Brian O’Kelley wrote an interesting piece for Clickz this week on why ad nets are an essential part of the online ad eco-system. He argues that ad networks are entitled to earn good margin on ROI delivered to agencies and advertisers, highlighting proprietary technology, performance delivery and quality service as grounds for excelling ad nets to charge top dollar. He’s right, you know. But the comments below O’Kelly’s article indicate some of the concerns among agencies and advertisers – with regard to ad network inventory and pricing transparency. All is not well in ad land – and tensions are beginning to appear in the traditional buying chain.
Google’s partnership with Omnicom to build out the agency’s trading desk with the view of putting hundreds of millions of display dollars through automated channels (Google’s mostly) could well be a transformational moment for the display market. I could be accused of a certain degree of hyperbole here, but you have to look at the size of this deal and take note of the other significant relationships Google has already established with the biggest media buying agencies. It is slowly bringing the dsplay market under its control. You also need to recognise the significance of how details of the story were released: instead of giving the “scoop” to a trade press journo, it was given to Emily Steel at the WSJ. Google is serious about display, and bringing order to a ridiculously chaotic and opaque market. And it wants Wall Street to know this. Google maybe chasing profit, but in doing so it is pushing innovation in this space. This might be unpalatable for some in our industry who fear change, and would rather keep this innovation at bay. But change is upon us and we, as an industry, must act now.
If there was a honeymoon period for the Google acquisition of Invite, it is well and truly over – a mere two weeks in total. In a post yesterday, on his ReactionWheel blog, Jerry Neumann, discussed some of the industry’s concerns around the deal. He begins his post by informing us that Google wants to own the display market. That’s a given. Google’s a public company with ambitious growth targets. It has unbelievable resource, which no company in this space comes even close to. Display is a mess, and Google sees opportunity in chaos.
ContextWeb has just launched an interesting new feature for publishers on its site. The new service, entitled Pubvantage, allows publishers to learn about and connect to ad networks in the US market. Publishers have the opportunity to anonymously rate ad nets on two key criteria: a) the quality of ads served by networks; and b) how quickly they pay their bills. It’s quite useful for any European publishers looking to work with an aggregator, given that most of these players listed on ContextWeb’s Pubvantage site also have a presence in the European market. This will no doubt become an excellent resource on ad nets – and the commentary on their performance will become compelling reading for publishers. Everybody loves a bit of public sneering (well, I do). I do think that ad nets should be allowed to respond to any criticisms about their service – in order to show publishers they’re actively addressing any ongoing problems. I would love to see one of these review sites popping up in Europe. Word of mouth seems to be the only to get ad nets to change any wrong doings in this market. And of course it does help that IASH carries a big stick over here. {Pubvantage]
There’s a piece today in MarketingWeek about the OFT’s report. The report points out that the online advertising industry could be doing more to “address consumer concerns over behavioural targeting”. The OFT (Office of Fair Trading) has warned that unless more stringent self-regulation is introduced, it will bring in external regulation to tackle the perceived problems. This tells me two things: firstly, the privacy advocates are lobbying the OFT very hard; and two that behavioural targeting has still got a very bad name. One way around this is to introduce labelling for all BT-powered ads, giving users the opportunity to opt-out. I suggested the introduction of a similar initiative to that currently running in the US – but it should be Europe-wide so that EU legislators can also see that the industry is acting responsibility on the issue of user privacy. Interesting to see that BT-related ads only accounts for about £90 million of a total £3.3 billion spend of online ad spend.
Malvertising is, according to Rubicon execs, putting about $600 million dollars of publisher revenue at risk every month. I take it that cost must include brand damage, loss of revenue due to drop in traffic (malware has led to a 10% drop traffic on leading sites) and of course the actual cost of of getting rid of the nasty malvertising code. Looking to tackle the problem head-on, Rubicon announced yesterday it was acquiring SiteScout for an undisclosed sum. SiteScout is a Seattle-based security firm specializing in malware detection and prevention. Why is it a big deal? There has been a spate of malware attacks on leading web properties and apps, including Gawker and NYT, over the last couple of months, causing a signifcant drop in traffic and a subsequent loss in ad revenue. It’s becoming a significant issue for publishers who are struggling to deal with malicious code being served through ads on their sites. The acquisition allows Rubicon to build out a proprietery malware security offering through its Revv platform. I wonder what’s next on the shopping list? Maybe an ad verification company?
Kwame Acheampong is Managing Director and Partner at Httpool. Httpool is an ad network that specialises in the Central and Eastern European markets, offering buying opportunities in these markets to UK agencies and advertisers. Acheampong took time to speak to ExchangeWire this week about the Httpool offering, the display market in the CEE region and the growth of automated trading.
Can you give you an overview of the Httpool proposition?
KA: Httpool is an online advertising provider focusing on emerging markets, especially the Central and Eastern European region. We provide clients with localisation services together with all segments of online advertising in the region – including premium inventory network, performance network, contextual and behavioural network, and search engine marketing. Httpool has 10 years of experience and expertise across the region serving major agencies, global and local clients with digital strategies and planning.
Matthias Pantke is CEO of AdScale GmbH, Germany. Adscale is one of Germany’s leading ad exchanges, trading nearly 6 billion impressions per month. Pantke took this week to speak to ExchangeWire about the Adscale platform, the size of the German exchange market and when Adscale inventory would be made available to buy through RTB.
Can you give an overview of the AdScale platform offered on the German market?
MP: AdScale is Germany’s leading real-time marketplace for online advertisement. In this marketplace, advertisers and publishers buy and sell display ads, i.e. advertising space. It is possible to define ads and to plan target campaigns, simply and conveniently. As a marketplace for online advertising the pricing in our system is fair and transparent for both sides. For publishers this means that they can control their prices independently and effectively via AdScale. The price level can always be adjusted according to the efficiency of the advertising space. Therefore, the marketers have the full control over each campaign and what price it is running at. Thus, the average price level in our marketplace reflects the actual price level of the German online advertising market.
Michel Juvillier is CEO of Improve Digital, France. The platform is now the biggest supply side platform in the market: it works with 15 of the top 20 Comscore publishers; and is now optimizing two billion ad impressions per month.
Can you give an overview of the size of the French exchange marketplace? And the role Improve Digital plays in the market?
MJ: At this moment there is no ad exchange or demand platform in France with significant volumes. Some global players have not yet started in France or if they did, are at a beginning stage. There have been some announcements by the likes of the Doubleclick Adx and Weborama – which declared, during an IAB conference in January, its intention to become an ad exchange – but I have not seen any real traction in the market.
Yann Le Roux is the co-founder of the newly launched French exchange trading specialist, Matiro. Matiro is the first exchange specialist in France, and it’s launching at a time when the display market there is experiencing a similar evolution being seen in other European markets like the UK and Germany.
Can you provide an overview of the new Matiro offering?
YLR: We are the first and only ad exchange specialist in France that is focused on servicing the advertisers, i.e. the buy-side. We are entirely focused on allowing advertisers and their agencies to benefit from media trading: real-time bidding, impression-based optimisation, advanced targeting, combined creative and media optimization, access to market price, etc.
Brian O’Kelley wrote an interesting piece for Clickz this week on why ad nets are an essential part of the online ad eco-system. He argues that ad networks are entitled to earn good margin on ROI delivered to agencies and advertisers, highlighting proprietary technology, performance delivery and quality service as grounds for excelling ad nets to charge top dollar. He’s right, you know. But the comments below O’Kelly’s article indicate some of the concerns among agencies and advertisers – with regard to ad network inventory and pricing transparency. All is not well in ad land – and tensions are beginning to appear in the traditional buying chain.
Google’s partnership with Omnicom to build out the agency’s trading desk with the view of putting hundreds of millions of display dollars through automated channels (Google’s mostly) could well be a transformational moment for the display market. I could be accused of a certain degree of hyperbole here, but you have to look at the size of this deal and take note of the other significant relationships Google has already established with the biggest media buying agencies. It is slowly bringing the dsplay market under its control. You also need to recognise the significance of how 
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