It was real-time bidding, exchanges and data leakage all day yesterday at PubMatic’s Ad Revenue Conference in the Times Center in New York City today. During a panel tmoderated by 24/7 chief David Moore, agency types and publishers convened to discuss the impact on publishers of the new data-driven, real-time world.
Moore played instigator as he probed whether the real-time ad world was a good thing for publishers. And, Ian Wallin, SVP Sales at TV Guide, saw a bright side to the aggregation for pubs as good brands use exchanges to reach users throughout the web. Wallin provided a real-world example:
“I see Mercedes ads all over my site that are coming through RTB or ad networks. If the Mercedes buyer is out there, I have five great ideas for you. Otherwise, I’m probably not going to try and sell you so why not have this [exchange] channel have access to my inventory at a larger aggregate level and become part of that mix.”
Chris Stevens, Sr. Director at Orbitz Worldwide, discussed the impact of pricing and saw an opportunity in exchanges for publishers with quality audience down the road, “In general, pricing isn’t that sophisticated (today). It will become a lot more sophisticated through exchanges, But, it will still be simple to buy. I think that CPMs will go up due to the number of buyers in the auction – the liquidity of the auction – and the dimensions of intent that are disclosed through auction. All of those points will bring CPMs up.”
In spite of the good feelings around exchanges, the subject turned to Google and the idea that one or two players could own the market. Adnetik’s Nate Woodman provided some context to the pitfalls in regards to ad serving long dominated by Google and Microsoft – and the impact of the purchase of DoubleClick by Google in the ad serving market and, by extension, the digital ad market.
Referencing his past role as search head at Razorfish.Accordant Media’s Matt Greitzer said that publishers need to be vigilant of their data and business as they implement tactics as simple as running a conversion tag. David Moore added, “They’ve all said “Do No Evil” so I wouldn’t be (worried).”
Stevens wasn’t too worried about Google, “There are medium-sized, companies and arbitrators that are more dangerous ansd unscrupoulous than Google is . I wouldn’t say that Google is the problem. They are bringing a lot to the table with RTB. You do have to smart about how you engage it. But, Google has the most to lose if anything was to happen that was really stupid.”
By John Ebbert
