Trevor Wright is CEO of DogTime Media.
AdExchanger.com: Does Adify still provide the technology “backbone” of Dogtime? How has that relationship evolved?
DogTime leveraged Adify’s technology backbone to launch our vertical community, but quickly evolved beyond their capabilities and have been independent of Adify for more than a year.
Are advertisers buying from DogTime Media to target the “dog lovers” vertical, if you will, or are advertisers targeting audience with other, less endemic objectives, too?
DogTime has been successful in attracting not just endemic advertisers that want to reach passionate pet enthusiasts, but also with non-endemic advertisers who are targeting highly engaged women between the ages of 25-54, such as 20th Century Fox, Paramount, Toyota, Chronicle Books, Bissell, Eureka, Harper Collins, Dyson, etc.
Describe the revenue share. Does it vary according to publisher and advertiser format (widget vs. standard display)?
Do you provide potential advertisers a complete site list and audit the list according to campaign objectives?
DogTime is a completely transparent network. We provide advertisers with our site list and can select individual publishers within our network based on campaign objectives to deliver optimal targeting and performance. In addition DogTime offers behavioral targeting which provides a more focused reach of advertiser’s target audience.
How much optimization flexibility does Dogtime allow? For example, can advertisers optimize creative on a per site basis or across the entire network?
DogTime offers complete optimization capabilities, including site-by-site creative optimization and campaign pacing, on a daily basis.
Have advertisers begun using data exchanges to target audiences on Dogtime’s vertical ad network? Does Dogtime allow retargeting of its networks users – in other words, does it sell data (cookies) related to users on its network for targeting purposes?
DogTime offers behavioral targeting across our network and allows retargeting of our users beyond our network for even greater reach.
Does DogTime use ad exchanges to buy (thereby extending reach for advertisers) or sell inventory? If not, will it?
DogTime has over 14.8 million users within our network, and therefore we do not need to buy inventory to extend our reach. I don’t see us doing so in the future either as we are focused on maintaining the integrity and quality of our relationship with advertisers.
What are the challenges of creating a vertical ad network? Is the Long Tail scary?
Long-tail sites have very diverse needs and capabilities, which require DogTime to offer a wide variety of products and services to help them generate revenue and grow their businesses. The challenge is in truly understanding their individual goals and providing them with turnkey solutions that uniquely support them: from ad revenue to content syndication, to supporting their mission to keep dogs and cats out of shelters and in happy and health homes. Our dedicated account team works individually with each publisher to integrate them into the network and personally implement new products.
What percentage of DogTime’s business is brand awareness versus direct response? Any recent examples of brand campaigns?
DogTime offers direct response programs as an adjunct to brand campaigns. We offer programs to support every phase of the consumer purchase cycle, from targeted premium and supporting media, to sponsored content distribution, deep engagement promotions, direct response coupon and sampling programs, and social media influencer campaigns. Almost every campaign begins with brand awareness. For a closer look at one of our recent brand campaigns please see a video on our program that helped launch the Toyota Venza here:
http://dogtimemedia.com/index.php?a=advertisers&b=sub_advertisers&c=testimonial_toyota
What about a vertical ad network wishlist…what do you wish you had that you do not? And, does Doubleclick Network Builder or other vertical ad network builders provide any enviable features?
DogTime Media has taken a unique approach to building our vertical media community. By launching an anchor site (dogtime.com) in the vertical we have established a level of trust and affinity with publishers and bloggers that helps us tailor our products and services to uniquely meet their needs. We are constantly innovating and finding new ways to help them grow their businesses, grow their audiences and achieve their goals. There are currently no third-party network builders that provide services that meet this level of support.
How does Dogtime’s media breakout? Is it primarily widget oriented via your “Sparky” content widget or is there significant standard display? What are the benefits of a widget model vs. standard display?
DogTime’s media offerings include both standard display and widget based advertising programs, in addition to content sponsorships, custom engagement promotions, and social media programs. In addition, DogTime offers unique high-impact units such as rich media network wide home page roadblocks with corner peels, and a variety of other homepage takeover units.
The benefit of offering both banner advertising and widget-based programs is that DogTime is able to offer publishers the maximum number of opportunities to generate revenue, regardless of their site design or page layout. This level of versatility has enabled DogTime to satisfy the diverse needs of its long-tail publisher and blog partners.
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