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It’s Time To Get “Real” About Malvertising

"The Sell-Sider" is a column written by the sell-side of the digital media community.

Alanna Clark is Director of Business Development at AdMeld, a publisher yield optimization company.

Three-day weekends, holiday seasons, a plethora of Q1 inventory. These are all normal signals and events throughout the course of our year but also triggers for more unseemly activities, namely malvertising.

The digital advertising space has always had its share of bad actors. But as the ecosystem has grown in size and complexity, so has the cunning of those who use it to spread malware. Malware puts consumers in danger, wastes the industry's time, and sucks billions from the world economy. Until recently, speaking openly about these issues was taboo—especially for those companies that didn't want to risk being branded as 'malware infested.' This kind of attitude has led to the perpetuation of two major malware myths:

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Yahoo! Talks RTB, Rubicon Project Urges Caution; On Demand-Side Platform Holy Grail; ScanScout Online Video Ad Insights

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Yahoo! And Right Media On RTB

Given all the hubbub created by the articles in the Wall Street Journal and The New York Times and included AppNexus, Google and others, Yahoo! has responded with its real-time bidding thoughts via VP/GM Bill Wise who writes, "Right Media was the first marketplace to offer real-time bidding (RTB) in our own marketplace over five years ago (see the story we posted on this last year). We have been testing a new kind of RTB for over the last six months." Read it.

Rubicon Project On RTB

From its blog, Rubicon Project notes the recent mainstream media articles on real-time bidding and says, "We are deeply concerned about the true impact of this buzz-worthy new technology on the value of inventory for publishers. RTB is attention-grabbing, indeed – but it’s not necessarily all good news for publishers of digital content." Read more.

DSP Kool-Aid In Lisbon

According to New Media Age, Mediasmith CEO David Smith spoke at I-COM in Lisbon last week and "said the industry is moving to the 'holy grail of targeting,' with targeting becoming more specific because agencies are taking the technology in-house through their own DSPs." Drink the DSP Kool-aid.

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Let’s All Do More With Less

"Social Exchange" is a column focused on the evolving roles of social media in online advertising.

Today's column is written by Andrew Pancer, Chief Operating Officer of Media6Degrees.

Data is one of today’s hottest industry topics, and managing it well will drive the future of online advertising. DSPs, ad networks, exchanges, and publishers are falling over themselves to harness their own and other people’s data and use it in new and interesting ways.

Scott Burke, VP Engineering of Yahoo, recently wrote for AdAge:  “It's not about how much data you have, it's what you do with it.” I could not agree more. The fact that most DSPs provide full-service solutions rather than a true trading-desk solution helps prove my point. If campaign execution was as simple as buying data and adding it to the mix, then there would be little need for full-service providers, regardless of client or agency talent. Intelligent use of data requires a mix of analytical thinkers, technologists, and learning systems that allow campaigns to improve over time based on the data being collected.

For an industry full of the world’s smartest technologists and marketers, we should be focused on doing more with less. Revolutionary targeting technology should be able to deliver significantly higher returns without having to amass ever larger arsenals of data.

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Adgregate Markets Announces ShopFans, Gives Exclusive First Look To IPG’s Emerging Media Labs

Adgregate Markets announced a partnership with IPG Mediabrands' Emerging Media Lab unit today which will make Adgregate Markets a preferred technology provider within IPG. According to the release, "IPG will promote Adgregate products and services to the Interpublic agency network." Part of the deal includes Adgregate Markets new socially-infused "ShopFans" in banner, e-commerce technology. Read more.

CEO Henry Wong of Adgregate Markets discussed the IPG announcement and the new product line.

AdExchanger.com: What provided the spark for creating ShopFans?

HW: Consumer usage of Facebook is exploding. The driving force was initially communication and content sharing among friends, but now brands and retailers are joining the conversation and often promoting special offers to their fans. For example, a recent report by ForeSee says that, of the 69% of online shoppers who are social media users, 56% have chosen to "friend," "follow," or "subscribe to" at least one store brand on Facebook. Another report commissioned by Opinion Research Corporation and Yesmail found that nearly half (45%) of survey respondents use social networks to research items, compare prices, and look for offers.

What's social about ShopFans?

We're keeping the features hush-hush for now until launch, and only our closest partners know what to expect. It will literally mark the beginning of true social shopping on Facebook. Stay tuned.

An agency holding company deal is a bit of a "holy grail" in the industry. How do you manage the potential needs of a company much larger than you?

That's a great challenge to be facing. Staffing up to meet a growing pipeline of
clients is a top priority.

Can you quantify what you expect the impact on Adgregate Markets will be this year and/or next? Is their exclusivity with the IPG deal?

IPG is getting an exclusive "first look" at some of the ShopFans innovations to be
launched next month and we'll be working closely with key clients to solicit feedback
during the initial launch period. We expect their clients will enjoy this head start.
Regarding impact, we expect 2010 to be our best year ever.

By John Ebbert

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All Aboard! Real-Time Bidding Goes Mainstream: In The New York Times, Wall Street Journal; And, Eyeblaster Files For IPO

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RTB, AppNexus, Ebay In NY Times

It's official. Real-time bidding is here as the digital media buying phenomenon is featured in an article by reporter Stephanie Clifford of The New York Times who says, "In the real-time process, billboard space would be auctioned off second by second, and tailored to each viewer." AppNexus CEO Brian O'Kelley and one of AppNexus' clients, Ebay are front-and-center as players in the new RTB world. Read it.

More Display, More RTB

Not to be outdone, The Wall Street Journal's Jessica Vascellaro and Emily Steel look at display's resurgence, Google's potential dominance and, of course, RTB in yet another mainstream media, feature article. OMG Digital CEO Matt Spiegel tells the WSJ, "Google has more firepower right now. I'm convinced that the other key players in the space recognize the risk." RocketFuel's Richard Frankel adds, "Google's real-time bidding is a significant advantage over Yahoo's system." Read more. (No subscription? Try here.)

Times On Murdoch Threats

New York Times publisher Arthur Sulzberger said at the Bloomberg BusinessWeek Media Summit that he would see Rupert Murdoch's potential decision to remove The Wall Street Journal and The New York Post, among other News Corp sites, from Google's index as The NY Times' gain. MediaPost quotes Sulzberger regarding Google: "I think it's important to understand what they do, and work with them." Read more.

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AdExchanger: Enter Malware (Part III)

A weekly comic strip from AdExchanger.com that highlights the digital advertising ecosystem...

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Is It A Pony Or A Hand Puppet? Enhancing Brand Safety Through Real-Time Bidding

"Data-Driven Thinking" is a column written by members of the media community and containing fresh ideas on the digital revolution in media.

Today's column is written by Ajay Sravanapudi, CEO at LucidMedia.

“If it is in fact a hand puppet, which finger is the head of the pony?”  This question nicely sums up the brand safety fears while running a display campaign.  In my last column, I explored the recent demand-side platform (DSP) trend focusing on its potential benefit to agencies.  This month, I want to look more closely at one specific aspect of the DSP movement: brand safety in real-time bid (RTB) inventory.

Real-time bidding is the latest positive evolutionary change sweeping the display advertising industry this year.  Despite its promise of efficiency and scale, many buyers view RTB inventory as potentially brand unsafe.  Contrary to these expectations, we have found that, with the right technology, RTB is the most effective and efficient means of procuring brand-safe inventory at scale.  This is so because (a) impression bid requests come with a lot of useful data attached and (b) the DSP can use this impression-level data to filter for brand safety in real-time.  Much of the impression level data can be used with minimal effort to implement a poor man’s brand safe filter like geographic, site level, day parting, etc.  Any DSP worth the price of admission should implement this kind of minimum filtering.  However, this is just scratching the surface. What is really needed for true brand safety is technology that can perform a deep semantic analysis at the page-level.

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Quantcast’s Feldman On Delivering Local Country Audience Insights

Quantcast announced yesterday that they are offering their traffic data and audience insights globally by local country.

CEO Konrad Feldman discussed the company's global push.

AdExchanger.com: How did you determine that Quantcast is the "World's Favorite Audience Measurement Solution"?

KF: Every week thousands of websites choose Quantcast to provide them with audience measurement and insights. We think of audience measurement as being the "who" and that's distinct from the "what" of web analytics. We're not aware of any audience service that's been as widely adopted as Quantcast - are you?

Outside of the U.S. market, which countries or areas of the world show particular surges of interest in audience measurement services?

We've seen strong interest in our solution from overseas publishers that had significant US audiences that they wanted to better monetize. Increasingly those publishers were asking us what we could do for their home markets and we're delighted to be able to support them more fully, not just in their home marketers, but in every market.

And, from your standpoint, is audience buying everywhere?

Certainly in the major digital media markets it is, though of course to varying degrees. Increasingly marketers are looking to coordinate and standardize their approaches to audience insights and real-time media on a global basis.

By John Ebbert

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Evolving Back to Basics… Ad Networks Can Lead the Way

"Networking" is a column focused on the evolving roles of networks in online advertising.

Today's column is written by Mike Seiman, CEO of CPX Interactive.

Looking back at a decade of online advertising, one thing becomes pretty clear. The arc of the landscape has slanted toward complexity and compartmentalization. While it is true that there are now any number of solution providers available to help an advertiser spend its online advertising budget, the question that should be asked is "Has all this compartmentalizing really benefited the advertiser, or has the process just complicated itself into inefficiency?" I tend to think that there is a good deal of inefficiency now built into the system and I predict a pendulum swing back in the direction of one-stop solution simplicity. Furthermore, I respectfully submit that the industry player best situated to lead this next-generation ‘back to basics' shift is the same one that was there at the beginning…the ad network.

So how did the landscape evolve away from the promise of a one-stop ‘easy button' originally offered by ad networks? Well, in truth, some of the blame must be laid at the feet of the ad networks, themselves. Access to huge pools of inventory was a unique selling proposition in its time. But ad networks probably were not aggressive enough in adapting to a rapidly evolving landscape. While spending time growing their reach, ad networks allowed 3^rd party technologies (demand side platforms and tools) to grow in prominence. Ad networks operated under the belief that, by adding their own USP to the mix, these ‘specialists' would create greater efficiency and that rising tide would raise all boats. In truth, if ad networks had been a little more protective of the industry space they had created, they could have developed the very same services, and these demand side platforms would probably never have come into existence.

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24/7 Real Media’s Pangis Looks At Her Company’s Publisher Platform Solutions

24/7 Real Media announced an upgrade to its publisher ad serving solution, Open AdStream this week. Read the release.

Nicolle Pangis, VP, Product Management Global Media and Technology for 24/7 Real Media, reviewed Open AdStream and its place in the publisher platform market.

AdExchanger.com: How is 24/7 and Open AdStream addressing the need for publishers to unlock and manage the value of their data?

Since 24/7 Real Media’s inception and the initial release of the Open AdStream ad management technology platform through to its current version, we have aligned with publisher interest to support and protect publishers’ valuable data.

24/7 Real Media has developed unique partnerships with other leading companies in the digital marketing industry to distinctively integrate data and technology partners. For example, our partnership with Omniture produced a first of its kind integration between Open AdStream and Omniture’s leading web analytics platform SiteCatalyst, allowing publishers to leverage their own robust analytics data to define and target audience segments with advertising messages.

Please discuss the competitive set.  How are you differentiating from the competition?

Open AdStream is the premiere ad management platform in the marketplace today, enabling publishers to deliver ads in any digital format to any digital platform including Web sites, mobile, IPTV and many emerging platforms. Along with developing the technology platform itself, 24/7 Real Media has embraced the philosophy of an open digital ecosystem, developing partnerships and integrations with other key players in the market in order to provide customers with best-of-breed solutions. 24/7 Real Media’s ad management offering can also be differentiated by the superior training, account management, and support teams that provide reliable and effective customer service.

What's your view: are demand-side platforms (DSPs) a threat to publishers given their ability to target audience across multiple supply sources?

Demand side platforms give advertisers the opportunity to obtain lower rates for publisher inventory and target audiences across multiple publishers, networks and ad exchanges, which is not always in the publishers’ best interest. Emerging DSPs and ad exchanges, along with various intermediaries such as yield optimizers, take a piece of the value as publishers sell their audiences and inventory; however, the market is still nascent and the technology and practices still developing. As these companies and business models evolve, there will likely be some consolidation along the value chain allowing publishers to reclaim more value from their inventory.

Will 24/7 develop a supply-side platform (SSP)?

24/7 Real Media is aligned with publisher interest and therefore provides best-of-breed solutions for publishers to manage their digital advertising and extract the greatest value from their inventory. In addition to the Open AdStream ad management platform, 24/7 Real Media enables publishers to monetize their inventory with our Global Web Alliance media network of Web sites across the globe. Aligning network and publisher goals, the Global Web Alliance represents publisher inventory through direct one-to-one relationships, and is virtually the only major network that does not purchase inventory.

By John Ebbert

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Microsoft Releases Brand Study; Glam Media And DSP Adchemy In WSJ 50; Ads Can Be Taxing

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Brand Effectiveness Study

On the Microsoft Advertising blog, Microsoft's Head Of Research & Market Insights EMEA Anita Caras announces new research that looks at the effectiveness of brand campaigns in digital. The whitepaper looks at 20 campaigns across 4 EMEA countries and was done in conjunction with ComScore and Eyeblaster. Positive outcomes of brand campaigns include "Branded search-term activity," "Visits to brand sites" and "Uplifts in numbers of engaged visitors to brand site (measured in pages consumed and time spent on the brand site)." Read the post. And, download the whitepaper.

Malware In Congress

CNET's Elinor Mills reports that WhitePages.com has halted the delivery of ad network campaigns that were suspected of delivering malware on its site. Incredibly, the people who discovered the malware attack may have been related to the United States Senate as a Senate rep said that Senate computers had been infected by malware from WhitePages.com and the Drudge Report the day before. They're reading the Drudge Report in the halls of Congress? You gotta be kidding me. Nope.

Specific Media Travel

On website Travolution, Ian Dowds, UK VP of Revenue at Specific Media, discussed momentum for the online ad network in the travel space. Business doubled in January compared to the year ago period and Dowds told Travolution that "two of his top five clients in 2009 were in travel, and that 22 travel clients booked 30 campaigns in January 2010 – up from just 11 clients in the same month in 2009." Read more.

Rubicon Project To Fill AOL Europe Gaps

Daniel Farey-Jones of Mediaweek UK says that Rubicon Project has been asked to take over AOL inventory in Europe for "all countries where AOL has had a network-only sales policy." These countries include Spain, Norway, Denmark, Finland, Sweden and the Netherlands . Read more.

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