Watch Rob Rasko, President and COO of CPX Interactive, interview ContextWeb's Jay Sears, EVP of Strategic Products and Business Development, at the IAB Annual Leadership Meeting about where the future of ad networks and where the online advertising industry is going to end up.
Video Highlights include:
- (2:22) Learn what specifically ContextWeb hopes to accomplish in 2010 to help grow the Internet ecosystem as a whole.
- (4:00) Watch Jay's answer to Rob's question - What is the future of the Ad Network:
a) Is it the old ad network that is mostly a service based organization.
b) Is it the new ad network that is a service based organization and mostly a technology platform.
c) Or is it a pure technology play that helps advertisers buy inventory through a self serve system.
Additional Resource: IAB Quality Assurance Guidelines for Networks & Exchanges were released at the IAB Annual Meeting in Carlsbad, California (see a copy of the 40-page document)
Watch this great 6:24 minute video clip of Wenda Harris Millard, President and COO of MediaLink and ContextWeb, Inc. board member when she recently accepted the IAB Founders Award at the 2010 Annual IAB Leadership conference held in Carlsbad, California.
During her acceptance speech, she provides answers to some of the more difficult questions that our industry as a whole struggles to answer.
- (1:15) Hear Wenda's answer to the question: What is it going to take to clear those hurdles that prevent you from the industry to garner a percent of ad dollars more in line with Internet consumption patterns.
- (3:35) Learn about 1 of the top 50 advertising campaigns of all time and the important message it shares.
- (5:15) Watch what Wenda believes is at risk if you choose to take a leadership role in the interactive advertising industry.
The IAB Chairman David Moore kicked off the IAB Annual Leadership Meeting in Carlsbad, California with his perspective and five predictions for the direction onf the Online Advertising Industry. "They may not be popular but honestly felt they reflect where the industry is right now and what direction it is headed," as stated by Moore.
Advertising alone will no longer support the cost of premium content. (5:05)
Destination sites will continue to lose audiences as media fragmentation continues at a rapid rate. (6:45)
Targeted advertising will continue to become more precise. (17:25)
Digital advertising will become the largest media market in the world in 5 years with video advertising becoming the dominate format. (28:25)
Demand side platforms will be a part of every agency and benefit those that are members of them. (28:25)
Other highlights include:
Example of how to get money from a user into the pocket of a publisher. (10:20)
How to maintain as a part of the long tail and ultimately advance into a premium market. (16:10)
Trivia Question: According to the experts, when was the Golden Age of the Internet? (31:50)
Additional Resource: IAB Quality Assurance Guidelines for Networks & Exchanges were released at the IAB Annual Meeting in Carlsbad, California (see a copy of the 40-page document)
In an effort to help you gain access to information, resources and thought leaders regarding the long-tail, we wanted to share with you IAB's upcoming Long-Tail Alliance Educational Seminars.
The IAB and its partners produce educational seminars aimed specifically at the needs of small, growing publishers. These seminars are produced from input received by the Long Tail Alliance and are part of IAB's ongoing efforts to support the long tail community.
Isai Shenker, SVP of Product Management at ContextWeb
will provide you with a detailed introduction to the different varieties of contextual advertising technologies and discuss tricks of the trade for small (and large) publishers to take advantage of leading-edge contextual technologies.
Most importantly, you will learn how you can optimize your site to maximize earnings from contextual advertising programs. Visit here for more information and to register for this event.
It all started 14+ months ago and this morning the IAB Quality Assurance Guidelines for Networks & Exchanges were released at the IAB Annual Meeting in Carlsbad, California (see a copy of the 40-page document)
A product of the first Working Group of the then nascent IAB Ad Network & Exchange Committee, the document represents a major milestone in building even more buyer confidence in ad networks and ad exchanges. The effort represents almost a year-and-a-half of work with input from over 60+ networks and exchanges, outside research companies, academia, agencies and advertisers.
We have an unbelievably collaborative group - my working group co-chair David Jacobs of Advertising.com; Dave Moore, our fearless leader of the full ad network & exchange committee who always calls it just likes he sees it; the tireless work of Sherrill Mane and Gina Kim of the IAB and so many contributions that are too numerous to mention over dozens of meetings and hundreds of hours of phone calls.
Look at the list of contributing companies and executives and the next time you see one of them raise your glass! We are so fortunate to have so many smart folks contributing to our industry's future.
Alas, the work has just now begun. After the current public comment period a new Steering Committee will oversee a six month implementation time period. And each certified ad network or ad exchange will need to work collaboratively with the IAB and peer companies so buyers-advertisers and their agencies-place the requisite value on the ad networks and ad exchanges who take the time to gain certification.
What do the Networks & Exchanges Quality Assurance Guidelines do to enhance buyer confidence? Here is the executive summary:
"The current ad networks and ad exchanges marketplace is complex and confusing. Over 1 million web sites carry advertising, and there are reports of 300+ ad networks and ad exchanges. Web page content can change constantly and dynamically. The IAB Quality Assurance Guidelines are intended to demystify ad networks and ad exchanges. These guidelines are designed specifically for networks & exchanges who are principals in transactions with marketers and agencies. However, these guidelines do not apply to ad exchanges that are technology platforms only, providing tools to enable direct media buying and selling between participants.
IAB Networks & Exchanges Quality Assurance Guidelines address 2 key objectives for the buying community:
Provide detailed information for:
Acquiring Inventory
Contextual Taxonomy & Targeting
Inventory Vetting
• Data Disclosure
Eliminate confusion through a common vocabulary for:
Targeting
• Data
Networks & Exchanges that voluntarily agree to be certified against these guidelines are providing marketers & agencies with a standardized approach that is designed to make buying easier and to give increased control over where ads are placed. Marketers & Agencies will have greater brand safety assurances that ads will not appear next to content that they decide is inappropriate. For the first time, the US ad networks and ad exchanges market will be giving advertisers consistent and standardized information, serving to build greater marketplace trust."
Here is the list of ad networks and ad exchanges on the Committee and the:
Committee Leadership David Moore, 24/7 Real Media, Inc., Chair
Committee Participants Adam Weiss, LinkShare AJ D'Angelo, PointRoll Alan Edwards, Realvu Alan Pearlberg, Giant Realm, Inc. Alec Greenberg, Media6° Alejandro Rodriguez, StarMedia Ali C. Mirian, IAC Media & Advertising Andrew Kraft, Collective Andy Atherton, Brand.net Art Prateepvanich, Right Media Inc. Barry Grant, BrightRoll, Inc. Benham Rezaei, NetSeer Benjamin Barokas, AdMeld Bill Jaris, Vizu Bill Nielsen, Microsoft Advertising Bill Wise, Yahoo!, Inc. Bruce Journey, DataXu Carnet Williams, Sprout Chris Hock, BlackArrow Christopher Murphy, Right Media Inc. Christopher Pirrone, Connexus Colin O'Malley, Better Advertising Craig Roah, The Rubicon Project Craig Steger, Clearspring Technologies Dan Ballister, TRAFFIQ Dan Martin, Pulse 360 Daniel Ruch, Tremor Media Daniel Veidlinger, Peerset Dave Avdoian, Dave Jacobs, Advertising.com David Hahn, AdSafe Media David Helmreich, TARGUSinfo David Shay, CPX Interactive David Zapletal, CPX Interactive Deborah Esayian, Emmis Interactive Dick Bennett, ImServices Group Doug Render, SpotXchange Ed Kozek, Better Advertising Eric Bosco, comScore Eric Klotz, PubMatic Erin "Mack" McKelvey, Millennial Media Frank Gerstenberger, AudienceScience Gene Kwon, Realvu Gil Resh, DoubleVerify Glen Kushner, OpenAmplify Gurvinder Singh, Cybage Software Pvt. Ltd. Heather Hopkins, MTV Networks Heidi Carson, Adify Jaan Janes, Pulse 360 James Oppenheim, Peer39 Jared Lansky, AdMeld Jarvis Coffin, Burst Media Corporation Jason Balk, Adtegrity Jason Glickman, Tremor Media Jason Krebs, ScanScout Jason Menayan, YieldBuild Inc. Jason White, FOX Interactive Media Jaswinder Pal Singh, Yahoo!, Inc. Jay Sears, ContextWeb, Inc. / ADSDAQ Exchange JB John-Baptiste, Peerset Jed Nahum, Jeff Hirsch, AudienceScience Jeff Huter, Vibrant Media Jeff Kamikow, Pulse 360 Jeff Servos, NeoEdge Networks Jennifer Jones, NAVTEQ Jennifer Morgan, Collective Jennifer Salant, Glam Media Jennifer Witt, Adconion Media Group Jenny LaVelle, Glam Media Jodi Daniels, Autotrader.com Joe Apprendi, Collective Joe Barone, Lat49 Joe Burton, Pulse 360 Joe Nowak, Dynamic Logic, a Millward Brown Company Joelle Gropper Kaufman, Adify John Urbik, Accenture Jonas Halpren, Federated Media Publishing Joseph Casale, Casale Media Josh Wexler, The Rubicon Project Julia Casale-Amorim, Casale Media Keith Kaplan, Adconion Media Group Keith Richman, Break Media Ken Barbieri, LucidMedia Networks, Inc. Kent Wakeford, AdSafe Media Kevin Dean, Centro Khan Smith, Sojern Kirby Winfield, mpire Lisa Kalscheur, AOL, Inc. Liwen Kao, OpenX Limited Lynn Bolger, comScore Lynn D'Alessandro, Traffic Marketplace Mark Kapczynski, Atigeo LLC Mark Mannino, MediaMath Marla Aaron, Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) Marla Schimke, AudienceScience Mathew Haugen, Kontera Technologies, Inc. Matt Boyd, ValueClick Media Matthew Love, 4INFO Michael Fleischman, CPX Interactive Michael Katz, interCLICK Michael Rudolph, Geeknet Michael Schoen, LookSmart Michael Sprouse, Epic Advertising Michael Zacharski, CPX Interactive Mike Shehan, SpotXchange Miten Sampat, Feeva Technology Mr. Chuck Moran, Burst Media Corporation Mr. David J Moore, 24/7 Real Media, Inc. Mr. Jason J. A. Knapp, FOX Interactive Media Mr. Jerrold Son, Specific Media Ms. Roberta Bianchi Muller, Northstar Travel Media Mudi Diejomaoh, Right Media Inc. Nadia Gonzalez, AdMeld Nicolle Pangis, 24/7 Real Media, Inc. Nina Mayar, Intermark Media Noga Rosenthal, 24/7 Real Media, Inc. Oded Itzhak, AdSide Olly Downs, Atigeo LLC Oren Netzer, DoubleVerify Oznur Yucelen, Microsoft Advertising Pamela Parker, Federated Media Publishing Patrick Fisher, Sojern Paul Mason, MediaMath Paul McLenaghan, TARGUSinfo Paul Pellman, Click Forensics Paul Rostkowski, LucidMedia Networks, Inc. Philip Smolin, Turn, Inc. Rahul Bafna, Google, Inc. Rahul Lahiri, NetSeer Rajarshi Ghoshal, Cybage Software Pvt. Ltd. Rajeev Goel, PubMatic Raleigh Harbour, The Rubicon Project Randy Kilgore, Tremor Media Ren Chin, YieldBuild Inc. Robert Rasko, CPX Interactive Ryan Becker, Traffic Marketplace Ryan Christensen, Brand.net Samir Arora, Glam Media Scott Switzer, OpenX Limited Scott Greenberg, Marchex Scott Portugal, TRAFFIQ Shahed Latif, KPMG Shannon Brown, BlackArrow Shanthini Sarkar, ContextWeb, Inc. / ADSDAQ Exchange Stephen Gelber, Intermark Media Svetlana Toun, Education Research Group (EduRG) Tiffany Chester, Lat49 Tim Lee, Expedia Media Solutions Tim Avila, Yahoo!, Inc. Tim Cadogan, OpenX Limited Tim Mahlman, Yahoo!, Inc. Tobin Trevarthen, Anchor Intelligence, Inc. Tom Sperry, aCerno Tony Winders, ValueClick Media Wayne Fraser, Lat49 Wendy Mazzoni, Glam Media Will Restrepo, MediaMath Yael Yekutiel, AdSide Yoav Shaham, Kontera Technologies, Inc.
Member Companies Specific Media 24/7 Real Media, Inc. 4INFO Accenture aCerno Adconion Media Group Adify AdMeld AdSafe Media AdSide Adtegrity Advertising.com Anchor Intelligence, Inc. AOL, Inc. Atigeo LLC AudienceScience Autotrader.com Better Advertising BlackArrow Brand.net Break Media BrightRoll, Inc. Burst Media Corporation Casale Media Centro Clearspring Technologies Click Forensics Collective comScore Connexus ContextWeb, Inc. / ADSDAQ Exchange CPX Interactive Cybage Software Pvt. Ltd. DataXu DoubleVerify Dynamic Logic, a Millward Brown Company Education Research Group (EduRG) Emmis Interactive Epic Advertising Expedia Media Solutions Federated Media Publishing Feeva Technology FOX Interactive Media Geeknet Giant Realm, Inc. Glam Media Google, Inc. IAC Media & Advertising ImServices Group Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) interCLICK Intermark Media Kontera Technologies, Inc. KPMG Lat49 LinkShare LookSmart LucidMedia Networks, Inc. Marchex Media6° MediaMath Microsoft Advertising Millennial Media mpire MTV Networks NAVTEQ NeoEdge Networks NetSeer Northstar Travel Media OpenAmplify OpenX Limited Peer39 Peerset PointRoll PubMatic Pulse 360 Realvu Right Media Inc. ScanScout Sojern SpotXchange Sprout StarMedia TARGUSinfo The Rubicon Project Traffic Marketplace TRAFFIQ Tremor Media Turn, Inc. ValueClick Media Vibrant Media Vizu Yahoo!, Inc. YieldBuild Inc.
Telling the audience of 500 attendees here at the IAB Annual Meeting in Carlsbad, California they "may not be popular", IAB Chairman David Moore kicked-off the industry fête with a series of five predictions on where the online industry is headed.
The speech of the IAB Chairman so often defines the year ahead of the interactive industry, it is imperative for all of us to pay close attention to these words.
Here are Moore's five predictions on the direction of the online advertising industry and then some of our favorite Moore keynote quotes:
1. CONTENT COSTS. Prediction #1 - Advertising alone can no longer support the cost of premium content.
2. FRAGMENTATION CONTINUES. Prediction #2 - Destination sites will continue to lose audiences as media fragmentation continues at a rapid rate.
3. TARGETED ADS BECOME TARGETED. Prediction #3 - Targeted advertising will continue to become more precise. Media models will require "quant experts" to design media plans for "audience-centric" campaigns.
4. DIGITAL LEADS IN FIVE YEARS. Prediction #4 - Digital Advertising will become the largest media market in the world in five years with video advertising becoming the dominant format.
5. DEMAND SIDE PLATFORMS OMNIPRESENT. Prediction #5 - DSP's will be a part of every agency and benefit those that are members of them.
The Moore "Quoto-matic".
We've gone through and pulled just a few Dave Moore "notable quotables" delivered in classic Moore style. You can also download a copy of David Moore's entire IAB speech at the bottom of this post.
On how the Weather Channel pioneered charging cable operators for content and drawing the analogy to online: "Sometimes, you don't need the Weather Channel to know which way the wind blows."
"Our industry is facing a similar battle to those early days of cable TV. 25% of media usage is directed online but we only get 12% of the ad dollars. Cable television still doesn't get the share of dollars that their audience merits. Advertising alone cannot sustain our industry's quality content providers over the long haul..."
"We need bigger pie, with bigger pieces, for everybody. But in order to do this, we have to go back and re-examine the whole recipe."
"The Internet has over 100 million websites with over 25 billion pages. And even if you took away all the sites devoted to Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, you'd still have... at least 4 or 5 million pages."
"at least one television network will convert to cable in 5 years or less. They will need a subscription fee."
"Content Costs. Or at least it should."
"They say, if it ain't broke don't fix it. Well, ad supported, quality content that's profitable to produce is not a viable business model anymore. It's absolutely broke. So let's fix it."
"Are you enjoying the speech? Yes. I'm not going to finish unless you give me a dollar."
"Let's establish a "toll gate" for premium content. An "EZ Pass" entrance that allows users to access great content at every site they choose. Imagine charging $.10 per session or 1 penny per page. What consumer wouldn't pay that?"
On charging for content: "Let's not overlook this fact: One user session at ten cents is a hundred dollars per thousand. Who's getting advertising rates like that today?"
"The longtail is a prominent and vital part of the IAB. As we grow our 12+% advertising market share, we open the doors for the longtail as well."
"Gear your content to an audience that specific advertisers love, get your audience usage up and sell all the ads on your site."
"And one other thing about networks: how does not using them help you increase your rates and/or revenue? It doesn't. Networks are here to stay... everyone needs to learn to use them."
"Audience targeting... In the old days, when cable cost $6 a month, we used to imagine a world where men didn't have to see ads for tampons and ladies never had to watch a spot for Cruex's jock itch remedy."
"as people learn that their web experience is guided by their habits and preferences, it's going to seem a lot less creepy. Because targeted ads don't just make the user experience more valuable to brands and their agencies, it makes the Internet a better place to be."
"A well-targeted ad ceases to be advertising and turns into useful information for the user... It's one step away from the recommendation of a friend. It's the inevitable future of advertising and it will increase our ability to charge higher prices."
"This is the Age of Truly Targeted Advertising. It's about being audience-centric as opposed to media-centric."
"While there will never be stronger impact than the right ad to the right person with content that is relevant, advertising that is solely "audience based" will continue to grow."
"Ladies and gentlemen of the IAB, we are being way too nice! We need to be more aggressive on commercial formats. Why are we so afraid of disrupting the User Experience? We're in advertising! We have to introduce more impactful ads into the user experience. We'll make them cool. We'll make them relevant. We'll give them lights! Celebrities! Sound! We can't be afraid to interrupt The User Experience with ads! The new User Experience needs ads. It's time to interrupt them! But do it in a way that they can enjoy."
"(Pause. Drink sip of Diet Pepsi.) Ah. Diet Pepsi. There's always room for a little product placement. I won't tell you what Frank paid me to do that."
"It's like the Olympics. We play each other all season long but every once in awhile we put on our IAB uniforms and team up for our industry. Coopetition..."
"We are no longer a new industry, but we're still young... just like me."
"The Golden Age of the Internet is just about to begin."
"the real value of the internet, is it's ability to connect people and ideas. And the internet needs advertising to sustain those connections. That's right, ladies and gentlemen. The internet needs us."
ContextWeb, Inc. and the ADSDAQ Ad Exchange will be at the IAB Annual Conference. The conference starts tomorrow, Sunday February 21st in Carlsbad, California.
The IAB has an action packed agenda. We are looking forward to David Moore's keynote address. In addition to being the IAB Chairman, Moore is the Chair of the IAB's Ad Networks & Exchanges Committee. ContextWeb board member Wenda Millard delivered the famous pork belly keytnote in 2008 when she was chairperson.
I'll be at the conference along with Jed Alpert, our marketing head, and John Ruvolo, our head of US sales. Be sure and drop a note (my last name AT contextweb.com) and let us know if you will be at the conference.
In today’s society, especially in the world of the entertainment industry, today’s hero is tomorrow’s lesson learned. Case in point? Tiger Woods. What’s interesting to note, and the reason for this post being written, is how the dynamic nature of endorsements quickly impacts online advertising and brand safety in particular.
For those of you who have been living under a rock, here’s the scoop. In the past few weeks, advertisers, such as Gatorade and Accenture, have pulled all Tiger Woods advertisements from prime-time television broadcast networks and 19 cable channels following reported extramarital affairs. In addition to pulling ads featuring Tiger himself, advertisers are concerned with having their brand associated with Tiger during this controversial time. Yet, ads are running on most pages with articles on the Tiger Woods scandal.
As a brand, would you want your ad appearing in the context of 10 or more alleged mistresses? Why is it that with respect to online advertising, it is much more difficult for advertisers to be given the guarantee that their ads will not appear next to any content concerning Tiger Woods’ affair and deteriorating marriage?
Page-level contextualization, one of ContextWeb’s core competencies, allows advertisers to ensure that their ads will not be associated with ‘scandal-plagued’ golfer Tiger Woods during a time when his name & reputation are being dragged through the mud. Rather than reading the content of the parent site, page-level targeting breaks down the larger site into individual pages, and applies the contextualization process to each of those individual pages. For example, it might be relevant for a golf advertiser to run their ads on ESPN.com next to an article about an upcoming PGA tournament, yet not next to content regarding the Super Bowl. With ContextWeb’s page-level contextualization, advertisers are given the ability to target only the specific types of pages of interest to them on a particular site.
In addition to page-level contextualization, the ADSDAQ Exchange run by ContextWeb extends the reach of our marketer’s brand messaging safely by applying up to four levels of protection: Quality Exchange, Page-Level Ad Serving, Negative Keyword Filter, & Brand Keyword Filter. Together, the levels offer unmatched brand safety among competitive exchanges, networks, portals – even single sites.
Other exchanges, networks and websites may say they provide contextual placement for ads through their vertical categories, but no one can provide desired content like the ADSDAQ Exchange. The reason is simple: no one else has page-level targeting capabilities. ContextWeb’s technology dynamically places ads only on pages based on targeting that is set forth by the advertiser.
You can learn more about ContextWeb and our page-level contextualization technology at www.contextweb.com.
ContextWeb, Inc., operator of the ADSDAQ Ad Exchange, announces today that Jay Sears, Executive Vice President of Strategic Products & Business Development, will be speaking at UBS 37th Annual Global Media and Communications Conference to be held at the Grand Hyatt New York in New York City on December 7 - 9, 2009.
Sears will speak on the panel "Media Measurement and Next Generation Advertising" on Monday, December 7th at 1:00 p.m. ET. The panel will be moderated by Sam Powers, Managing Director of UBS. Other panelists include Gian Fulgoni, Chairman of comScore, Joe Davis, President and CEO of Coremetrics, Elizabeth Herbst-Brady, President of Magna Insights (IPG) and Konrad Feldman of Quantcast.
UBS's 37th Annual Global Media & Communications Conference will feature presentations and panel discussions by senior management from more than 100 leading companies in the media and telecommunications industry from around the globe.
WHEN: Monday, December 7 through Wednesday, December 9, 2009
WHERE: Grand Hyatt New York, Park Avenue at Grand Central, New York City
WEBCAST: Live audio transmissions of company presentations will be accessible via the UBS Investment Bank website at www.ibb.ubs.com when the conference opens. Replays will be available starting approximately three hours after the initial presentation and will remain accessible for four weeks.
ContextWeb, Inc. / ADSDAQ Exchange is proud to announce Anand Subramanian as a Keynote Speaker at New York Entrepreneur Week. The Keynote, "Conceptualizing, Founding and Launching a Successful Business in a Nascent Industry," will take place on Thursday, November 19th from 12:00 pm to 1:00 pm and will be located at Columbia University, Faculty House, 64 Morningside Drive (at 116th Street), New York, New York 10027.
New York Entrepreneur Week (NYEW) is the largest entrepreneurial movement throughout New York State. For the first time, thousands of entrepreneurs across New York State will have the opportunity to actively engage the foremost entrepreneurs, investors and dealmakers both in the State and from around the world.
Taking place from November 16-20th, 2009, NYEW is a unique 501(c)3 non-profit holding over 350 events, which encompass five days of innovative and hyper-targeted events, including:
* Inspiring keynote speeches from recognized business leaders * Riveting panels delivering relevant mission-critical advice * The flagship RELENTLESS business plan competition * Third party events
With 120 speakers from 50 cities, 18 states and 3 continents, NYEW unites the state's diverse entrepreneurial community, providing an exclusive educational experience for all entrepreneurs- from enterprising young idea-stage innovators to hundred million dollar revenue generators. We are the movement makers, change agents, people helpers and problem solvers.
This panel discussion features some of the top minds in contextual advertising sharing their insight on the state of the industry now, and in the future. Companies represented included Microsoft, Yahoo!, AdKnowledge, AOL Advertising, Google, AdSide and ContextWeb, Inc / ADSDAQ Exchange. The informative discussion helped answer questions like where contextual advertising is going, what's hot and what's not. And provided valuable insight into what you can do today to make your content buys massively profitable.
The round table discussion was moderated by Jay Sears, EVP of Strategic Products and Business Development at ContextWeb, Inc / ADSDAQ Exchange.
Panelists included James Colborn, Director of Microsoft Advertising, Microsoft, Oded Itzhak, Founder and CEO of AdSide, Jeff Arena, Senior Product Manager, Yahoo!, Geri Guillermo, Director of Sales, BidPlace Pro, Sponsored Listings and AOL Search, AOL Advertising, Rajas Moonka, Group Business Product Manager, Google, Inc., and Brett Brewer, President of AdKnowledge.
Video: View part 1 of this thought-provoking and insightful round table discussion.
Audio: Listen to Part 1 of this round table discussion below or download the audio. (Note: Please allow 17 seconds to play before hearing the audio from the event.)
Photos: View photos from the event.
Let us know what you think by leaving a comment below.
We'll be posting Part 2 of this round table discussion plus additional industry-related news and ContextWeb, Inc. / ADSDAQ Exchange insights and updates, so make sure you follow the links below.
On Thursday, November 12 at 11:30 am, Isai Shenker, SVP of Product Management will join the PubCon 2009 discussion titled, “Optimizing Your Site for Contextual Ads.” The panel will discuss the tricks of the trade and help you optimize your site for money from any contextual advertising program.
The panel will be moderated by Heather Lloyd-Martin who is the President and CEO of SuccessWorks. Isai is joined on the panel with Aaron Wall, a search engine marketer, blogger, and author of a popular SEO book, Matt Tuens, Founder & CEO of AcuVox.
The PubCon Las Vegas 2009 panel discussion will take place at the Las Vegas Convention Center in fabulous Las Vegas, Nevada on Day 3 from 11:30 am to 12:45 pm. PubCon is four days of leading edge education and networking in over 90 sessions featuring 200 expert speakers in Social Media, Affiliate Programs, Search, and SEO/SEM. In its 8th year, PubCon was founded out of the rich and diverse base of WebmasterWorld forums. These aren't people who just talk about this stuff - these are people who do this stuff.
The A-List alpha attendees to PubCon are among the most highly pursued demographic in the online marketing world. Highly educated and computer savvy, they're early adopters of the latest web technologies and trends. These are the folks that any forward thinking company wants to reach and network with.
If you plan to be in attendance, be sure to say hello and attend our panel, “Optimizing Your Site for Contextual Ads” on Thursday, November 12th from 11:30 am to 12:45 pm.
Today, here is a Q&A between panelist Brett Brewer, President of AdKnowledge and moderator Jay Sears, EVP at ContextWeb, Inc and the ADSDAQ Exchange.
Your Name: Geri Guillermo
Your Job: I'm the Director of Sales for AOL Sponsored Listings (formerly Quigo), AOL Search Marketplace and BidPlace Pro at AOL Advertising. I oversee a team of 9 product specialists in the East and Southeast regions. BidPlace is a new platform where large advertisers can bid on AOL packaged inventory.
Your Company:AOL's mission is to inform, entertain and connect the world through premium content and mass scale. AOL.com provides top news, movies, music, weather, finance, sports, horoscopes and more. Advertisers can engage consumers by integrating their brands into AOL content and extend their message by targeting audiences across Advertising.com's trusted network. AOL works with Fortune 500 advertisers as well as the top agencies, networks, direct marketers and SEMs.
I work in the Product Sales group. My team is comprised of SMEs (subject matter experts) that support the national sales team in one or two product categories.
It used to be contextual advertising was the "step child" of search, living in its shadow. It finally seems to be coming into its own. Do you agree or disagree and what are the macro forces contributing to this shift?
Agree - but that's because search has always performed best in the marketing mix. But, everyone is looking to diversify once they have exhausted their search budgets and contextual is a natural complement.
Why does content and context matter?
Advertisers are always looking for good sources of traffic where they can associate their brands with premium content. With the overlapping of media channels it's important for your brand message or product offering to be aligned at various touch points of the consumption cycle.
How does behavioral and demographic targeting tie in with content and context? Or does it? Mutually exclusive or best used together?
They tie in as part of the continued evolution of contextual. Primarily in two ways -
AOL's content targeting, or AOL Sponsored Listings, is about reaching a desired demographic through the premium vertical sites in our network (AOL Money & Finance, CNNMoney.com, TheStreet.com, and many more).
Content targeting has evolved. You can now reach that site-defined demographic (DemoMatch), but you can also add a layer of demographic and behavioral targeting to ensure you really are reaching your desired audience.
The caveat here is not to slice and dice too granularly because you need scale with content targeting. We (AOL Sponsored Listings) have the tools and scale to accomplish both.
The Long Tail and media fragmentation. More than 80% of Internet sessions start with search-the advertiser's customer is now everywhere. Adsense has one million publishers carrying its ad tags. How do you compete in the Long Tail and against an installed based such as Adsense?
We don't. We have created a unique value proposition in the premium publisher space which makes us a "must-buy". Our publisher relationships are primarily exclusive, so advertisers need to come to us to reach a desired audience - if you want to advertise on ESPN.com on a text link basis, you have to work with ASL. If you want the AOL audience, you have to come to us.
I've seen this with other networks too that are carving out a differentiated niche. Often they evolve into specific demographic and are successful because of that.
Search has benefited enormously from last click attribution. More recently, Microsoft has published Atlas Institute research on engagement mapping and more advertisers are considering multiple attribution protocol when determining media mix. What are some of the macro "forcing functions" you see behind multiple attribution models and how will this benefit contextual advertising?
Not every conversion should be measured off the last click. Contextual can benefit from this new research because search has traditionally gotten all the credit for conversions.
Marketers need to become more savvy and not just allocate budget to search. They need to look at their marketing strategy holistically, and the entire customer lifecycle, including offline. How should a billboard on the highway get credit? Many cycles start offline and transition online where conversions are eventually captured.
The better we get at measurement, the more mainstream it will become. We are currently conducting research that ties into this theory as well.
Site targeting. When you move into the Long Tail (or even past the top 1,000 or 2,000 publishers), can site targeting deliver scalable solutions to advertisers? Is content a better answer because it is a common currency across all web pages?
Not necessarily. AOL Sponsored Listings' network has only ~ 500 publishers, but we served over 60 billion ad impressions last month. Site targeting can deliver scale in the premium publisher environment, even without the long tail.
Dynamic content. Web pages change constantly. How important is real-time - real time valuation, allocation, optimization? Many folks who talk about real-time talk about "audience aggregation" and re-targeting, but how important is content as one element of a "real-time" decision?
For us (AOL Sponsored Listings), the dynamic nature of news does not play a large role in our optimizing towards content as we do not work on a keyword basis. However, advertisers in our network can still take advantage of breaking news as those advertisers deemed "most popular" by our users will appear most often. Our system will naturally start to serve those ads with the best performance on these pages - those that yield the best.
Keyword vs. category targeting. Keywords are the holy grail of search. But are keywords effective in content targeting? Are they a destructive vestige of search-too granular or sometimes out of context to be impactful for content targeting? Is category targeting the answer?
This fits in well with our offering.
Mapping keywords contextually is definitely effective but also potentially limiting. Having the opportunity to site target allows you to demo match and increase your scale. For example, Golfsmith.com can promote their new Nike irons to the male user, between 18-34, who reads their news in AOL News, checks stocks in AOL Finance, updates fantasy football leagues in ESPN, all without keyword targeting.
Pricing Models. CPM. CPC. CPA. Cost Per Whatever-engagement, order-Cost Per Flowbee. Is this the direction we are headed? Good or bad?
That's funny - I heard this one the other day - CPHM - cost per half impression. Don't ask me to elaborate but something about splitting the impression.
I think these pricing models will always be at the root but evolving into new models is a good thing. Advertisers like P&G spend so much time talking about their ideal customer and how to reach them and how they should measure positive return, this flexibility can only benefit them.
Can you sell content ads alongside search ads-1. With the same value proposition? And 2. To the same SEM buyer? Or is it more sensible to sell to agencies?
Yes, as long as it's relevant. If it's rooted off the keyword search, the same value proposition holds because the user experience is retained. You could sell this to both the SEM buyer and any agency.
Tell us about you.
What did you do last Saturday?
Golfed in 103 degree heat (celebrated my one year anniversary in Scottsdale). At least it was dry heat. I don't recall breaking a sweat which was lovely, and I beat my husband by 6 strokes.
What's the best conference you attended in the last two years (besides AdTech and CRS, of course)?
Well, CRS is my new favorite conference....but I find Search Insider Summit/Mediapost highly valuable. The group is smaller, setting is more intimate which makes the panels more thoughtful and interactive, the activities are fun and the networking is productive.
If you could be appointed to any position in a US Presidential cabinet post, what position would it be and why?
Reggie Love! His personal aide must get more info from anyone in his cabinet, probably even more than the First Lady.
Your Twitter account: believe it or not, I don't tweet
Your Company's Twitter account: @AOL_Advertising
Thanks, Geri!
Geri's Bio:
Geri Guillermo is the Director of Sales for AOL Sponsored Listings (formerly Quigo), AOL Search Marketplace and BidPlace at AOL Advertising, where she oversees a team of product specialists in the East and Southeast regions. Geri was responsible for the successful integration of the Quigo sales team into her organization and continues to scale the business. She also manages product sales for BidPlace Pro, a new platform where large advertisers bid on AOL packaged inventory.
Before AOL, Geri spent two years in the sales organization at Microsoft, assisting in and promoting the launch of adCenter, Microsoft's new search platform to direct clients and agencies. Prior to Microsoft, Geri spent four years in Search sales at Yahoo!. She began her advertising career at US News & World Report and The Atlantic Monthly. Geri is an avid golfer and resides in Manhattan with her husband.
ADVERTISING: The State of Content Advertising: The Players, The Options, The Best Practices
Where is contextual advertising going? What's hot, what's not? What can you do today to make your content buys massively profitable? This roundtable discussion features some of the top minds in contextual advertising sharing their insight on the state of the industry now, and in the future.
MODERATOR: Jay Sears, Executive VP, Strategic Products and Business Development, ContextWeb, Inc./ADSDAQ Exchange
PANELISTS: James Colborn, Director, Microsoft Advertising, Microsoft
Oded Itzhak, Founder and CEO, AdSide
Brett Brewer, President, AdKnowledge
Geri Guillermo, Director of Sales, BidPlace Pro, Sponsored Listings and AOL Search, AOL Advertising
Jeff Arena, Senior Product Manager, Yahoo!
Rajas Moonka, Group Business Product Manager, Google, Inc.
Special offer: Register today and receive $100 discount (Promo Code: CRSNY91) for the upcoming Content Revenue Strategies @ ad:tech NY.
Today, here is a Q&A between panelist Brett Brewer, President of AdKnowledge and moderator Jay Sears, EVP at ContextWeb, Inc and the ADSDAQ Exchange.
Your Name:
Brett Brewer
Your Job: President, Adknowledge I live on Southwest Airlines, spend more time on the road with advertisers and publishers than in the office, and work closely with Board and CEO. I'm one of two inside Directors.
Your Company:Adknowledge is an ad network, one of the largest in the world, and has developed a leading targeting technology. It all started in the technology center of the U.S. -- Kansas City, MO. We're a performance solution, so it figures we have our roots in the Show Me state.
It used to be contextual advertising was the "step child" of search, living in its shadow. It finally seems to be coming into its own. Do you agree or disagree and what are the macro forces contributing to this shift?
Agree. We think the PPC's in search have pushed advertisers and marketers into the world of display and we love that. We see SEO/SEM practioners as more knowledgeable about contextual and display in general than ever before
Why does content and context matter?
Environment, qualified audience, fit, engagement. But . . . I would raise the question whether, over time, ad-serving solutions that emphasize the targeting of users, not content, will prove to be more successful.
How does behavioral and demographic targeting tie in with content and context? Or does it? Mutually exclusive or best used together?
Speaking of targeting . . .so, yes, they do tie in to some extent. Content in the form of the advertising format - a social network app, inventory on this publisher, an email ad in this category - can factor into targeting.
The Long Tail and media fragmentation. More than 80% of Internet sessions start with search-the advertiser's customer is now everywhere. Adsense has one million publishers carrying its ad tags. How do you compete in the Long Tail and against an installed based such as Adsense?
In short, targeting technology and multiple channels. Deepen the targeting technology and broaden the channels. I think that's a good competitive position.
Search has benefited enormously from last click attribution. More recently, Microsoft has published Atlas Institute research on engagement mapping and more advertisers are considering multiple attribution protocol when determining media mix. What are some of the macro "forcing functions" you see behind multiple attribution models and how will this benefit contextual advertising?
The challenge with "MAP" is how many advertisers will use it, how big do they have to be, and will the large segment of SMB's incorporate it into media-mix decisions? I am optimistic that MAP will have significant penetration.
Site targeting. When you move into the Long Tail (or even past the top 1,000 or 2,000 publishers), can site targeting deliver scalable solutions to advertisers? Is content a better answer because it is a common currency across all web pages?
I don't have a long view into site targeting . . .but I have a point of view that common currency of content does provide value. As content continues to benefit from targeting technology improvements, that creates separation vs. site targeting.
Dynamic content. Web pages change constantly. How important is real-time - real time valuation, allocation, optimization? Many folks who talk about real-time talk about "audience aggregation" and re-targeting, but how important is content as one element of a "real-time" decision?
Depends on ROI. The change in web pages reflects growing importance of 1-to-1 approach to consumer. How far does customization need to go to be effective? We are all going to find out.
Keyword vs. category targeting. Keywords are the holy grail of search. But are keywords effective in content targeting? Are they a destructive vestige of search-too granular or sometimes out of context to be impactful for content targeting? Is category targeting the answer?
Category targeting, done right, presents greater opportunities. The out-of-context challenge for keywords can create problems.
Pricing Models. CPM. CPC. CPA. Cost Per Whatever-engagement, order-Cost Per Flowbee. Is this the direction we are headed? Good or bad?
Good. Pricing varies with the advertiser's needed action or result, and varies with the business categories of advertisers. Credit card companies have different needs from dating sites who have different needs from entertainment companies (think viral). Multi-pricing options will increase total online advertising spending.
Can you sell content ads alongside search ads-1. With the same value proposition? And 2. To the same SEM buyer? Or is it more sensible to sell to agencies?
I think it depends on advertising category. Selling alongside can require more testing and tweaking by SEM buyer. But sure . . . can sell to the same SEM buyer.
Tell us about you.
What did you do last Saturday?
Played in a beer pong tournament at an event we hosted for publishers and developers of social games. I can talk all day about my pong-playing prowess.
What's the best conference you attended in the last two years (besides AdTech and CRS, of course)?
It has to be one of our own. Australia Social Media conference. Whether in U.S. or Australia, I love talking with advertisers who are still figuring out the social advertising space. The flight over was not part of best . . . was in middle row, in coach.
Thanks, Brett!
Brett's Bio:
Brett Brewer is a leading Internet pioneer and executive. He co-founded his first company, Intermix Media, just two years out of college. Intermix Media was the parent company of several businesses including Myspace.com. Intermix was sold to News Corporation for $673 million in October 2005.
Brett joined Adknowledge in 2006 and serves as President and Board of Directors member. He played a key role in attracting a $48 million investment from Technology Crossover Ventures (TCV) and in completing several acquisitions that have helped make Adknowledge the largest, independently owned ad network in the world.
Brett is active with many charities and education-related organizations. He received a BA in Business/Economics from UCLA in 1996.
ADVERTISING: The State of Content Advertising: The Players, The Options, The Best Practices
Where is contextual advertising going? What's hot, what's not? What can you do today to make your content buys massively profitable? This roundtable discussion features some of the top minds in contextual advertising sharing their insight on the state of the industry now, and in the future.
MODERATOR: Jay Sears, Executive VP, Strategic Products and Business Development, ContextWeb, Inc./ADSDAQ Exchange
PANELISTS: James Colborn, Director, Microsoft Advertising, Microsoft
Oded Itzhak, Founder and CEO, AdSide
Brett Brewer, President, AdKnowledge
Geri Guillermo, Director of Sales, BidPlace Pro, Sponsored Listings and AOL Search, AOL Advertising
Jeff Arena, Senior Product Manager, Yahoo!
Rajas Moonka, Group Business Product Manager, Google, Inc.
Special offer: Register today and receive $100 discount (Promo Code: CRSNY91) for the upcoming Content Revenue Strategies @ ad:tech NY.
Today, here is a Q&A between panelist Oded Itzhak, Founder and CEO of AdSide and moderator Jay Sears, EVP at ContextWeb, Inc and the ADSDAQ Exchange.
Your Name: Oded Itzhak
Your Job: Founder and CEO of DOCLIX - Operator of the AdSide advertising network for premium publishers and advertisers.
Your Company: AdSide is a premium pay-per-click ad network, serving tier-1 content publishers, advertisers and media agencies. The network delivers highly-targeted text ads within a controlled environment of pre-screened content sites.
AdSide's Two-Step ClickTM model ensures advertisers pay only for twice-qualified clicks, and only from high-performing sites. Advertisers benefit from a powerful combination of qualified leads, premium sources of traffic, flexible targeting, and ad placement control - at optimal price points. Customers are top-50 and regional interactive agencies, performance advertisers and large brand publishers.
It used to be contextual advertising was the "step child" of search, living in its shadow. It finally seems to be coming into its own. Do you agree or disagree and what are the macro forces contributing to this shift?
Contextual Advertising started as an extension to SEM, allowing search engines to display paid listings on content pages using keyword-based relevancy algorithms. In recent years we've been seeing content-targeting evolving beyond the keyword and taking a separate path from search. Today marketers can place text-based CPC ads while also taking into account the demographics traits and interests of their target audience, making targeting a more accurate process.
Why does content and context matter?
Content and context are indicative of the users' interests and state of mind when they click on an ad. This benefits both the advertisers and the publishers. Advertisers benefit from higher conversion rates and publishers from a higher CTR.
How does behavioral and demographic targeting tie in with content and context? Or does it? Mutually exclusive or best used together?
I believe that demographic and behavioral targeting make more sense with certain types of content where a pure keyword-based contextual algorithm might not work so well. For example, on content pages such as a news article about a car accident, where a pure algorithmic model could lead to ads like: "Get your degree in car accidents."
The Long Tail and media fragmentation. More than 80% of Internet sessions start with search-the advertiser's customer is now everywhere. Adsense has one million publishers carrying its ad tags. How do you compete in the Long Tail and against an installed based such as Adsense?
Long tail provides great reach but might not offer a good fit for some marketers. For example, marketers that look for a brand-safe environment should rethink long-tail. Other problems associate with long-tail include click fraud, accidental clicks, lack of transparency and the lack of ability to optimize on a per site basis, concerns that are less of an issue with premier, large sites .
Site targeting. When you move into the Long Tail (or even past the top 1,000 or 2,000 publishers), can site targeting deliver scalable solutions to advertisers? Is content a better answer because it is a common currency across all web pages?
I believe that it's impractical to manage site- (or placement) targeting with a long list of long-tail sites. Beyond the premium or well-known mid-tier list of sites, content targeting is better accomplished on a category level, allowing advertisers to place ads across a large number of sites that cater to users with similar interests and demographic traits.
Keyword vs. category targeting. Keywords are the holy grail of search. But are keywords effective in content targeting? Are they a destructive vestige of search-too granular or sometimes out of context to be impactful for content targeting? Is category targeting the answer?
Category-based targeting is an effective subset of contextual targeting. It allows advertisers to reach audiences on their go-to websites, and deeper within the same demographics - beyond what is accessible through keyword targeting.
Pricing Models. CPM. CPC. CPA. Cost Per Whatever-engagement, order-Cost Per Flowbee. Is this the direction we are headed? Good or bad?
CPA is a no-brainer for DR advertisers. It ensures positive ROI; however it places all of the risk on the publisher, which many quality publishers will refuse. The CPC model shares the risk between advertisers and publishers, but doesn't provide the branding benefits of display ads. CPM is the de-facto standard for branding campaigns, however it assumes that all impressions are created equal. It also incentivizes publishers to artificially create lesser inventory by adding more units per page, republishing 3rd party content, or creating photo galleries, etc. For pure branding campaigns, a new model should be developed to replace the CPM model.
Oded Itzhak is part of a leading group of performance advertising experts. Prior to founding AdSide, Oded was Co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer at Quigo, a leading pay per click ad network which was acquired by AOL in 2007. Oded was responsible for developing Quigo's PPC technologies and owns several search marketing and content targeting patents. Prior to launching Quigo, Oded held senior engineering and management positions at Electronic Arts, and was Chief Technology Officer at WorldImaging, Inc. Oded holds a BSc degree in Mathematics and Computer Science. He is a frequent speaker at industry conferences.
ADVERTISING: The State of Content Advertising: The Players, The Options, The Best Practices
Where is contextual advertising going? What's hot, what's not? What can you do today to make your content buys massively profitable? This roundtable discussion features some of the top minds in contextual advertising sharing their insight on the state of the industry now, and in the future.
MODERATOR: Jay Sears, Executive VP, Strategic Products and Business Development, ContextWeb, Inc./ADSDAQ Exchange
PANELISTS: James Colborn, Director, Microsoft Advertising, Microsoft
Oded Itzhak, Founder and CEO, AdSide
Brett Brewer, President, AdKnowledge
Geri Guillermo, Director of Sales, BidPlace Pro, Sponsored Listings and AOL Search, AOL Advertising
Jeff Arena, Senior Product Manager, Yahoo!
Rajas Moonka, Group Business Product Manager, Google, Inc.
Special offer: Register today and receive $100 discount (Promo Code: CRSNY91) for the upcoming Content Revenue Strategies @ ad:tech NY.
In today’s society, especially in the world of the entertainment industry, today’s hero is tomorrow’s lesson learned. Case in point? Tiger Woods. What’s interesting to note, and the reason for this post being written, is how the dynamic nature of endorsements quickly impacts online advertising and brand safety in particular.
ContextWeb, Inc
UBS's 37th Annual Global Media & Communications Conference will feature presentations and panel discussions by senior management from more than 100 leading companies in the media and telecommunications industry from around the globe. 
New York Entrepreneur Week (NYEW)
On Thursday, November 12 at 11:30 am, Isai Shenker, SVP of Product Management will join the PubCon 2009 discussion titled, “
Your Job: I'm the Director of Sales for AOL Sponsored Listings (formerly Quigo), AOL Search Marketplace and BidPlace Pro at AOL Advertising. I oversee a team of 9 product specialists in the East and Southeast regions. BidPlace is a new platform where large advertisers can bid on AOL packaged inventory.
Your Job: President, Adknowledge I live on Southwest Airlines, spend more time on the road with advertisers and publishers than in the office, and work closely with Board and CEO. I'm one of two inside Directors.
Your Job: Founder and CEO of DOCLIX - Operator of the AdSide advertising network for premium publishers and advertisers.