There seem to be dailyadditions to the growing call for online advertising (and for display, specifically) to address the gap between how it sells/measures itself and how brands want it to be sold and measured. Today’s call is from an AdExchanger.com update. In an interview, Digitas Executive Vice President, Norman de Greve, addresses some of the hurdles on both sides of the seeming chasm between digital advertising and brand marketers.
Clearly, from one side of the chasm, the digital/interactive online space must begin to wean itself from speaking only in terms of technology, math and metrics. These may be the terms that the industry is used to using in establishing its bone-fides. They are not necessarily the terms in the forefront of the mind of the brand marketer, reviewing the RFP responses, in hopes of finding the silver bullet that will get him/her carried around the room. In describing a campaign metric tracking philosophy that would truly resonate with that side of the divide, de Greve says,
It needs to start by connecting to the metrics marketers are already comfortable with – the general funnel metrics – awareness, favorability, consideration, sales, and loyalty.
But what is the responsibility of those on the brand side? What is the evolution that must come to pass if brand marketers are ever to be satisfied that this upstart medium has the chops to be the game changer it has been promising to be? De Greve describes the varying levels of sophistication between those that are likely to make the jump and those that will have a harder time with the transition.
Some marketers look at display as, “How do I get more impression volume for my ad?” While others are asking, “How do I use display to create deeper experiences and more value for the platform idea I’ve developed?” Those are different levels in the evolution of digital sophistication.
As I mentioned before, this conversation is not happening in a silo. It is simmering across the industry on both sides of the equation. And it is exactly the kind of self- analysis that needs to keep happening for us to get to the promised land where digital is seen as an equal part of the marketing mix and can be understood to magnify the brand goals…not detract from them.
For our part, CPX Interactive continues to start these conversations throughout our ongoing industry roadshow/panel/event/ that we call ‘Strategy is the New Creative’. For more info on the initiative and how you can become part of the conversation, VISIT US HERE.
The Lustgarten Foundation held its annual Holiday Rock & Roll Bash at the B.B. King Blues Club in Time Square to benefit the fight against pancreatic cancer. CPX Interactive executives, Mike Fleischman (EVP of Business Development), Gary Bembridge (EVP of Sales) and David Shay (EVP of Marketing) attended the event last week and enjoyed performances by JD & The Straight shot, as well as a performance by the Radio City Rockettes.
"The Lustgarten Foundation's commitment to fighting pancreatic cancer over the last 10 years has been amazing," said Mike Fleischman, CPXInteractive'sEVP of Business Development. " The tremendous support of companies like Cablevision really helps drive awareness and provide funding for accelerated research to help find a cure for this deadly disease."
The mission of the Lustgarten Foundation is to advance scientific and medical research related to the diagnosis, treatment, cure and prevention of pancreatic cancer.
New York, NY- Global online ad network, CPX Interactive, has announced the development of its own proprietary ad management platform, CPX adROIt. The platform will include a cutting-edge global ad server as well as innovative advertiser and publisher interfaces. The official launch is scheduled for early 2010. The release of CPX adROIt represents the ad network's first major foray into enterprise-level techonology development.
We already knew that engaging, eye-catching creative had a positive impact on brand perception and made people more likely to click on display ads. But, it turns out that poorly done ads have the inverse effect, negatively impacting things like brand awareness and purchase intent, as the above chart shows.
CPX Interactive is proud to sponsor and attend the second annual OMMA Ad Nets on Nov. 3. This event will take place at the Crown Plaza Time Square in New York City. This year's theme is all about audience in 2010. Some of the big questions to be discussed include:
How does audience-centric planning change the game for agencies and create new businesses for them in the world of managing data?
How do traditional publishers maintain the value of context and branded environments when new technologies seem literally to steal the audiences these media companies spent decades building?
You can learn more about the event here, and look for CPX lanyards at registration!
On Nov. 4 and 5 CPX Interactive will be exhibiting and attending ad:tech NY. For more than 10 years, ad:tech has provided an opportunity for brand advertisers, agencies, portals, online publishers and technology providers to come together, network and learn. New York is one of the 10 ad:tech shows that are put on each year in seven different countries. For the first time this year, ad:tech New York will be held at the Jacob Javits Center. CPX Interactive will be at Booth #1500, Right in front of the registration area. Be sure to stop and say hello!
As we mentioned in our post a couple of weeks ago, CPX was set to attend and exhibit at ad:tech London 2009. The show took place September 22-23. Check out photos from ad:tech on the CPX Interactive Flickr page, and stay tuned for a firsthand account from a member of our executive team!
On September 22-23, CPX Interactive will join over 170 interactive media, advertising and e-Business suppliers for ad:tech London. We can be found at booth #262 in the exhibition hall throughout the conference. Over a dozen CPXers are making the trip "across the pond," and they're all looking forward to a fantastic ad:tech experience! Hope to see you there!
Over on the CPX Ad Network Blog, we've been sharing some interesting articles covering a variety of relevant industry issues. In case you missed them:
“Tracking Makes Life Easier for Consumers” from AdAge.com The picture painted of behavioral targeting is often a negative one. It’s seen as an invasion of privacy, with the word “tracking” assumed to encompass all aspects of life. Though there are some websites who use the information they collect for evil (i.e. spam and malware), the majority use this data to give users a more personalized Web surfing experience. (Read more from CPX here)
"Ad Spending Confidence Rebounds, Improves for Most Major Media" from Mediapost An excerpt: Economic pessimism among marketers and agency media buyers appears to have bottomed out last spring and their ad spending plans are trending upward for most major media, according to the most recent data from an every-other-monthly tracking report surveying the “advertising confidence” of key media decision-makers.
"Should agencies be ad networks?" from iMedia Connection Tom Hespos, President of Underscore Marketing, discusses the careful ethical line an agency must walk if it also intends to take distribution in-house. In the end, Hespos seems to agree with the points made by CPX Interactive CEO, Mike Seiman, in his own recent iMedia Connection article on the topic, that agencies and ad networks are probably better off each handling their own area of expertise. "What Advertising Do Consumers Trust?" from eMarketer People from around the world have greater trust in online advertising now than in the past. Although, there is still room to grow, the worldwide attitude towards online advertising has improved. See the charts here.
Jessica Prince is the Director of Product Development at CPX. She's been working at the company since 2006, and started out in the Accounting Department. Product Development was formerly CPX Mobile, with a focus on creating Premium SMS (text message) subscriptions, and getting subscribers to sign up via landing pages. Due to changes in the mobile industry in recent months, the Mobile division was reformed as Product Development, with more of a focus on Web-related products.
To find out more about Jessica, CPX's Product Development division, and Super Mario ringtones, visit this page for the entire Q & A.
There has been an ongoing discussion for months about the use of social media as a corporate marketing strategy. Recent articles and reports published by eMarketer (among others), have shown that the role of social media as a resource for communications and marketing professionals has expanded greatly since the beginning of 2008.
One particular article presents the results of a survey of company executives on the subject of social networking activities.
Nearly one-third of the companies have a CEO who is on Facebook, use social networking as part of their business and operations strategy, and use it as a tool to build their brand. CPX Interactive uses social networking for all but one of the activities listed in the chart above, and we have benefited from each of them.
Blogging is a major part of our social media strategy at CPX. In addition to this blog, we also use Wordpress and Vox. The reading and writing of blogs has increased in popularity over the past couple of years, and eMarketer projects that this upward trend will continue in the future.
CPX Interactive is dedicated to ensuring advertisers' success on any metric and optimizing online campaigns for all of our clients. Our three advertiser offerings: the reach network, the content network, and the premium network, are only part of how we can help you accomplish your goals. Visit the Advertisers section of our website to find out more.
Despite a seeming barrage of predictions to the contrary, ad networks have emerged as essential players in the online ad space. With unprecedented access to advertisers, publishers and agencies, all three parties seek out our industry relationships and expertise (though sometimes begrudgingly) to help them make their online campaigns successful.
While it would be easy for ad networks to sit back on the successes of the past few years, I believe that this is the perfect time for ad networks to challenge ourselves to rise to the next level of innovation and collaboration with others in the industry. We should also take the opportunity to focus on the level of service we provide for our advertisers and publishers.
As I think about the most important things that my company (and other ad networks) can do to ensure success in 2009, six key factors come to mind:
PROVIDE PRODUCT VARIETY
COMMUNICATE THE FINANCIAL VALUE OF AD NETWORKS
MAKE BEST PRACTICES A PRIORITY
PRACTICE DUE DILIGENCE WITH PUBLISHERS
INITIATE SYNERGY WITHIN THE ONLINE ADVERTISING SPACE
ESTABLISH TRUST AMONG ADVERTISERS
PROVIDE PRODUCT VARIETY - In the simplest form, ad networks have two goals: we help publishers monetize their inventory and we help advertisers find the best placements for their ads. This oversimplification, however, does not do justice to the variety of kinds of advertisers and publishers there are, nor to the specific needs they all bring to the table. The ability to service every type of publisher, for example, from the largest recognizable brands to small niche site, is crucial to offering strong, diverse inventory choices to advertisers. A single network must understand and service publishers of all tiers in order to help them monetize 100% of their inventory from the first impression on the homepage to the last impression on the deepest page of their site. For an ad network to grow and compete in the coming year, it must learn to effectively serve every tier of advertiser and publisher from top to bottom, and build product offerings to facilitate that goal.
COMMUNICATE THE FINANCIAL VALUE OF AD NETWORKS - A valuable service is only as good as the provider’s ability to communicate its value to customers. In an effort to be all things to all people, I sometimes think that ad networks have forgotten how to pitch their bottom line value to their partners:
Publishers who engage ad networks conserve time and resources that would otherwise beexpended on hiring, training and managing inside sales staff. They are able to use this time, instead, to develop and improve their content so that they can better engage their audiences.
Likewise, advertisers who use ad networks streamline their marketing dollars; enjoying the benefit of scalability that comes with large packaged media buys, and the benefit of audience targeting that comes with technology.
Networks that are best able to articulate these points to advertisers and publishers will pull ahead of the competition in 2009.
MAKE BEST PRACTICES A PRIORITY – When it comes to online advertising, the word ‘transparency’ can take on many meanings. It is easy to get stuck in a finger-pointing match, where each side derides the other’s meaning. Standing in between advertisers and publishers, an ad network can find itself inadvertently ‘choosing sides.’ The bottom line, however, is that only a truly independent network can be best committed to practices that assist all parties in creating the proper experience in online media. Smart ad networks will be mindful of the responsibility that their position bestows on them. As President of CPX Interactive, I spend quite a bit of time attending conferences to determine how we can best regulate our industry and protect the brands we serve, while continuing to support the industries’ freedoms. Ultimately, it is all about moving forward, and continually finding new ways to monitor publisher content, and provide advertisers with better brand protection.
PRACTICE DUE DILIGENCE WITH PUBLISHERS – As an ad network, your publisher’s content is your content. Getting to know your publishers and staying on top of their website content is a matter of responsibility and ethics, as well as good business practices. At CPX, all sites are evaluated and assigned a rating of G, PG or PG-13, similar to that of the MPAA rating system. Websites that give users the right to create their own content are assigned an N/A rating and monitored more closely. CPX Interactive does not allow X rated content into its network of publishers. We have an internal re-check process to be sure that the quality and category of content a publisher presented in the beginning remains consistent over time. An ounce of prevention is truly worth a pound of cure, as any smart ad network knows that even a one-time slip can cause a mountain of headaches all around.
INITIATE SYNERGY WITHIN THE ONLINE ADVERTISING SPACE- As the landscape of the online advertising industry continues to evolve, participants continue to clamor for education and thought leadership. With their connections to advertisers, publishers and agencies, ad networks are in the perfect position to take the lead in creating a more supportive and cohesive industry that can benefit all of us.
As the industry consolidates, strong partnerships will be formed. In the not so distant future, there will be more support and camaraderie in the online ad space which can only help to strengthen the industry as a whole. Smart ad networks will position themselves at the forefront of that process.
ESTABLISH TRUST AMONG ADVERTISERS – Ever ask yourself why television ad revenue is 10 times higher than Internet ad revenue? We do. And we think we know the answer. Advertisers know television. They are comfortable with it because they understand all of the moving pieces, even if their ROI falls short of what it could be in the more ‘inconsistent’ new medium that is online. Building trust in online advertising comes down to consistent results. As an ad network we grade our publishers so that we can tell advertisers where their ads will be displayed, and advertisers depend on us to give them accurate information. If an ad network labels their publishers too liberally, the advertisers will disappear and the economies of scale will break down. It is essential for networks and publishers to work together to create as much honest visibility as possible in the channel. This should be a major initiative of any ad network looking to occupy a top tier position. One thing we can never afford to do is to lose the confidence of advertisers. If you think winning trust is hard, try winning it back after it has been lost.
By Michael Fleischman, EVP of Business Development at CPX Interactive
There are a number of factors that lead us to believe that there is significant growth ahead for the internet advertising sector. Some of these factors include:
Worldwide Internet penetration continues to rise.
Newspaper and magazine businesses continue to lose ad market share while dependence on mobile and Internet use increases.
Failure of newspapers to manage their existing cost structure, making their business model unsustainable in the future.
Increased dependence on the Internet medium for breaking news.
Emergence of blogs as a trusted news source and opinion provider.
Growing broadband penetration is a catalyst for more robust commercial Internet activity.
Growth of online retail is closely related to increasing broadband penetration.
Over the past five years, performance-based advertising has gained market share over the CPM based model.
Advertisers placing higher value on clear ROIs; hence, a shift to performance-based models is likely to accelerate in this recessionary environment.
Brick & Mortar retail bankruptcies, and especially store closings, should lead to pricing pressure, and thus margins pressure on the survivors in both online and offline retail.
1. Privately held ad network that has been profitable for over 7 years.
2. Corporate offices in New York, Los Angeles, Milan and Madrid with Istanbul coming soon
3. Approximately 90 employees to date …and growing
4. Serving over 1 billion global ad impressions, daily
5. A network of over 3,500 quality websites with over 200 million monthly unique visitors 6. Significant international traffic in over 65 countries across the globe
7. Largest buyer in Yahoo!’s Right Media Exchange (RMX) – supplying approx. 30% of exchange traffic
8. Major player in DoubleClick’s advertising exchange and marketplaces including Openx, Rubicon, Pubmatic and Admeld
9. Ranked 15th on comScore’s list of largest ad networks by monthly US unique visitors, 5th by monthly US page views
10. Differentiates itself from other ad networks through global footprint, campaign targeting and optimization skills and industry leading campaign development services
As a progressive online ad network and global marketing company, CPX Interactive is redefining the online advertising landscape. By layering the development and execution of cutting edge online strategies on top of its own global distribution model, CPX ensures advertisers success on any metric while efficiently monetizing 100% of its publishers’ inventory…from premium to remnant. Advertiser and Publisher offerings include Reach, Content and Premium Networks.
CPX Interactive delivers more than 30 billion impressions to more than 200 million unique users in more than 60 countries every month and has recently been named #71 on Inc. Magazine's list of the 5,000 fastest growing private companies in America.
