by Andy Atherton
February 23rd, 2009
The following is a re-post from my guest blog column published today in AdAge. It ties in very nicely with coverage on measurement coming out of the IAB Annual Meeting, including my previous boss, Wenda Harris Millard’s keynote and this piece by AdAge’s Abbey Klaassen.
- Andy
Continue Reading…
by Andy Atherton
February 17th, 2009
It’s true that there’s an imbalance between supply and demand, which is putting downward pressure on rates as highlighted in this morning’s WSJ article “Future Shock for Internet Ads?”. However, I think there are some important details missing that would add richness and perspective to this article and other similar ones. Continue Reading…
by Andy Atherton
February 9th, 2009
This week Randall Rothenberg, the President of the IAB, released a self-proclaimed “manifesto” which picks up many relevant themes to our work at Brand.net.
It’s quite long, but the first 3 sections and the last 2 echo conversations we have with partners (advertisers, agencies and publishers) literally on a daily basis. As I said in my comment to Randall’s article, there’s more confusion than information in too much of the ongoing debate about CPMs, formats/standards and the role of networks. Everyone – advertisers, agencies, publishers and networks – would be better served if we could collectively take a step back from today’s disproportionate focus on DR and think more broadly about what it takes to make the Internet work for the full funnel. In doing so we will find long-term, sustainable solutions to many of today’s challenges.
- Andy Atherton, COO/Cofounder
by Andy Atherton
February 5th, 2009
Standards are an extremely important issue, but I think Tillinghast really has it wrong in this article which ran in the New York Times this week.
First of all, his quote: “We made it possible for any Web site to run ads through the ad networks. That’s created an oversupply of space.”, doesn’t make sense. How does enabling different distribution channels create oversupply of product? It’s all the same inventory after all – the only difference is whether or not the sale is through an intermediary. Regardless, deliberately creating “complicated”, “unusual” formats is exactly the wrong answer. The reason for the “soft middle” as he puts it is an inefficient, manual buying process for anything but DR-focused advertising. Since DR only accounts for ~1/3 of measured media spend, these operational barriers have created the imbalance of supply and demand that is responsible for declining yields and accompanying publisher hand-wringing. Tillinghast’s prescription – every publisher should make their own unique ad units to deliberately make the buying process less efficient – will make all of this worse, not better. Picture TV with only product placements (no 30-spots) and no networks (national buy takes 100 phone calls and associated logistics). That’s an obvious disaster for advertisers and content providers alike.
The answer is more standardization, not less. The author is correct to be skeptical.
- Andy Atherton, COO/Cofounder
