Last week, I had the pleasure and good fortune of attending the OPSMobile day long event in NYC, presented by the team from AdMonsters.  Now, AdMonsters has a history of constantly hosting great events, and this one was no exception.  In fact, I’d say they took it up a notch.

The day started with some casual networking – a staple of AdMonsters as they always allot time for people to get acquainted.  It was nice seeing some old faces, but also a lot of new faces in the AdMonsters crowd.  Well represented were the publishers and marketers looking to learn more about the explosion in mobile, but also a good amount of technology companies that sponsored the days activities.

AdMeld led off the day with some interesting points about the overall growth of mobile in our every day lives.  For instance, mobile devices accounted for 14% of Black Friday spending this year, up from just 2% in 2009.  That’s a major increase and shows that more and more people are comfortable searching, comparing, and buying using their hand held device.  Obviously some companies are doing great work to make products available but are also working to improve the overall shopping experience on mobile devices.   Another stat I found interesting was the Amazon brings in roughly $1 Billion in revenue from mobile purchases, but no mention was made of how much of that comes from the Kindle and people purchasing books.  (The Kindle is a mobile device right? and those books add up quickly I’m sure)

The AdMeld presentation was followed by the first keynote of the day.  Jonny Shaw of Naked Play. (http://www.nakedcomms.com/) Jonny kicked off a great presentation with the work that’s being done in one of the most mobile progressive countries in the world, Japan.  His extensive work around “gamifying” (is that a word?)  advertising and moving beyond the bombardment approach to advertising was very interesting.  Lending credibility to his presentation though was his experience as a traditional marketer and his work in Japan in such a mobile influenced country.  This experience led to many observations that made me pause and think about how our advertising world will shift in the US, as more and more people adopt smartphones.  Some of my favorites included:

“Traditional ads are dead, Banners are Boring”  Sure, we’ve all heard this, but without his context of what is coming next, it’s just an empty gripe.  He offered ways to actually move from the banner ad to something more.

“Mobile phones are the joystick of life”.  How right he was with this statement.  A quick show of hands and multiple data points during the event showed how many of us have such powerful computing devices in our hands and utilize this “joystick” daily, whether we realize it or not.

Consolidation, consolidation, consolidation… this was the prevalent topic of conversation at the 2011 IAB Ad Operations Summit last week in New York.  At the conference, I attended a really thought provoking session called “The Impact of Consolidation on Operational Efficiency.”  What I found interesting was the differences in perspective of what this means for the industry. I have spent my career on the vendor side of the business providing business solutions for publishers. I think that we all agree that this has become a very crowded, competitive market.  I believe that publishers are overwhelmed with vendors constantly calling with the next greatest thing that will increase their revenue.

Recent consolidations in the market are generally viewed by many as a good thing, eliminating some of the confusion and overlap in the industry.  We justify it by saying that consolidation brings efficiencies to publishers in a couple of ways.  First, it eliminates the number of vendors that publishers have to manage.  Additionally, it reduces the number of integration points they have to manage within their environment.

However, last week I kept hearing a slightly different viewpoint. The publishers I spoke to certainly agree that there are operational efficiencies that come from consolidation.  But consolidations have also introduced operational challenges. Many publishers have built processes around their current infrastructures and are accustomed to running their digital business around these established procedures. Consolidations have forced publishers to re-evaluate how they can best move forward, grow revenue and get home at a decent hour.  Changing the way things are done can be difficult!

The major take away for me from the IAB was that while I still believe consolidation is necessary for us in the market, and that it is ultimately good for the industry, we all need to be aware that this will directly impact the publishers we serve and how they manage and grow their business…and they may not share our excitement over yet another consolidation.

Category: aiMatch, General | Tags: ad serving technology, advertising intelligence, advertising technology, aimatch, online publishers | Comments (1)

Last week, aiMatch had the pleasure of sponsoring the AdMonsters Publisher Forum in San Diego.  We like to say “the pleasure” because this really is a pleasure for our company.  AdMonsters does an outstanding job bringing together the ad operations community from some of the foremost publishers in the digital advertising industry.  The discussions are excellent and the attendees are dedicated to their profession and helping their companies grow revenue from digital advertising.

Like previous conferences, the attendees were all top notch senior personnel from companies like Turner, WebMD, Move.com, McClatchy, and a host of other well known companies.  Also represented were several smaller, but no less ingrained in our industry, publishers looking for insight and knowledge that can be gleaned from the conference.  The event is so unique for both sponsors and attendees.  From an attendee perspective, there really isn’t any other place in our industry where items related to operational side of digital advertising are the complete focus and where the peer group has so much experience in the space.  From a sponsor perspective, very few opportunities exist to spend time not only interacting with the customer and potential client base, but also to listen to various topics being debated behind close door sessions.

This years conference spanned a range of topics, beginning with a keynote by Paul Valerio from Method Inc on Innovation and digging into topics such as “implementing an inventory management system, “best practices for pricing custom sponsorships”,  and “best practices for hiring”.  Of course, there were breakouts discussing the hot topics of Mobile, Video, and Behavioral Targeting.  Regardless of the topic you chose, I’m sure the information was valuable and the perspective from someone living in the “real” world was informative and helpful.  No matter how many times I’ve attended an AdMonsters event, I always hear one comment that sticks with me…and that is how someone mentions that they will return to the office with an actionable piece of information that will make them more effective or efficient.

Thanks once again to the great folks at AdMonsters and thanks to all the publisher attendees that stopped by our table during speed dating to learn more about aiMatch.  We left San Diego with several new relationships and we can’t thank those folks enough for showing an interest in our technology.

Aug 6th was quite the special day for aiMatch.  Our own Chris Hanburger’s father, Chris Hanburger Sr was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, OH.  This honor was a crowning moment in a great career, where he spent 14 years with the Washington Redskins playing outside linebacker.   “It’s an overwhelming experience”, shared Chris.  ”Seeing my father amongst all of these legendary players is quite surreal”  As his fathers presenter, Chris was able to provide his thoughts on what made his Dad a special player as well as a great father in a short introduction presented by the NFL. His father, typically quiet and reclusive, was visibly moved by the honor as represented in his enshrinement speech.  Congrats to Mr. Hanburger!!

Check out a short video produced by the NFL of Chris presenting his father.

Chris Hanburger presents dad, Chris Hanburger Sr., into the NFL Hall of Fame.

Chris Hanburger Sr. speech can also be found at: www.profootballhof.com

Once people learn a little more about aiMatch, we usually get asked The Big Question: What the heck is “advertising intelligence”?  And what can I, a publisher, expect to gain from suddenly having this new found intelligence?

Well, first off, we’re not saying you’re not intelligent now!  Hardly the case!  In fact, the majority of the people we interact with in operations, sales, revenue management, marketing, content, etc. are super smart people who are working hard – harder than necessary, in many cases.  And that is the primary reasoning behind the need for advertising intelligence.  (Of course we occasionally come across those with their heads in the sand, but hey, we’ve all been there before!)

The term ‘advertising intelligence’ was born as we were brainstorming our new venture. Intelligence is defined as “the ability to acquire and apply knowledge and skill.”  With over 15 years of experience working with publishers and digital entities, we knew that many companies struggled with having access to the right information to help guide the decision making process.  We also saw that because of the way our industry was evolving, most publishers were forced to use point solutions from various vendors for different parts of the business: yield management, ad serving, workflow, and sometimes reporting suites (typically using MSFT and the excel product).  Pulling all of this information together from multiple vendors created a lot of additional work in formatting, merging and manual manipulation.   Work that almost no one found interesting, fun or that felt like a long term career path!

Advertising Intelligence for aiMatch became a quest for an easier path to data management, which in turn would allow publishers to manage inventory and maximize yield across all sales channels.  In our years in the business, we repeatedly saw companies using very interesting technologies to glean more information, better information, the “right” information…but these technologies were always outside of the core decision engine, the ad server.  A publisher may find that they have campaigns competing for the same inventory using a spreadsheet or product from a vendor.  Gaining that information is important, as additional revenue could be in jeopardy.  However, because this information lives outside of the decision engine that will handle delivery, it takes time and manual effort to adjust the campaigns.  Shouldn’t this be in one system?  You research and analyze, you derive insights, and then you take action on those insights, all in one User Interface.  And what if you are  looking for ‘sell-through’ information for a particular site or page within a site?  Historically, this took a great deal of analysis using delivery information, forecasting data and current booked campaign information all merged together for analysis.  Shouldn’t those various pieces of data live together, ready for analysis in one spot?  And really, shouldn’t financial data be there as well, along with types of inventory (guaranteed, audience, RON)?  We think they should, and that’s what aiMatch’s advertising intelligence is all about: helping you quickly get answers, gather insights, and make informed decisions that help you grow the profit side of your business.

We’d love to share more about our technology, but more importantly, we’d love to work with you to solve the ever-present challenges of scaling your business.   Let us know what challenges you  are facing, and we can help you see what advertising intelligence can do for you.

Managing ad inventory on a website is one of the most difficult aspects of digital advertising. One would think it should be relatively straightforward, but the nature of digital works against itself. Unlike TV or newspapers, where commercial breaks and the number of editions are known in advance, inventory on a website is ever-changing. A site may average 100 million page views per day, which would seem to make predicting inventory uncomplicated, but in the digital world every ad placement could potentially be sold dozens if not hundreds of different ways.

Any given placement could serve campaigns being sold on a guaranteed number of impressions over a time period.  Or, it could serve to campaigns based on a visitor’s geographical location, known interests, behavioral data, declared data, transactional data or prism data as just a few examples. It could also serve a promotion, a take over, a run of site ad or to one of many third parties assisting the publisher with the remnant inventory not sold directly. Factor in a link blasted via Twitter that quintuples your page views in an hour and you can see how difficult it is to manage this dynamic digital world.

Today, most publishers are managing this inventory problem through various systems use only sampled sets of data. By not using all of their visitor and delivery data, sellers are left with only rough estimates on how to best package and promise future inventory.  Inventory management tools available today have greatly improved over the years but they’re still limited by incomplete data and disconnection from the complexity of how ads are actually served in real-time. As you might imagine, this leads to being under-sold or over-sold. It can impact relationships with advertisers and prevent a publisher from getting the best return on inventory sold through third parties. Fortunately, there are a few new tools available that can help you avoid such problems altogether.

Adding to the complexity, some publishers have two denominations of inventory. First, there’s their branded sales force, which specializes in selling fixed-term flights of inventory and working with agencies to deliver customized, dynamic advertising. Then there is remnant inventory, the inventory not sold through their in-house team. Over the past 12 months these publishers have been seeing a dramatic change and the rapid adoption of real-time bidding is blurring the line between which type of inventory generates the most revenue for them. Like any smart publisher, they want to make the most of this paradigm shift without sacrificing the relationships of their direct sales team.

These publishers need a smarter ad serving platform with better data management and delivery controls — one that could manage the yield across channels, including RTB and ad networks, and could match the best revenue channel to their inventory products. There are massive changes in the ways people are buying, but a lot of the tools available couldn’t provide what they needed.

“Photobucket wanted a tool that did more than tell us that we ran out of inventory the morning after – we needed one that gave us a glimpse into the future and was tied into the ad server,” said Darren Kelly, CRO at Photobucket. “With aiMatch, we get the tactical information to see what might block potential orders so we can move multiple campaigns around to get the most revenue in this ever-changing landscape.”

Managing multiple buys at different times is like piecing together a large and intricate puzzle. Publishers constantly hunt for new advertisers, and their sales teams excel at that task. But when they compete for a new campaign, a publisher must know they have the necessary inventory. Ad serving technology can help; layering economics onto projected inventory along with revenue is the type of next-level analysis that every publisher needs. “This technology looks toward the future and takes it from an art to a science. Being able to make data-driven decisions versus “feeling it out” is critical for optimizing yield and the prices that you can command in the market place,” says Jay Wilson, director of ad operations at Photobucket.

It’s a shame that inventory management remains one of the biggest hurdles in online ad operations. Delivering what you say you can to an advertiser should be basic, but it’s not. Understanding how much inventory you have and how much you’re getting paid for it is difficult. Using the correct data and a combination of delivery, future delivery, access to rate cards and granular targeting helps publishers see which advertisers will deliver the most revenue and make smart choices in real time.

Publishers need to make use of the inventory they have, observing trends over time that show which channels perform best. Predictive technology means they’re no longer flying blind — they’re empowered.

Jeff Wood, CEO, aiMatch

We speak with Ad Operations professionals around the world on a regular basis.  In many organizations, the same person makes advertising technology decisions, while also managing the day-to-day business of ensuring that advertising campaigns are delivered correctly.  In today’s market, the number of technology vendors is rapidly increasing, but for those working on the frontline of ad operations, time is precious.  There’s a need to understand what new technologies do but limited time to investigate them.  And often, those investigations come with a full-on sales pitch.

We believe that there’s a place for in-depth conversation, but we also understand that many publishers want to start by getting a feel for the technologies out there without the perceived pressure and time commitment that can come with sitting through a formal pitch and PowerPoint presentaion.

This is why we have decided to host a “demo day”.

Join us for this FREE event, and dive into hands-on product demonstrations personalized for you. Not only do you get to see the applications in action, but you also get one-on-one time with a product specialist who can answer questions and help you determine the right fit.

The first demo days will take place next Wednesday in London. We’re joining two other exciting technology suppliers in the digital advertising space – Improve Digital and Grapeshot – to showcase our products without any sales presentations or any pressure.  You can check out three products at one-time and under one roof, or come and see only one; our aim is to give you a sense of what we’re all doing and how new technologies might be useful to your business.

Come and ask us questions, see the products and – we promise - no slides!  The event is free but to make sure there’s time for everybody we’re asking you to register. You can find more details at http://www.aimatch.com/campaigns/LondonDemoDay072011/DemoDayInvite.html

Cheers!

Jon

WELCOME!  You’ve reached our Blog and this is the first post.  Since you’ve made it this far, you must be interested in aiMatch, so hopefully, this will give you a little about us, why we created the company, and what you can expect to find here in the future.

aiMatch – so what is aiMatch?  That’s a great question and one we get all the time.  No, it’s not a dating site for robots or cyborgs as one person has offered.  aiMatch is a group of passionate people that decided to tackle the challenge of re-defining what an ad server should offer.  The “ai” stands for Advertising Intelligence and our fourteen years of experience taught us that the legacy tools in the ad serving market weren’t up to the challenge of today’s digital advertising industry.  So we decided to build something better, more comprehensive, and more effective at helping to manage a digital business. People told us we were crazy when we first started…heck, at times, we thought we were crazy, but now that we’re a year in the market, we’ve come to realize that we weren’t crazy, just ahead of the times a bit.  Turns out that people are very interested in better tools to help inform decisions, manage the business and grow revenue.

In the coming weeks, months, and years, we plan to use this space as a platform to speak about what we’re seeing in the industry. Share some thoughts and insights into how publishers and digital companies are growing their businesses, and give our point of view on the happenings in the industry.  Our hope is that we spur some ideas that will help our customers and friends earn more revenue, make smart choices, and better utilize the product and services we offer.  With a sprinkle of ideas around managing and licensing Software as a Service (SaaS), working with partners, conferences to attend, weekend activities in Raleigh, NC and other exciting topics.

You can expect to see posts here from our development, engineering, sales, marketing, business intelligence and operations teams.  We’re going to do our best to give a unique perspective into our business and our industry.  We’d like for you, our friends, partners, clients, etc, to join in and give your perspective.  Let us know what you think about what we’re doing, how we view the world, and what we can do to improve.  Being an independent technology vendor, feedback from our friends in the market is our lifeblood for success.

We hope you’ll enjoy,

aiMatch Team.