The Joran Update

An Enduring Product

2018-04-15T07:04:00.000-07:00

20 Years after my first product launched on the Internet I reflect on why it is still there.

Global MRL Database 2018

Global MRL Database (Hops only) 1998

First, some background on the product itself. It was 1997, I had convinced the founders of Bryant Christie Inc., a tiny (at the time) trade consulting firm that their customers would pay them to collect and securely publish certain types of information on the tiny (at the time) World Wide Web. They hired me and I had my first product management job.

The company's customers were mostly agricultural industry groups like the Washington Apple Commission and USA Hops. These organizations existed to represent and support all growers with shared services like government relations and marketing. Bryant Christie was hired by many of these organizations to help them with international market access. My first product would ultimately support this business goal.

To protect growers from export risk and shipment losses, the company helped monitor ever changing import regulations around the world. Fortunately for our business, not all countries agreed on the rules. This opened the opportunity to keep track of highly valuable data points for growers and organize them by country and product. The internet was the perfect platform to provide industry with access to this information.

Over 20 years later, the database is still researched and published by the team at BC Global under the leadership of Jeremy Bishop. The product has remained remarkably unchanged since its launch in 1998. The longevity of this product is testament to something that all product managers are taught but often forget. The secret ingredient to a successful digital product is simplicity. The Global MRL Database solves a valuable data access problem for growers and doesn't try to do anything more.

A successful product must also be hard to replicate. If not, it ceases to offer any unique value to the market. Google search has long been the best example. It looks so simple. But, trying to replicate what Google does in the background is not. The MRL Database is defensible for a similar reason. The product has a team of humans behind it keeping it up-to-date. There are not a lot of humans that are capable or interested in gathering this type of information.

So, there you have it. The core of any successful Internet business is to find a problem that can be solved with a simple application but with a solution that is hard to replicate. Easy, right? It's not.

Millennial Media is Acquired by AOL with Verizon Money

2015-09-04T11:43:00.000-07:00

Comic by Nate Neal @ AdExchanger

Every November for 5 years from 2010-14 the industry headlines read "This is the year of Mobile". Someone in the Millennial Media office put together a PPT with at least two headlines from each year. We found humor in the fact that we knew that the year of mobile advertising would never really come. Every line of code we wrote was a step towards connecting consumers with relevant and compelling messages on any screen. Being mobile first never meant mobile only. The mobile device was just a new and different palette and we were particularly good at painting on it. This new acquisition takes us from monochrome to 24 bit (true) color and solidifies our future as a competitor in the broader digital advertising ecosystem.

If there is any question as to why Verizon needed both AOL and Millennial you need look no further than Nate Neal's comic above. The carrier needs the mobile expertise and industry penetration that Millennial brings in order for us to take advantage of the ad stack and media assets acquired with the purchase of AOL earlier this year. As the timing might suggest, the MM acquisition was always part of the AOL deal model.

The big question everyone is asking now is how valuable will AOL's media asset's and on-line behavioral data be once it is bridged via mobile devices to Verizon's consumer data. It is literally a billion dollar question given the $4.7B price tag of the AOL/MM bundle. It is also up to my team, leading the data platform development, that is responsible for making it happen. Three world are coming together - a massive carrier, an early internet pioneer, and an amalgamation of East Coast mobile tech start ups. There is no doubt that this will be my biggest challenge to date. We are ready.

Millennial Media Product Marketing Videos: The Making of Decoded

2014-06-02T15:09:00.000-07:00

To help promote our suite of cross-screen targeting products I worked with our marketing team to put together a series of educational videos. The ¨Decoded¨ series broke down the complicated questions we always get about delivering campaigns to consumers across multiple screen. The goal was to present our product with easy to understand concepts that our customers could grasp. I am proud of what we were able to put together but even fancy graphics can't change the fact that delivering and measuring media exposure to people instead of devices is still really hard.

See the full series here on Vimeo

It was fun to get in front of the camera and work with the professional team of producers. Presenting product ideas and features to a room full of people is pretty easy because you get instant feedback from the audience. Doing it in front of hot lights, a green screen, and with a script was a new challenge. Big shout out to Hayley Davidow and Kelson Berkus for all of their work to make this happen. The team came together and I think the results speak for themselves.

There are four parts to the series:

Path :: Part 1 :: Cross-Screen Advertising

Path :: Part 2 :: Device Bridging

Path :: Part 3 :: Unified Reporting

Path :: Part 4 :: Attribution

Jumptap is Acquired

2013-08-14T08:17:00.000-07:00

... Millennial Media [NASDAQ:MM]. For those of you that are well versed in the mobile advertising universe, this probably comes as no surprise. For years Millennial and Jumptap sparred for ad dollars from the same big brands and agencies. Jumptap led on the tech side with a programmatic bidder and an in-house DMP that powered precise scaleable audience buys. Millennial grew faster by wowing customers with creative executions that relied on their enviable SDK penetration across the mobile app ecosystem. Nevertheless, both companies were hit hard when Facebook took the gloves off last year after going public and began absorbing most of the growth in Mobile ad spend. The plan now is to join together as the largest remaining independent mobile ad platform to compete against Google and Facebook.

For my team at Jumptap this is a tremendous opportunity. Since I joined the company two years ago we have been sprinting to engineer a full featured data management platform built to bring consumer data in from any source and accurately use it for a user across multiple devices. Given our focus on the mechanics of cross-device user management and mobile first ad serving, we never really had time to build up a proprietary data asset. Now, as we look towards the future as part of Millennial we can are tremendously excited to start digging into the first party consumer data that the Millennial SDK can deliver. We will soon be able to offer our customer a full suite of targeting features powered by both proprietary consumer data and audience data ingested directly from our customers or a third party.

This Nasdaq analyst blog does a nice job of summing up both the opportunities and challenges that we will face as the new Millennial Media brings together compelling creative, programmatic buying and unique audience targeting capabilities into one package for digital advertisers.

New Directions

2011-05-18T17:42:00.000-07:00

Today is my first day at Jumptap. After an incredible five year run at Monster that introduced me to the vast opportunity of targeted digital advertising, I am jumping (pun intended) head first into the world of mobile advertising. Jumptap is one of only a few companies in the world that offer mobile-first targeted advertising. In my new role, leading product for our ad targeting systems, it will be up to me to figure out how to bring robust consumer level targeting capabilities to the platform. It is a daunting challenge that I am extremely excited about. However, while I have zero doubt that the future of advertising is in mobile, I am actually shocked as to how little can be done today in terms of targeting. The company is already boasting that it is the leader in targeted mobile advertising. The reality is that no one can really do that much today. Let me break down a few of the big challenges we face.

First, just recognizing who the user is when we get an ad request is frustrating. Sometimes we get a persistent ID like a UDID from a mobile app. These IDs are great because they are consistent across multiple apps. The same device always sends the same ID. But, it only works if the publisher is integrated right. For Mobile web it is practically impossible to recognize the user. We usually don’t have an opportunity to look for our own cookie ID in the browser because we are buying inventory through Server to Server calls from aggregators. Apple’s Safari browser doesn’t even allow (by default) 3rd party cookies so there is zero opportunity to use cookies there. So, we rely heavily on the publishers to send us their ID for the user and keep data on that. The problem there is that it only works on that publisher’s inventory. We are investing heavily in this problem though, and have already established some ID mapping and syncing technology that looks promising.

The second and even more problematic issue is the limited amounts of quality data that is even available in mobile. 3rd party data providers like DataLogix, TargusInfo, and eXelate have tons of data available on desktop cookies but they don’t have anything linked to mobile devices yet. Publishers pass us some data on the users but it is fairly limited and not that trustworthy. Publishers will do anything if they think they are going to get higher CPMs. So, building out our own segments from behavioral observation or from partners is pretty limited. Where we do think we have some room for innovation is working with 3rd party data providers to bring their data into mobile and to build out some of our existing rudimentary retargeting features.

My mission is clear. The team and I have to figure out how to bridge the gap between desktop data providers and mobile devices while also increasing our ability to recognize users systemically across mobile inventory. If we can do it at scale we will actually make good on what is already on our PPT decks: "Jumptap - the leader in targeted mobile advertising". Wish me luck!

Behavioral Targeting: An Ideal Marketing Technology for Recruiters

2010-05-27T17:08:00.000-07:00

Originally published at MonsterThinking.com

A recent study commissioned by the Network Advertising Initiative (NAI) sought to quantify the value of Behavioral Targeting (BT) to Internet advertisers. This study, similar to others like it on this emerging technology, neglected to address or even mention how BT is being employed by hiring professionals. This consistent omission is unfortunate because this marketing innovation solves one the biggest challenges in recruiting – putting an employment opportunity in front of the right candidate.

In its simplest form BT utilizes knowledge about a consumer’s behavior so that an advertiser can present that individual with a relevant offer in the future. If you have ever purchased a book from Amazon.com you might have noticed that when you go back to the web site Amazon will suggest a similar book. That is a form of BT.

If you take this concept and apply it to job search you can see that Job seekers provide an enormous amount of information to recruiters through their behaviors. A standard job requisition has location, industry, occupation, and education data embedded in the structure of the job. So, by monitoring search behavior it is possible to determine the interest level of a candidate for a specific career path.

An obvious application of BT for recruiters is to push jobs to job seekers that have shown interest in similar opportunities. The aforementioned study by the NAI shows that in an e-commerce environment BT drives twice the conversion rate from ad click to a confirmed purchase. If this rate held for BT job advertising, a recruiter could significantly increase response rates on hard to fill positions or high turnover roles.

The opportunity of BT gets even more interesting when you think beyond a single site. An ad network powered by BT empowers a recruiter to push their recruitment opportunities out beyond job boards and classifieds providing unprecedented reach. Considering that the ads could be targeted to relevant audiences, it becomes the most efficient way to reach candidates that are not actively searching for your jobs, attracting applications from the highly sought after “passive” job seeker.

Great new technologies like BT are never without some early obstacles. According to the NAI, rates on BT networks are roughly 2½ times the rates of standard networks while only providing twice the efficiency. Also, for recruiters, buying a campaign on a BT network for every job is simply not an option. The networks have minimum purchasing requirements and designing creative can be time consuming.

Luckily, online recruiting companies like Monster are investing in technologies to simplify a recruiter’s participation in BT advertising. On-line recruitment is actually ahead of other industries with BT because its standard advertising tool, a job posting, already has so much targeting information in it.

One product already on the market is Monster Career Ad Network which reaches over 70 million unique internet users per month according to ComScore. By simplifying the process of transforming a job posting into a BT ad the product has achieved rapid adoption and now ranks among the top 30 ad networks in the US when measured by unique reach (ComScore: Ad Network Category).

BT does not solve all of a recruiter’s problems, but it does offer a highly effective way to reach new candidates on-line. In the US we have reached the point where practically every job opportunity is advertised on the web in some form and every possible candidate for those jobs is out there too. The challenge is connecting the two. As BT evolves it will surely provide recruiters with the most efficient way to get their career opportunities in front of the right audiences wherever they are on the web.

About the author: Joran Lawrence is the Senior Product Manager leading Monster’s global team dedicated to building syndicated products. These products provide recruiters with increased reach to candidates wherever they are on the web. This product set includes behavioral targeted media, automated e-mail campaigns, and SEO for career landing pages.

Joran has been working in Internet product development for over ten years and has been with Monster Worldwide since 2006. Joran holds an MBA from the Brandeis International Business School.

Building the Career Ad Network

2010-03-23T14:33:00.001-07:00

It has been a while since I have posted anything on this blog because I have been working hard to build the world's largest recruitment focused ad network - The Monster Career Ad Network.

You can learn more about the Network at http://can.monster.com/

Press about the Career Ad Network:

ERE: Monster Offers Broader Features for its Career Ad Network
Monster Press Release: Monster Job Seekers Option Increase Relevancy
ERE: Monster Gives Users Control Over Ads

Graduation Day

2006-05-21T08:30:00.000-07:00

My two years at the Brandeis International Business School are done. I have completed my MBA and I am ready to move on to the next step in my career.

Click here for more IBS Pics and the text of my graduation speech.

Also, I made the school's catalog. Check out page twelve: Link

The Monster MEDAL Program

2006-03-30T19:02:00.000-08:00

I recently accepted a position with Monster Worldwide and will soon be working with their Global Innovation Group (GIG). In addition to my role with GIG, I am also part of the company's Executive Development and Leadership program (MEDAL). I will rotate three times over the next three years and learn from experienced managers before having the opportunity to take a leadership position within the company.

Where to Lay My Head in DC

2005-05-27T13:23:00.000-07:00

Searching for a place to live in DC for the summer can suck the life out of you. Life was simpler in Nicaragua. Poverty limits what you can do. I always had time to sit down and write. My tomes of the past have been replaced by bullet points.

Upon return to the expensive states of America:

Move to Boston
Grad school
An amazing new best friend. (She's hot too!)
The quest for the perfect summer internship
Aging grandparents

Move to DC

Oh yeah, I did a little sleeping too.

In short, as is required here, I am happy. But we are all so busy.
For those of you that enjoyed my banter from the less-credible world, I apologize for having less to say about the credit-worthy one. It is not that it interests me less. It is that I am caught up completely. Within nine months, my debt has quadrupled and I am so frantically trying to get a'head that I lost mine or at least misplace it. I'll take a moment now to catch up

As soon as I arrived at Brandeis I started working for a Venture Capital (VC) Fund in Boston. Lured by the fascinating world of private equity and fast growing high-tech companies, I invested a lot of time and energy into learning everything I could about the industry. I have always considered myself an entrepreneur and that was the attraction of the VC world. Even as an Intern, I had the opportunity to meet and work with the leaders of the portfolio companies. These were fascinating people: creative, driven, risk takers. I fell in love and became myopic. I forgot why I had come back to the US.

A fellow student must have seen the disorienting stars in my eyes and invited me to the annual Social Enterprise conference at the Harvard Business School. During one of the breakout sessions, I met Bill Drayton, the founder of Ashoka and four members of the organization's fellowship program. THESE were fascination people: creative, driven, risk takers. And their efforts help millions of people. I told Mr. Drayton I wanted to work for him and I told him why. He said, "I will see you in DC this summer."

Four interviews later, I talked my way into an internship position with Ashoka’s Citizen Base Initiative. In line with my fundamental beliefs, the initiative seeks to promote the sustainability of social enterprises through efficient resource utilization, diversification of support and the creation of revenue earning activities. I think I found my head, now I just need a place to lay it.

The Summer Intern Class of 2005

Back to the Books

2004-09-20T11:40:00.000-07:00

After almost seven years away from the books and almost four years living outside of the US, I moved to Waltham, Massachusetts to begin my MBA at the Brandeis International Business School. With a focus on International Finance, I am hoping to find a management position that will take advantage of my global experience and analytical skills.