's Soup sees an increase during summer months?
Keyword
April 2009 Impressions
May 2009 Impressions
% Growth Rate
Barack Obama
8,102,010
5,436,476
(32.9%)
Campbell Soup
5,364
7,020
30.87%
iPhone
7,977,872
5,329,471
(33.20%)
Baseball
13,048,950
7,671,394
(41.21%)
What keyword trends would you like to see? Leave a comment below.
We are fortunate to have Wenda Harris Millard, a digital pioneer who has had a variety of leadership roles in the media business, to be our moderator. Millard is known for various "media-able" comments including a speech at the 2008 IAB Annual Meeting when she warned we should not be selling inventory like "pork bellies".
Still looking for a ticket for the July 14th panel (8-10am) in New York? Call your rep from ContextWeb's ADSDAQ Exchange to come as our guest or visit the AdClub to register online.
We are certain Millard will produce a conversation that is both insightful and pointed.
In the digital realm, Millard helped found and run the then-nascent DoubleClick network media business, served as Chief Sales officer for Yahoo! during years of extraordinary growth and currently is President of MediaLink LLC, where along with CEO Michael Kassan she advises Fortune 100 best-of-breed global brands---companies such as Microsoft, AT&T, General Motors, Unilever, Home Depot, Colgate-Palmolive, The Walt Disney Company, Viacom, Comcast, Bain & Co., Cerberus Capital Management, General Atlantic, Fremantle Media and Sony. Millard serves on various boards including ContextWeb, Inc. and its ADSDAQ Exchange.
Let's look a little closer at moderator Millard...
Millard is President of Media Link, LLC. In her role, she works with the CEO and Founder, to manage the company's divisions, secure new business relationships, and to act as senior advisor to Media Link's various Representation and Advisory clients.
Previously, Ms. Millard was Co-Ceo and President, Media for Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, Inc. (NYSE: MSO). Ms Millard had joined MSLO in July 2007 after three years as a member of its Board of Directors. She oversaw MSLO's media businesses, which include publishing, internet and broadcasting. She is credited with elevating the company to its #1 position in percent of revenue derived from digital advertising among all other "traditional" media companies. She led MSLO's investments in Wedding Wire and ping and was the company's driving force behind creating cross-platform programs for marketers in TV, digital, magazines and radio.
Before MSLO, Ms. Millard was Chief Sales Officer at Yahoo! and prior to that was Chief Internet Officer at Ziff Davis Media and President of Ziff Davis Internet. Previously, Ms. Millard was a founding member of the executive team at DoubleClick, where she served as Executive Vice President responsible for establishing the DoubleClick brand and overseeing the operations of DoubleClick Media. She also served as President and Group Publisher of SRDS, Senior Vice President and Publisher of Family Circle and Executive Vice President/Group Publisher of Adweek, Mediaweek and Brandweek magazines.
Ms. Millard has received numerous industry awards including the 2007 John A. Reisenbach Award for Distinguished Citizenship; the 2006 "Advertising Person of the Year" Silver Medal Award from the AAF; the 2005 Matrix Award for "Women Who Change the World"; and Advertising Age, acknowledged her as a "Digital Media Master" one of the 20 most influential executives in interactive media. She was the subject of a profile by Tom Brokaw as part of NBC's "Women to Watch" series.
Ms. Millard is currently Chairman of the Interactive Advertising Bureau. She also sits on the Boards of ContextWeb, Inc. and its ADSDAQ Ad Exchange, the James Beard Foundation, PopTech and Do Something. She served two terms as a Trustee of Trinity College in Hartford.
Ms Millard holds an MBA from Harvard University and a BA from Trinity College.
Event Description: With the emergence of ad exchanges such as Yahoo!'s AMP and ContextWeb's ADSDAQ Exchange, agencies have now developed "demand platforms" to conduct real time valuation, bidding and allocation of digital media. Today's decisions are made in milliseconds, not weeks or months.
- What is the role of art vs. science in this real-time world? - What needs of advertisers are now being met under this new media management paradigm? - Are media fundamentals really any different in this new "millisecond" world? - Are the roles of buyers and sellers preserved or does everyone become a media trader?
The panel of Digital CEOs and general managers:
Moderator:Wenda Harris Millard, digital pioneer and president of MediaLink LLC.
Panelists: - Sloan Broderick, Managing Partner, Managing Director US, Mediacom Interaction (WPP) - Bant Breen, President, Worldwide Digital Communications, Initiative (Interpublic) - Greg Green, Managing Director, Global Client Solutions, VivaKi Nerve Center (Publicis) - Matt Spiegel, CEO, Omnicom Media Group Digital (Omnicom)
Date: July 14, 2009
Time: 8:00 - 8:30 a.m. - Breakfast and Networking 8:30 - 10:00 a.m. - Program
Location: The Times Center 242 West 41st Street (between 7th and 8th Avenue) New York City
Produced by:The Advertising Club of New York and ContextWeb's ADSDAQ Exchange
To attend this event, call your rep from ContextWeb's ADSDAQ Exchange to come as our guest or visit the AdClub to register online.
We'll see if Breen will tell us more about what his comrade-in-arms, MediaBrands Chief Digital Officer and interim chief executive of Cadreon Quentin George is doing. Recently The New York Times wrote:
"Traditionally, marketers allocate certain amounts of money for each medium. Quentin George, the interim chief executive of Cadreon and the chief digital officer of Mediabrands, says Cadreon instead would base its strategy on the audience, not the medium.
For a campaign it's now running for a technology client, Cadreon bought data on visitors to Web sites of the client's competitors. It divided them into groups that its client already used to segment existing customers offline - like new parents, gamers or designers.
By examining clicks and other data, Cadreon determined the demographic profile of groups that were most interested in the ads. In this particular campaign, new parents responded at high rates so Cadreon emphasized pitching ads online to that group.
As more ads are bought and sold through exchanges, it could transform the ad marketplace. "It is foreseeable that you can go into the system, select an audience and not know whether you are ultimately buying" a cellphone ad or a video ad on a Web site like Hulu, Mr. George says. "That's a very, very big change.""
Audience, data... no mention of sites. Yikes... We are going to have a robust discussion.
Bant is a constant in digital advertising circles and some days its seems like everyone this writer meets has just come from or is headed to a meeting with Breen. He has spent time in a variety of roles within Interpublic helping them in various digital capacities including time as Executive Director of the IPG Emerging Media Lab.
Let's look a little closer at panelist Breen...
As Worldwide Director, Digital Solutions, Bant plays a key role in driving Initiative's strategic agenda in areas such as asset alignment, communications innovation, technology and acquisitions.
Before joining Interpublic, Bant was the Founder and President of Bant Breen LLC, a strategic marketing and communications consultancy affiliated with Dentsu Inc. Prior to founding his own company, he was with Leo Burnett Worldwide for five years in roles that included Regional Managing Director of iLeo (now Arc Worldwide), as well as Digital and Integrated Communications Director for Leo Burnett EMEA. Bant started his career as a WPP Fellow.
Bant lives in New York City with his wife, Carmen, and two boys, Alejandro and Nico.
Event Description: With the emergence of ad exchanges such as Yahoo!'s AMP and ContextWeb's ADSDAQ Exchange, agencies have now developed "demand platforms" to conduct real time valuation, bidding and allocation of digital media. Today's decisions are made in milliseconds, not weeks or months.
- What is the role of art vs. science in this real-time world? - What needs of advertisers are now being met under this new media management paradigm? - Are media fundamentals really any different in this new "millisecond" world? - Are the roles of buyers and sellers preserved or does everyone become a media trader?
The panel of Digital CEOs and general managers:
Moderator: Wenda Harris Millard, digital pioneer and president of MediaLink LLC.
Panelists: - Sloan Broderick, Managing Partner, Managing Director US, Mediacom Interaction (WPP) - Bant Breen, President, Worldwide Digital Communications, Initiative (Interpublic) - Greg Green, Managing Director, Global Client Solutions, VivaKi Nerve Center (Publicis) - Matt Spiegel, CEO, Omnicom Media Group Digital (Omnicom)
Date: July 14, 2009
Time: 8:00 - 8:30 a.m. - Breakfast and Networking 8:30 - 10:00 a.m. - Program
Location: The Times Center 242 West 41st Street (between 7th and 8th Avenue) New York City
Produced by:The Advertising Club of New York and ContextWeb's ADSDAQ Exchange
To attend this event, call your rep from ContextWeb's ADSDAQ Exchange to come as our guest or visit the AdClub to register online.
VivaKi, represents Publicis Groupe's effort to overseeing the digital and media assets of Digitas, Starcom MediaVest Group, ZenithOptimedia and Denuo. When it was formally launched, Publicis CEO Levy appointed David Kenny and Jack Klues as managing partners (effectively co-CEOs) and told Adweek:
"My contention is that until now, what we were trying to do was provide our clients with services -- marketing services, media services or creative," said Levy in an interview today. "We have to move from that idea to another idea: we need to build with them an approach that is based on value creation. This can lead -- and it will take time -- to a different approach of fees. As we are creating value, we can share in that value."
Very interesting... A nod towards agency demand platforms facilitating a new agency model and perhaps one where agencies forgo the service model and begin to "arb" media for the house, not the client. Our moderator Wenda Harris Millard will spend some time discussing agency demand platforms, ad exchanges and impacts on new agency business models.
A PhD in mathematics, Green is the go-to guy between VivaKi and Publicis agencies Digitas, Starcom MediaVest Group, ZenithOptimedia and Denuo. He is directly involved with the VivaKi Nerve Center's Audience On Demand (AOD) service - a "Premium Private Exchange (that) delivers the largest audience-on-demand network in a Premium Publisher environment in the digital advertising industry." AOD now connects to the big four - Google, Microsoft, Yahoo! and AOL.
Let's look a little closer at panelist Green...
When Publicis Groupe launched VivaKi in June of 2008, it tapped Greg Green to be Managing Director, Global Client Solutions of the VivaKi Nerve Center, a hub of new marketing and media capabilities and partnerships that deliver the tools and resources clients need to reach consumers in an increasingly digital world. The Nerve Center encompasses such capabilities as ad serving and analytics, performance media tools (search, direct, CRM), mobile integration and new ventures and partnerships
In his role, Greg is focused on global clients and developing the next generation of high performing marketing platforms that will help them scale their digital marketing efforts as both media channels and consumers increasingly migrate online. Greg is also the primary liaison to the Media and Digital leaders of Digitas, Denuo, Starcom MediaVest Group and Zenith Optimedia.
AOD, VivaKi's Premium Private Exchange delivers the largest audience-on-demand network in a Premium Publisher environment in the digital advertising industry. By leveraging this platform, clients will be able to connect with precisely defined global audiences in a single campaign buy across multiple networks.
Greg was previously the Global Head of Analytics at Digitas, part of Publicis Groupe. There he developed the Global Marketing Navigator, Publicis Groupe's proprietary and patent pending solution to data and analytics challenges across all channels.
Event Description: With the emergence of ad exchanges such as Yahoo!'s AMP and ContextWeb's ADSDAQ Exchange, agencies have now developed "demand platforms" to conduct real time valuation, bidding and allocation of digital media. Today's decisions are made in milliseconds, not weeks or months.
- What is the role of art vs. science in this real-time world? - What needs of advertisers are now being met under this new media management paradigm? - Are media fundamentals really any different in this new "millisecond" world? - Are the roles of buyers and sellers preserved or does everyone become a media trader?
The panel of Digital CEOs and general managers will be moderated by Wenda Harris Millard, digital pioneer and president of MediaLink LLC.
Panelists include: - Sloan Broderick, Managing Partner, Managing Director US, Mediacom Interaction (WPP) - Bant Breen, President, Worldwide Digital Communications, Initiative (Interpublic) - Greg Green, Managing Director, Global Client Solutions, VivaKi Nerve Center (Publicis) - Matt Spiegel, CEO, Omnicom Media Group Digital (Omnicom)
Date: July 14, 2009
Time: 8:00 - 8:30 a.m. - Breakfast and Networking 8:30 - 10:00 a.m. - Program
Location: The Times Center 242 West 41st Street (between 7th and 8th Avenue) New York City
Produced by:The Advertising Club of New York and ContextWeb's ADSDAQ Exchange
To attend this event, call your rep from ContextWeb's ADSDAQ Exchange to come as our guest or visit the AdClub to register online.
Don't have an invitation yet? You can call your rep from ContextWeb's ADSDAQ Exchange to come as our guest or head over to the AdClub to purchase a ticket.
Effectively, Sloan is the digital CEO of MediaCom and coordinates the digital strategy for this media buying giant. He is also part of a small cabal at MediaCom working on their future trading strategies. Mum is the word but perhaps our panel moderator Wenda Harris Millard will be able to tease some of the plans from Broderick.
Let's look a little closer at panelist Broderick...
Sloan is the Managing Partner and Managing Director for MediaCom Interaction and is responsible for all aspects of the agency's digital operations and strategy, including the continued integration of digital media and marketing into MediaCom's core business.
As a member of the executive team, he is responsible for overseeing all aspects of key client relationships (both traditional and digital) including Dell, Hasbro, Warner Brothers, Diageo, Volkswagen, Allergan, Discover, Nokia, RBS, Michelin, and Shell.
Sloan manages teams that integrate cross channel communications & services, business strategy, and media to help clients demonstrate measurable returns on their marketing and media investments. He has extensive digital and direct experience in both on and offline media, including awareness and acquisition campaigns, branded entertainment, site and interactive experience development, social networking, as well as search engine marketing. Sloan has also led brand development, customer insights, product development, and loyalty engagements on behalf of his clients.
Prior to joining Beyond, Sloan held various senior marketing strategy positions at Publicis Modem. His responsibilities included account management and strategic marketing and media planning and execution.
Prior to joining Modem Media, Sloan held marketing and business development positions at Alliance Consulting, and at Cap Gemini America. Additionally, Sloan has worked and lived in Buenos Aires, Argentina for Xerox.
He is fluent in Spanish, and graduated from Bucknell University with a degree in Economics.
Sloan lives in Fairfield CT with his wife Joanne, kids Hayley and Hunter. He enjoys, cooking, travel, scuba, golf, and spending plenty of time being silly with his kids.
Event Description: With the emergence of ad exchanges such as Yahoo!'s AMP and ContextWeb's ADSDAQ Exchange, agencies have now developed "demand platforms" to conduct real time valuation, bidding and allocation of digital media. Today's decisions are made in milliseconds, not weeks or months.
- What is the role of art vs. science in this real-time world? - What needs of advertisers are now being met under this new media management paradigm? - Are media fundamentals really any different in this new "millisecond" world? - Are the roles of buyers and sellers preserved or does everyone become a media trader?
The panel of Digital CEOs and general managers will be moderated by Wenda Harris Millard, digital pioneer and president of MediaLink LLC.
Panelists include: - Sloan Broderick, Managing Partner, Managing Director US, Mediacom Interaction (WPP) - Bant Breen, President, Worldwide Digital Communications, Initiative (Interpublic) - Greg Green, Managing Director, Global Client Solutions, VivaKi Nerve Center (Publicis) - Matt Spiegel, CEO, Omnicom Media Group Digital (Omnicom)
Date: July 14, 2009
Time: 8:00 - 8:30 a.m. - Breakfast and Networking 8:30 - 10:00 a.m. - Program
Location: The Times Center 242 West 41st Street (between 7th and 8th Avenue) New York City
Produced by:The Advertising Club of New York and ContextWeb's ADSDAQ Exchange
To attend this event, call your rep from ContextWeb's ADSDAQ Exchange to come as our guest or visit the AdClub to register online.
We are working hard with the folks over at the Ad Club to produce a terrific panel at The New York Times Center for our clients on Tuesday, July 14th. This week we'll look at digital CEOs and GMs who plan to join our moderator Wenda Harris Millard on stage to discuss "Agency Demand Platforms: Art vs. Science in a Real-Time World".
Don't have an invitation yet? You can call your rep from ContextWeb's ADSDAQ Exchange to come as our guest or head over to the AdClub to purchase a ticket.
Our first panelist profile is Matt Spiegel, CEO of Omnicom Digital. Matt oversees $2 billion in digital media spend. Prior to his Omnicom role was the CEO and founder of search company Resolution Media. After taking his CEO role last year, Spiegel told PaidContent"It's making sure that decisions in media and marketing have the ability to use data in general."
"If you say the goal [of agency networks] is to buy bulk and drive down prices, that's not my goal, it might be for others," Mr. Spiegel said. Instead, the ultimate goal "for agencies and clients is to have greater control over the types of inventory we buy, do a better job of knowing the audience we're buying and be able to improve and optimize against those buys. The list of ways to do that is long. Whether you do that through a private exchange, private listed inventory or more upfront buying through a [third-party] exchange, you start to change how inventory is bought and sold."
In his current role as CEO of Omnicom Media Group Digital, Matt is responsible for developing the road map and executing the vision of Omnicom Media Group's digital solutions.
Omnicom Media Group is the global media division of Omnicom Group Inc. Its businesses include leading media service companies OMD Worldwide and PHD Network, as well as a number of specialized companies in areas including search engine marketing, branded content production, out-of-home media and others. OMG operates in more than 100 countries with a client list that includes Pepsi, HP, Intel and Nissan/Renault.
In addition to leading global digital initiatives across Omnicom Media Group, Matt has functional reporting responsibility for online advertising, search, streaming video, social media, mobile marketing, gaming and emerging digitally driven communications channels.
Matt is the Founder and former CEO of Resolution Media, a Chicago based company that delivers customized business solutions through search marketing. In five years as CEO, Matt lead Resolution Media from a four person start-up to a 100 person organization owned by Omnicom Media Group.
A true digital veteran, Matt entered the industry in 1997 and quickly discovered the power of interactive, data driven marketing. Capitalizing on the growing field, Matt became an early advocate for digital media on both the buy and sell sides of the industry.
A respected thought leader, Matt is a frequent speaker at industry events, is often quoted within business and trade journals and is an advisor to leading digital media and technology companies.
Matt graduated from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign with a Bachelor of Science degree in Marketing. When Matt is not focused on OMG's digital space, he enjoys spending time with his wife and young son, playing poker, supporting Chicago sports and seeing as much live music as possible.
Event Description: With the emergence of ad exchanges such as Yahoo!'s AMP and ContextWeb's ADSDAQ Exchange, agencies have now developed "demand platforms" to conduct real time valuation, bidding and allocation of digital media. Today's decisions are made in milliseconds, not weeks or months.
- What is the role of art vs. science in this real-time world? - What needs of advertisers are now being met under this new media management paradigm? - Are media fundamentals really any different in this new "millisecond" world? - Are the roles of buyers and sellers preserved or does everyone become a media trader?
The panel of Digital CEOs and general managers will be moderated by Wenda Harris Millard, digital pioneer and president of MediaLink LLC.
Panelists includes: - Sloan Broderick, Managing Partner, Managing Director US, Mediacom Interaction (WPP) - Quentin George, Chief Digital Officer, Mediabrands (Interpublic) - Greg Green, Managing Director, Global Client Solutions, VivaKi Nerve Center (Publicis) - Matt Spiegel, CEO, Omnicom Media Group Digital (Omnicom)
Date: July 14, 2009
Time: 8:00 - 8:30 a.m. - Breakfast and Networking 8:30 - 10:00 a.m. - Program
Location: The Times Center 242 West 41st Street (between 7th and 8th Avenue) New York City
Produced by: The Advertising Club of New York and ContextWeb's ADSDAQ Exchange
To attend this event, call your rep from ContextWeb's ADSDAQ Exchange to come as our guest or visit the AdClub to register online.
ContextWeb is excited to announce the upcoming panel discussion, "Agency Demand Platforms: Art vs. Science in a Real-Time World" with The Advertising Club of New York on July 14th from 8:00 to 10:00 a.m. Digital pioneer and ContextWeb board member Wenda Harris Millard will moderate a panel of CEOs and top executives from the world's four largest ad holding companies to discuss the "demand platform" strategy of each company.
To attend the event as a guest of ContextWeb and the ADSDAQ Exchange, please call out to your agency or publisher reach extension representative at ContextWeb's ADSDAQ Exchange for an invitation. You can also register online for paid admission through The Advertising Club of New York.
Event Description: With the emergence of ad exchanges such as Yahoo!'s AMP and ContextWeb's ADSDAQ Exchange, agencies have now developed "demand platforms" to conduct real time valuation, bidding and allocation of digital media. Today's decisions are made in milliseconds, not weeks or months.
- What is the role of art vs. science in this real-time world? - What needs of advertisers are now being met under this new media management paradigm? - Are media fundamentals really any different in this new "millisecond" world? - Are the roles of buyers and sellers preserved or does everyone become a media trader?
The panel of Digital CEOs and general managers will be moderated by Wenda Harris Millard, digital pioneer and president of MediaLink LLC.
Panelists includes: - Sloan Broderick, Managing Partner, Managing Director US, Mediacom Interaction (WPP) - Bant Breen, President, Worldwide Digital Communications Initiative (IPG) - Greg Green, Managing Director, Global Client Solutions, VivaKi Nerve Center (Publicis) - Matt Spiegel, CEO, Omnicom Media Group Digital (Omnicom)
Date: July 14, 2009
Time: 8:00 - 8:30 a.m. - Breakfast and Networking 8:30 - 10:00 a.m. - Program
Location: The Times Center 242 West 41st Street (between 7th and 8th Avenue) New York City
Produced by: The Advertising Club of New York and ContextWeb's ADSDAQ Exchange
After years of requests from media buyers to simplify the ad buying process, it took one of the most difficult economic environments for some of the largest media companies to take notice. They have begun to realize that by not listening to these requests they were leaving money on the table.
In the past few weeks there’s been a flurry of news around publishers launching ad networks, linking together sites they own and operate. Time Inc. announced the creation of Axcess, which will span their portfolio of magazines and websites. Publishers Clearing House launched the PCH Online Network linking together 6 of its owned sites, anchored by its flagship PCH.com website. And Gannett Co. announced the creation of a digital media network which ties together roughly 100 of their communities including USA Today.
While advertisers look for new ways to reach consumers online and at scale, this move is applauded as a step in the right direction. Will these companies follow in the footsteps of company leaders like Smart Money, Parenting.com, and Broadcast Interactive Media to create extended content networks outside of their owned and operated sites?
If you haven’t already, read Steve Smiths article from Min online where he’s talking about how major brands are creating on demand networks using ADSDAQ’s Contextual Reach Extension and leave your comments below.
Magazine Brands Extend Online Ad Reach Tuesday, March 31, 2009 Steve Smith
More than a decade after many magazine brands started moving online, reach continues to be the most persistent hurdle in attracting serious ad money and satisfying the most ambitious RFPs. Magazines maintain their prestige online, and even retain some of their premium ad clients. But when up against the massive scale of online networks, portals and some of the savvier Web-only competition, branded media’s ad inventory can look pretty puny to a media buyer. Finding ways to extend that reach has become a focal point for many brands in the past year.
Buying or partnering into blog networks has been one way of extending the imprimatur of a major content brand into larger ad inventories. Social media distribution is another. One company, ContextWeb, along with its ADSDAQ ad exchange, has been getting traction with a number of magazine brands recently because it lets premium content sites like FastCompany.com, SmartMoney.com and Parenting.com follow their own users out into the Internet to reach them with their ad clients’ messages.
“We have 25 partners, and half are magazine publishers,” says Ryan Becker, VP, platform sales, ContextWeb. Publishers put a 1-by-1 pixel on the site pages that can track their users as they move out into the Web at large. When an advertiser is looking for more inventory than the publisher can provide, the content provider can go onto the ADSDAQ exchange and put out a “request for avails” for the kind of ad inventory the client needs. “A publisher may get an RFP for $500,000 over two months to reach a certain audience based on targeting parameters,” Becker explains. “They may look at their inventory and see they only have $300,000 of media to propose back to the advertiser. You can use the extended network to respond back $500,000 or more with the same targeting parameters.”
The ContextWeb approach is distinct from other strategies in that it is an on-demand network and it retargets an audience contextually. The ADSDAQ technology reads the content on landing pages outside of the publisher’s home site so that the system can match the ad to its appropriate context anywhere. ADSDAQ offers more than 400 different content categories. For magazine publishers with limited but lucrative inventory in a specific segment of their site (i.e. travel, finance, etc.) the system lets them expand that inventory with the same quality audience, but do so at will and without long-term commitments to a network of partnered sites.
ADSDAQ reaches into 9,000 sites, but 175 of those are ranked among comScore’s top 250. Becker says the sites are vetted for quality. Nevertheless, inventory extensions bought on the exchange probably are less powerful and desirable than placements on the brand’s own site. “It may not be as effective as having that user based on our site, but it is still effective we have found,” says Jerry Ferrara, VP, advertising sales, Investors Business Daily, which uses ADSDAQ to extend Investors.com's inventory, which often gets sold out. “We have utilized it. The bulk of our proposals will be on-site, without a doubt,” he says. “With this retargeting program we use it to fulfill inventory we know we wouldn’t be able to fill. We also use it as a test, to see how things perform for the advertiser. We don’t want to get the spend without being effective. Our goal is to make our clients money.”
As Becker explains it, publishers may get a premium $30 CPM on their own site in a given contextual silo but find similar off-site inventory on the exchange for $5 CPM. The publisher can sell the package to the ad client either at a combined effective CPM of $12 or $13 or break it out into on-site and off-site elements. The final pricing is up to the publisher.
ADSDAQ is just one approach premium publishers are taking to leverage their content brands and the audiences they attract. Ad sales executives like Ferrara partner with other ad networks such as Platform A to fill in inventory, but many of their ad clients shy away from working with the massive nets directly and prefer to buy from highly targeted and prestige media. Some third parties offer publishers the power to roll their own vertical ad networks out of audiences that do not originate at the publisher’s own site. Last year scores of branded “ad networks” popped up around everything from The Today Show to BET. Finding the right combination of media brand reach and media brand effectiveness remains a core challenge for magazines as they look to exploit and manage the limitless ad inventory of the open Web.
ContextWeb welcomes Mia Sossei as Director of Mid-West Online Advertising Sales. She oversees key markets including Chicago, Minneapolis, Detroit and St. Louis which support many of ContextWeb’s Fortune 100 clients such as Target and General Motors.
Ms. Sossei is one of a number of former AOL executives at ContextWeb including Robert Daniel, ContextWeb’s Senior Vice President of Sales and Publisher Development and Michael Kelly, a member of ContextWeb’s Board. Mr. Daniel was the Director of Strategy with Advertising.com, now AOL’s Platform-A and Mr. Kelly was President of AOL Media Networks.
With Ms. Sossei’s expertise in sales and business development, she is ideally suited to deliver valuable insights to clients using the ADSDAQ Exchange Agency Trading Desk™: The ADSDSAQ Agency Trading Desk is a technology platform that enables media buyers to see how their online ad campaigns are performing and - with the push of a dashboard button - buy more inventory in the better performing contextual areas and offer to sell inventory that is underperforming.
The full announcement follows:
NEW YORK (June 8, 2009) ContextWeb. Inc., which runs the ADSDAQ Exchange, the largest independent ad exchange in the world, has hired Mia L. Sossei to be its Chicago-based Mid-West Director. She replaces Spencer Lee who left the company.
Ms Sossei comes to ContextWeb from Q Interactive where she has been Vice President, Business Development since 2008 and where she implemented strategy for maintaining and growing the publisher network and lead a team in signing 100+ new publishers in four months. Before that, Ms Sossei was a Regional Sales Director with AOL from 2006 to 2008 where she managed a team of 5 Account Executive’s that booked business across multiple categories – finance, CPG, retail, QSR and insurance - which resulted in annual revenues of $31 million. In 2005 and 2006, she was Regional Sales Manager for the Adspace Mall Network selling new advertising media in Chicago area malls to local and regional clients.
Earlier in her career, Ms Sossei held positions with News America Marketing, Inc. (a division of News Corporation) and Actmedia, Inc. She is a graduate of High Point (NC) University.
ContextWeb, Inc. (http://exchange.contextweb.com) was founded in 2000 and launched the ADSDAQ Exchange in 2005. It is the only online exchange where both advertisers and publishers have complete control. The exchange's patent-pending, page-level contextual technology offers advertisers efficient pricing and extensive reach, making inventory on the exchange "brand-safe" and comparable to a site-specific or portal buy. The ADSDAQ Exchange ranks among the top 20 ad-supported properties, according to comScore Media Metrix, and reaches +119 million monthly unique visitors (March 2009). The exchange includes more than 400 advertisers, including all of the top 10 marketing organizations, and more than 9,000 publishers. In 2008, Deloitte's New York Region Technology Fast 50 recognized ContextWeb as the 16th fastest growing company in the New York area. The company's investors include leading venture capital firms Draper Fisher Jurvetson ("DFJ"), DFJ Gotham Ventures, Updata Partners, Investor Growth Capital and Gold Hill Capital.
We'll have to post some notes about the more serious aspects of the Digital Media Summit put on by GCA Savvian at The Westin New York at Times Square this Tuesday. ContextWeb's CEO Anand Subramanian presented on a panel moderated by the esteemed R2 - Randall Rothenberg of the IAB on ad targeting.
But we would be remiss if we did not direct your attention to banker to the Internet stars and final cut pro maniac Terry Kawaja's international debut of his "Mad Ave Blues" video. Anyone that has had a super serious meeting with Kawaja knows - no matter how weighty the topic - we all watch the latest video first.
It speaks for itself and will make you smile:
How Kawaja describes the video:
Following on the success of the Wall Street Meltdown parodies, I wrote Mad Avenue Blues. Like Wall Street Meltdown and WSM Redux (both on YouTube), the new video takes a popular song and substitutes industry-specific lyrics. Only instead of finance, Mad Avenue Blues is about the media/advertising world and the impact to the traditional models brought about by the accelerating migration to digital.
Sung to Don McLean's "American Pie", this 19 stanza song was written and produced in just one day. I did this so that I could answer those who respond to my video projects with the knee-jerk "you obviously have too much time on your hands".
Mad Avenue Blues was produced for non-commercial amusement purposes only and is not intended to offend any people or companies appearing in the video. All images were found on the internet and are the property of their rights owners.
L. McDuff (pen name - for my Yellow Labrador, Lady McDuff)
Tomorrow, Tuesday June 2nd at 9am we'll be at the Digital Media Summit put on by GCA Savvian at The Westin New York at Times Square. Our CEO Anand Subramanian will be presenting on a panel called "Ad Targeting: In search of the Holy Grail: New ways to find your audience." Anand will be discussing the latest and greatest with our ADSDAQ Exchange including today's announcment with comScore and our real time bidding API. BlueKai, Media Six Degrees and Quantcast round out what should be a terrific panel.
We are also excited to see the conference's end of day buy side panel at 5:30pm. Dave and Jim always deliver a great show.
BUYSIDE PANEL Informed Perspectives in a Challenged Marketplace
Dave Morgan, Serial Entrepreneur (Moderator) James Spanfeller, President and CEO, Forbes Media Anton Levy, General Partner, General Atlantic Bob Davis, General Partner, Highland Capital Partners Tom McInerney, EVP and CFO, IAC Sheila Spence, SVP, Corp. Dev., WPP Greg Mrva, VP, M&A, Yahoo!
Everyone loves hybrids. ContextWeb is pleased to be a part of comScore's new Media Metrix 360. The new system combines their existing panel based system with server based measurement.
We see direct benefit to buyers and sellers on our ADSDAQ Exchange, as we said in the announcement today:
"Direct, beacon-based measurement is imperative in order to reflect the true value of ContextWeb's page level targeting across billions of Web pages to advertisers on our ADSDAQ Exchange," said Anand Subramanian, CEO of ContextWeb, Inc. and the ADSDAQ Exchange. "There is no other way to effectively understand our fragmented media environment."
The announcement:
COMSCORE ANNOUNCES MEDIA METRIX 360: THE NEXT GENERATION OF GLOBAL DIGITAL AUDIENCE MEASUREMENT Revolutionary ‘Panel-Centric Hybrid' Solution Bridges Panel-Based and Web Site Server-Based Measurement
RESTON, VA, May 31, 2009 - comScore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR), a leader in measuring the digital world, today announced the introduction of Media Metrix 360, a ‘panel-centric hybrid' solution to digital audience measurement. The new approach combines person-level measurement from comScore's proprietary 2 million person global panel with Web site server metrics in order to account for 100 percent of a Web site's audience. The new service will reconcile traffic metrics reported from client server-side and ad server data, with fully consistent, hybrid audience measures that can be used for improved planning of online media campaigns, and for evaluating the delivery of those campaigns at an unprecedented level of audience completeness and granularity.
"comScore Media Metrix 360 represents an innovative and elegant measurement solution to the increasingly complex digital media landscape," said Dr. Magid Abraham, comScore President and CEO. "The past few years have seen the rise of global Internet markets, the emergence of new distribution platforms, and a substantial increase in media fragmentation and niche audiences. Through comScore's ‘panel-centric hybrid' approach to audience measurement, we are able to combine the best of both worlds of panel and server-side measurement to bring the industry a comprehensive accounting of the complete digital media universe. Furthermore, this new approach will effectively reconcile panel and server-based measurement and provide unified numbers that are fully consistent with the ad server counts used for advertising payments. In this sense, Media Metrix 360 represents the Web's first true measurement ‘currency.' The Internet industry can depend on comScore to consistently innovate and improve its services to meet the industry's needs, and we will continue to work cooperatively and transparently with various industry organizations to enable our clients to maximize the bottom-line benefit of our innovations."
The seven billion plus impressions traded on ContextWeb’s ADSDAQ Exchange in April provide a compelling view on content winners and losers for the March/April period. Many of these changes reflect news events and seasonality.
Let’s look at the content category winners for the March/April period:
• Spring fever/get in shape. Walking content is up 511%. Hello Nike, Puma, Adidas, Converse and Reebok.
• Financial panic planning. Financial planning content is up 486%. People are bailing out their own financial plan. Hello Fidelity, Schwab, TD Waterhouse and E*Trade.
• Cold & Flu. We previously wrote about the surge in cold & flu content (up 434%) due to the outbreak of the Swine Flu (H1N1) virus. Hello Nyquil, Dayquil, Zicam and Purell.
You can also see content surges in other areas for the March/April period including horse racing (up 395% due in part to the Kentucky Derby), power & motor yachts (up 240% - have to get that boat into the water) and budget travel (up 232% for those planning a bit more than a stay-cation.)
Winners (based on % growth from March to April):
Top Level Category
Sub Category
% Growth Rate (March to April)
Sports & Recreation
Walking
511.94%
Finance & Money
Financial Planning
486.58%
Health & Medicine
Cold & Flu
434.43%
Health & Medicine
Autism/PDD
430.06%
Shopping
Couponing
424.63%
Sports & Recreation
Horse Racing
395.45%
Hobbies & Interests
Radio
346.21%
Arts & Entertainment
269.87%
Sports & Recreation
Power & Motor yachts
240.19%
Travel
Budget Travel
232.75%
Content losers for the March/April period include nutrition (down 74% - say goodbye to New Year’s dieting), skiing (down 74% - end of the season) and beginning investing (down 72% - folks are not wading into uncharted waters).
Do you believe in the substitutability of media? 
Still looking for a ticket for the July 14th panel (8-10am) in New York? Call your rep from ContextWeb's ADSDAQ Exchange to come as our guest or visit the AdClub to 
Omnicom Media Group is the global media division of Omnicom Group Inc. Its businesses include leading media service companies OMD Worldwide and PHD Network, as well as a number of specialized companies in areas including search engine marketing, branded content production, out-of-home media and others. OMG operates in more than 100 countries with a client list that includes Pepsi, HP, Intel and Nissan/Renault. 
(PHOTO: ADSDAQ Exchange's Agency Trading Desk) Many in the media world have argued over the substitutability of media - that if one can find the same audience looking at finance content on the Long Tail for $7.00 vs. the same audience looking at finance content on Forbes.com for $30.00-then the Long Tail deserves its place on the media plan. Is it reasonable to use content as one valuable common element to look across multiple media vendors and associate campaign value not with the specific media vendor per se but with the specific content of each single impression?
After our recent 
We are fortunate to have Wenda Harris Millard, a digital pioneer who has had a variety of leadership roles in the media business, to be our moderator. Millard is known for various "media-able" comments including a speech at the 2008 IAB Annual Meeting when she warned 
Bant is a constant in digital advertising circles and some days its seems like everyone this writer meets has just come from or is headed to a meeting with Breen. He has spent time in a variety of roles within Interpublic helping them in various digital capacities including time as Executive Director of the 
In addition to 
AOD, VivaKi's Premium Private Exchange delivers the largest audience-on-demand network in a Premium Publisher environment in the digital advertising industry. By leveraging this platform, clients will be able to connect with precisely defined global audiences in a single campaign buy across multiple networks.
Sloan is the Managing Partner and Managing Director for MediaCom Interaction and is responsible for all aspects of the agency's digital operations and strategy, including the continued integration of digital media and marketing into MediaCom's core business. 
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After years of requests from media buyers to simplify the ad buying process, it took one of the most difficult economic environments for some of the largest media companies to take notice. They have begun to realize that by not listening to these requests they were leaving money on the table. 
ContextWeb welcomes Mia Sossei as Director of Mid-West Online Advertising Sales. She oversees key markets including Chicago, Minneapolis, Detroit and St. Louis which support many of ContextWeb’s Fortune 100 clients such as Target and General Motors.
Tomorrow, Tuesday June 2nd at 9am we'll be at the 
Everyone loves hybrids. ContextWeb is pleased to be a part of comScore's new Media Metrix 360. The new system combines their existing panel based system with server based measurement.
The seven billion plus impressions traded on ContextWeb’s ADSDAQ Exchange in April provide a compelling view on content winners and losers for the March/April period. Many of these changes reflect news events and seasonality.