The NY Times recently published an interesting article on large
online publishers that have decided to manage their own inventory of
lower-priced ads, and sell that space directly through a self-managed
ad exchange. This kind of move will probably work for some and not so
much for others. It depends on scale, and on the ability to remain
cost-effective (not everything that looks nice on the revenue side,
looks as nice on bottom-line performance).

Similar trends inside the volatile digital
media advertising space occur quite frequently.
In fact, they come and go so quickly that it may be hard to follow
who’s who and how this whole thing called “Digital
Marketing” actually works. The NY Times
article merely steered an interesting point that we have been
pondering for a while.

At the end of the day, what really matters is the connection we
look to create between Advertisers and their Audience, and the value
proposition we bring into that connection. Online publishers, or any
other media, have their own agenda to take care of, which is
understandable, but what we need to keep in mind is that advertising
these days is mostly about creating a positive interaction the
Advertiser and its potential clients: First grabbing the attention of
the users, and then enabling a positive connection that is somewhat
of a “Win Win” to both the advertisers and the audience. This is
what digital media technology enables us to do. We do not only grab
attention, but we also facilitate a connection.

From my perspective, each media channel has a certain
characteristic to it, a DNA. Each media channel draws certain users,
at certain times, from a specific geographic location around the
world, and with a particular state of mind. This combination creates
the channel’s DNA from an advertising standpoint, which in turn
determines the fit to a certain type of advertiser, and the kind of
campaigns that would work best to enable the connection we are
looking for.

Media channels are means to an end from an advertising angle, and
while they are an important link in the value chain, their value
diminishes as standalones. We look at Digital Media as one “Master
Channel”, because we believe that to grab the attention of users
you need to do that using multiple touch-points. This brings us back
to the DNA of each channel, and the need to diversify the
touch-points as well as the message of each campaign. It doesn’t
really matter if an online publisher is self-managed, or if it is a
part of a larger network, as long as the entire value chain is
nurtured. The days of shooting messages into the air and hoping that
someone will notice are long gone. The positive connection can only
be reached by understanding that this is about Advertisers and Users,
not about the specific channel.