Great article by Tim Cadogan over on AdAge’s DigitalNext regarding ad exchanges, ad networks, and interoperability. I think Tim addresses some of the important questions everyone should be asking, for sure. But one of the larger issues here revolves around education. Those who manage the selection, implementation, and optimization of these digital tools within their organizations need to get a really good understanding of what the business and technical implications are related to their adoption and use before choosing a partner(s).

Based on conversations in the field with my colleagues in technical, sales, and operational roles, it’s clear to me that many are still trying to ‘figure it all out.’ Sure, there are aggressive revenue goals to meet and unmanaged inventory that can be released to ad networks and exchanges to help meet those goals, but like any technology implementation, there needs to be some due diligence undertaken before pulling the trigger.

Perhaps using tools like DoubleGoo’s Ad Exchange 2.0 will help to reduce some of the complexities inherent in the use and optimization of ad networks and maybe, as some have said, the exchanges will help to level the playing field, eliminate bottom feeders, and create opportunities for networks to merge or otherwise consolidate.

However, in order to fully reap the benefits of the interoperability Tim talks about, everyone in the value chain (buy- and sell-side) needs to make sure they’re talking to the right people and  vendors to get the information they need to make informed decisions and develop a method to measure results. And here’s a bit of unsolicited advice: you want to have a measurement metric in place before you do a deal with any network or exchange.

Like Sy Syms always says, “An educated consumer is our best customer.” The more information you can gather up front, the better your chances of maximizing whatever opportunities they may offer.

What do you think? I welcome your comments.

Sonia Jairath, Founder/President of Metierlink, is a recruitment and talent specialist who represents leading professionals to progressive companies in marketing, advertising, media and areas within the digital workspace. She primarily focuses her network on the representation, management and development of the most talented professionals in the industry.

As a former Account Management and Marketing professional, Sonia has had the opportunity to work with leading companies and brands including GCI Group/Grey Inc. on Gerber, Fairchild Publications, Wunderman/Y&R Brands on USPS and AT&T, Ogilvy on IBM, McCann Relationship Marketing on Sprint, TEQUILA/TBWA/CHIAT/DAY on Sprint/Nextel, Hill Holliday on Verizon and AIG on Corporate eBusiness.

Last February, Digital Mindshare Editor Julien Sharp had the privilege of sitting on a panel of one of the many Meetups Sonia organizes in Manhattan for people interested in learning more about the digital and creative industries, and it is a pleasure to have connected with her again for this Spotlight.

DM: Nearly our entire readership is working – or wants to work – in the digital space. What kind of services do you provide?

SJ: Metierlink’s services range from recruitment for larger established companies looking for talented full time professionals to small innovative start-ups looking for short-term freelance consultants.

DM: We all know hiring has been…slow. What have you been doing with your time?

SJ: Well, I’ve used this slower time to do some major updates in the way I do business. I have a new website launching later this month. It will facilitate all of the “connections” I make, including space for banner ads and announcements. I’ve got a great publicist, and have already had some placements in metro papers and HR journals. Metierlink was recently featured in a CNBC article on October 8th, entitled: Helpful Tips for HR and Hiring Managers as Hiring Freezes Start to Thaw. I’ve also begun to work with two business development professionals to help expand my reach.

The main thing we have done is to build our reputation for connecting people – not just in the traditional “employer/employee” sense. Metierlink is the proud organizer of a really popular series of Digital Media, Online Advertising and Career Management for Progressive Professionals Meetups. We have nearly 2000 members.

DM: What’s your key to success as an entrepreneur, especially in this economy?

SJ: While all of this is happening, I have begun to focus on the “career development” aspect of my business. There are so many talented people who want to get into the digital space, but maybe they don’t have the right resume, or they need help with interviewing, or job strategies in general.

So we have really expanded our services, to include career management for candidates looking for resume and online profile writing assistance, mock interviews, job searching strategies or creative portfolio updates.
In this economy, we all have to be creative entrepreneurs and consultants.

DM: It’s been a crazy couple of years in the employment industry. What do you see happening right now and in the coming months?

SJ: Right now, at least in the digital and creative industries, employers are using freelance workers. They are treading very carefully, which makes sense…and of course many of them won’t have new budgets until Q1, anyway.

But Q1 looks to bring some very good news. I’ve been speaking with the internal recruiters of a lot of companies. They are getting staffing plans in place for January, so as the year comes to a close, head count and approvals are going to start.

DM: What skills do people need to be able to land a job in the digital space in 2010?

SJ: I tell everyone who asks the same thing: It’s vital to network and think outside the more “traditional” ways of looking for a job. You have to go outside your skill set. First, you should list everything you are good at and passionate about…and find ways to do that any way you can.

For example, people I work with are doing a day gig or working freelance in something completely outside their interest, in order to make money. But – they are doing their “passion” on the side. They are gaining experience, meeting the right people, and getting closer to doing what they want to do fulltime every day.

I can’t stress this enough: Identify your goals and take on little projects, or take some classes, or do things for friends for free…whatever you have to do to build your portfolio so it becomes clear that when you are presenting yourself, you have the skills to jump right in.

Interesting times. We’ve got a “media democracy” happening today, where the content we consume is no longer defined by a select group of publishers and no single form of media captures all of our attention. Like automotive brands, there are plenty of media choices available for consumers to choose from.

OK, maybe automotive brands are a bad example at this point (ask my neighbor, who recently bought a Saturn) – but our government is surely working on a plan to fix that, right after they revamp the financial industry, health care, the insurance industry, bring the Olympics to Chicago (oh snap – can you say “meet me in Rio?“) and tackle online privacy/advertising/behavioral targeting issues.

The 4th screen is mobile. Don't leave home without it.

But I digress. Clearly, because of the speed and breadth of technology innovation, our content consumption preferences are changing. But what are we doing, as marketers and advertisers (yes, I’m talking to both the buy and sell sides), to take advantage of that shift? As Jonathan Mendez said recently in a blog post, “…understanding the way people consume media is paramount to optimizing it for revenue generation.”

Well said, Jonathan, “Crusader for Relevance” that you are. Today more than ever, it’s imperative that we take the time to figure out where the consumers are, what they’re talking about and in what format we should deliver the content they’re consuming if we want to maximize the opportunity to interact (and transact) with them.

There's a content consumption profile for everyone. What's yours?

The great thing about working in digital is that we don’t have to guess about any of this. We have incredibly rich stores of real-time data we can pull from, turning a wait-and-see historical approach into a just-in-time, highly proactive approach. And because today’s technology is so damn effective and in the case of Google Analytics, free, we can and should be measuring everything because as we’ve all found out (or will at some point), you can’t manage what you don’t measure.

When you couple the ad networks and exchanges, with their automated processes of buying and selling ad inventory, to this ability to precisely measure consumers’ content consumption preferences, you’ve got the power to deliver the right message to the right person at the right time in the right place. Of course, we’ll all need to get a lot better at the math, but we’re talking near real-time execution down to the site level. And if it ain’t working the way we planned, we can change it – in real-time. Jeepers!

Yes, my friends. It’s time to really hunker down and work to understand the changing content consumption preferences of the consumers whose attention (and interaction) we so desperately want. The days of putting an advert on 3 networks to reach 80% of the female population in America are gone. It’s a highly fragmented media free-for-all out there and the consumer, wherever she’s consuming her content, is in charge.

Listen up.

Clarence Kwei is the Executive Producer in the Style & Entertainment Group of Time Inc., a division of Time Warner. He manages technical production for PEOPLE.com, InStyle.com, EW.com, and PeopleenEspanol.com. His team has launched numerous products in 2008 and 2009, including People TV, CelebrityBabies.com, PeoplePets.com, EW Picks, InStyle Makeover, and multiple redesigns. He’s on the forefront of new/digital media, and it is a pleasure to feature him in this week’s Spotlight feature.

DM: What does the online executive producer of 4 very popular brands actually do every day?

CK: Part of my day is spent making sure my team is on track with our projects. We run 20+ projects simultaneously and check in with the project managers to make sure projects are on track and the team is making the right technical decisions. Sometimes I act as a member of a team – I could be a tech lead on one project, or project manager on another.

Another part of my day spent working with the central IT organization at Time Inc. They provide shared technology for all our brands. As a user of these technologies, I maintain a dialog with them on our needs, which range from content management to mobile applications.

Another part of my day is working on new strategic projects for the different business divisions. There is a broad range of initiatives, and I help teams work out ideas before they turn into projects or products.

DM: Where do the strategic ideas come from?

CK: They come from a variety of sources such as internal planning sessions, corporate and business initiatives, conferences, and user feedback.

DM: How important is it in your work to have a deep understanding of the technologies in use to bring a site like PEOPLE.com to market?

CK: I am primarily tech-focused, so it is critical to have a deep understanding of technology. It directly affects our consumer’s experience in the same way a poorly built automobile would affect a driver’s experience on the road.

DM: What’s the most exciting project you’ve worked on while in your role at Time, Inc.?

CK: A recent example is the new gallery experience we launched that displays edit notes and tags over a photo. Two things I liked about this project: On the consumer side, we feel this new experience is a nice innovation in celebrity photos.

We also built an editorial tool to facilitate the tagging process: editors use a WYSIWIG interface to quickly add notes or embed images over the photo.

DM: Can you share your thoughts about where digital is headed, particularly in the area of targeted advertising?

CK: I think the ecosystem around fully-target advertising isn’t quite there yet. We have behavioral, social, and user targeting, but really “targeted” advertising is going to have to involve a wider net of actions. Think about what goes into making a purchasing decision – emails received, conversations had, store windows viewed…

The technology is getting there; we have location-aware apps, mobile phone with GPS, and email in the cloud. However, there are not many companies positioned to capture that large amount of info, to be able to fully target consumers. There is also so much more to targeting than online behaviors to show why you would or would not engage or react with an Internet ad.

Having the full history of on and off-line behavior will make targeted advertising more meaningful.

There’s a post over on Chris Brogan’s blog about “How Frameworks Improve Your Business Thinking.” Food for thought, for sure, and the money quote (as my buddy Drew would say) takes the form of a couple of important questions Chris asks: “What are the parameters of what you’re doing? How do you align them with the business goals of the company?”

I’ve been involved in some really exciting projects over the years and the thing that made the raging successes just that (besides great people!) was time spent defining business requirements – exactly what the business needed the project to deliver. On the other hand, the projects I’ve been called on to rescue have also shared a common thread; a lack of clearly defined business drivers and a very weak project framework.

Developing a project framework shouldn’t take a lot of time or generate pain and overhead, if the team members involved have a good understanding of the business and the desired outcomes of the proposed initiative. Further, a solid project framework provides a way for teams to work efficiently and effectively, both individually and collectively.

Where do you start when developing a project framework for your initiatives? There’s no cookie-cutter approach, since most initiatives are handled as innovations. However, I’ve come up with a basic formula that’s worked for me:

1. Needs analysis. You really need to take some time and figure out exactly what the business (and the people it serves) really want to carry out through the initiative. As Chris says in his post, “What are the parameters of what you’re doing? How do you align them with the business goals of the company?” Involve stakeholders and anyone else you think can help you develop a road map for success on a particular project. And don’t forget to ask “Why?” quite a bit when defining these parameters.
2. Capabilities assessment. Now that you know what the initiative is trying to do and “Why?”, you need to figure out what the organization (and the people it serves) is actually organizationally, socially and technically (if applicable) capable of. It’s an informal gap analysis, focused on organizational capabilities.
3. Balance needs against capabilities. It’s really an art to ride the crest of change and even more of an art to teach others to ride the crest with you. But this is where your experience and business sense come into play (and face it, this is why you get the big bucks, dammit.) Helping the organization figure out what they can do internally and what they’ll need to do to get external help to fill any gaps is almost as important as the needs analysis itself.

As Chris says, “…this seems simple, and yet, it’s part of what many of us forget to do.” By no means is the approach above the only way to develop a meaningful, useful framework for your own initiatives, but it’s definitely a good start. Modify the formula as you see fit so it works for your initiative.

Let me know how it goes. I’d love to hear about your approach to building a useful project framework.

Over on the Forrester Blog for Interactive Marketing Professionals today, Neil Strother briefly recaps some stats released by Verisign this past week.

“VeriSign said it delivered a record 94.8 billion mobile messages (SMS, MMS, A2P) worldwide in the second quarter, up more than 82% from the same quarter a year ago. The company delivered nearly 179 billion messages globally in the first half of the year. To put this into perspective, that equates to 26 messages for every person on the planet (6.7 billion).”

That’s mind-blowing. And this is only one company!

Don’t Leave Home Without It

As Charles Landry, vice president and general manager of products and innovation at VeriSign, said in a Mobile Marketer article, “The mobile phone has become the most pervasive, personal communications tool available. We hardly ever leave home without it.” I don’t know about you, but most of the people I know get so freaked out if they forget their cellphone at home or leave it behind at a restaurant, you’d think they’d left an infant in a stroller in a mall parking lot.

He adds, “SMS is a lowest common denominator technology that is easy to use, appeals to all consumer demographics, and access to it is now 100 percent available on mobile devices in the U.S.” Let’s read that again – 100% availability of SMS on mobile devices. Wow.

Landlines and Dinosaurs

Yesterday I tweeted (@gendelibero) about Verizon Communications CEO Ivan Seidenberg’s comments to the audience at a Goldman Sachs investor conference that the company is just not interested in telephones connected with wires.

He’s right. With mobile use at an all-time high and services like Google Voice, landlines are going the way of the dinosaur.

“Video is going to be the core product in the fixed-line business,” Mr. Seidenberg declared. And the focus will move from selling bundles of video and landline to video and cellphones, he added. Does he sound like he’s crazy? Yeah… crazy like a fox!

All-You-Can-Use

Let’s not forget what makes the cellphone so popular. How about convenience, safety, and now for all of you hyper-consumers out there, all-you-can-use calling and data plans (forget about the radiation issue or the fact that people like my brother-in-law, a telco employee for many years, will be looking for a new career at some point soon.) These little gems aren’t just phones – they’re full-blown productivity stations, allowing us to do many of the things we do at our desks using our cellphone anywhere we like.

The fact that Verisign sees SMS requests from mobile phone users  equivalent to 26 SMS messages for every human on the planet is a wake-up call to any marketer or organization on the fence about mobile marketing.

It’s time to get your SMS on.

Check out the post at Reflections of a Newsosaur today. They’ve had a peek at a new American Press Institute study and share some of the more salient points in the post.

It’s going to be interesting to see who does what as far as charging for content. Google’s micropayment system (via Google Checkout) that will allow publishers to charge for pieces of content might help on the execution side, but they’ll need a serious content marketing strategy.

Speaking for myself, there are so many ways for me to get content from many different places, I’m not sure I’d have the impetus to whip out my credit card all that often. Granted, there may be times when I just have to have something, but I think those occasions will be few and far between.

Is this an industry gasping for its last few breaths? It’s going to be interesting to see how this long tail paid content approach plays out.

I came across this “note to readers” from the NY Times today:

“Some NYTimes.com readers have seen a pop-up box warning them about a virus and directing them to a site that claims to offer antivirus software. We believe this was generated by an unauthorized advertisement and are working to prevent the problem from recurring. If you see such a warning, we suggest that you not click on it. Instead, quit and restart your Web browser. Questions and comments can be sent to adtraffic@nytimes.com.”

Back in April, the New York Times announced a pretty serious revenue slide (”New York Times Ad Sales Plummet 28.4%“), so the chances of this advert being inserted into the Times’ ad rotation via one of any number of ad networks they’re working with to help fill that revenue gap is pretty good.

Ad networks are a reality for any organization with unmanaged inventory and a need to generate revenue (that description applies to most publishers on the Web, who tend to create much more inventory than they could ever sell.) But it’s important to allocate the proper resources to manage those networks. Maximizing yield is an important task, but even more important is eliminating the risk of potential negative brand impact.

If you can’t or don’t want to manage your ad networks in-house, call one of the ad network optimization companies out there, whose sole function is to aggregate hundreds of ad networks and exchanges and get you the best yield for your unsold inventory. Having to send out a message like the one above means it’s already too late. Like the folks at NYTimes.com, you’ll be in reactive mode instead of being proactive.

Using ad networks requires a plan. At the very least, you need to:

1. Establish realistic revenue expectations for your excess inventory.
2. Consider (and reconsider on a regular basis) overall pricing and inventory strategies.
3. Analyze the ongoing returns from the ad networks you use and continually negotiate more favorable CPMs (perhaps a flat CPM in certain instances?) or better yet, leave it to companies like AdMeld, Pubmatic or Rubicon Project to do it for you.
4. Understand that if you create too much inventory, impressions will most always significantly exceed demand.
5. Proactively and consistently work to reduce (or better, eliminate) the risk of potential negative brand impact and conflicts with your direct sales channel.

9/15/09 UPDATE: NY Times runs an article that fixes blame for the unwanted advert showing up on their site(s) on an unapproved 3rd party ad server.

Because The Times thought the campaign came straight from Vonage, which has advertised on the site before, it allowed the advertiser to use an outside vendor that it had not vetted to actually deliver the ads, Ms. McNulty said. That allowed the switch to take place. “In the future, we will not allow any advertiser to use unfamiliar third-party vendors,” she said.

And in case you’re hungry for more resources regarding ad networks, enjoy these links:

Top U.S. Ad Networks, April 2009

Advertising Age Ad Network & Exchange Guide

Online Ad Networks: Monetizing the Long Tail

IAB Marketplace: Networks and Xchanges

The Truth About Ad Nets: Profit Margins of 45% To 60%

Breaking The Daisy Chain

In Defense of Ad Networks

Growing Ad Networks Shaking Up Online Ad Spend

The OREO Doctrine – The Binary Future of Online Advertising

Should agencies be ad networks?

How to respond to the ad network backlash

The roadblocks to starting your own ad network

What’s missing from ad network evaluations

Ad Networks Are For Idiots — And Here’s The Math To Prove It

Publishers Guide to Ad networks

21 Great Advertising Networks For Publishers

CPM, CPC and CPA Arbitrage- An Emerging Online Opportunity

Audio, Video & Photos from ContextWeb/AdClub “Agency Demand Platforms: Art vs. Science in a Real-Time World” Panel Discussion

The Demand-Side, Buying Platform Trend

Yield Optimizers AdMeld, PubMatic, The Rubicon Project And YieldBuild Unite At IAB

Optimize Thyself: Ad Exchanges Draw Crowd At ContextWeb/Ad Club Event in NYC

Yield Optimization and The Futures Exchange

Mobclix Takes On AdMob By Roping Together 20 Mobile Ad Networks Into An Exchange

Ad network horror stories

Ad network halo stories

Web Sites Debate Best Values for Advertising Dollars – Study Produced for Online Publishers Says Proprietary Content Is Better Channel Than Portals or ‘Ad Networks’

The Wall Street Journal uses an ad network, but that doesn’t mean they have to like it

Pandora Turns to AdMeld for a 95% Yield Boost from Discretionary Ad Inventory

Outgoing Forbes CEO would like to blink and make remnant ads disappear

How ad networks have evolved

What Happened to the Ad-Network Apocalypse?

I had occasion to call around to a few security assessment vendors a couple of days ago to request proposals for a project I’m working on. I made my short list the same way I’ve always done it; from my own experience, through recommendations from people I trust, and from information culled from research.

The results of the first call I made completely blew me away. I can honestly say I’ve never experienced anything like it. I called in and immediately began the arduous task of navigating my way through the company’s automated call system.

“If you know your party’s extension, you may enter it now…”

Well, I had no idea what my party’s extension was, but I did know I wanted someone in sales. Unfortunately, there was no option presented for a sales extension.

I continued to wade through my choices, none of which applied. I tried pressing “0″ in the hopes I’d be connected with a human, but to no avail. I decided to hang up and call in again.

Upon connecting the second time, I immediately started pressing “0″ on my phone and was in fact routed to a human. Success at last; I figured I was cooking, at that point.

Me: “Hi. This is Gene De Libero. I’m calling to speak with someone in sales. Would you connect me, please?”

Operator: “I’m sorry, but I don’t have an extension for sales. I only have a list of names.”

Me: “I see. Well, I’m not sure who I want to speak with since this is my first call – I’m a potential new customer with a pressing need for a proposal for services.”

Operator: “I only have names. I don’t know what people do.”

Strike One.

Me: “I understand. Can you transfer me to the CEO please?”

Operator: “I don’t think he’s in the office today.”

Me: “OK. How about the CFO or anyone else in the executive offices.”

Operator: “I only have names. I don’t know what people do.”

Let me add here that the company is a very well known entity in the computer security business. Let me also add that at this point that I should have hung up, but like a rubbernecker passing a roadside traffic accident, I just had to continue.

Me: “OK. How about the person who heads up business development or anyone else besides you.”

Operator: “I’m really sorry, but I only have names. I don’t know what people do.”

Strike Two.

Me: “I’m calling you as a potential new customer. To spend money. I want to give your company my money. Can you connect me to anyone who’d like to take my money?”

Operator: “I’m really sorry, but I only have names. I don’t know what people do.”

Strike three.

Hey, big computer security company – I called two of your competitors and got a human on the second ring, instead of an automated phone attendant and a useless, robotic human. Your competitors made sure to train the people answering the phone so they’d know exactly who a prospective customer should speak with for any given request.

I’ve already had an in-depth call with each of the other two companies I reached out to (you know, your competitors) and will most likely have a proposal in hand by the time I return from the Labor Day weekend. One of the two companies will have my business (and my money) by the end of the week.

Here’s the take-away, as far as I’m concerned: Take the money you’d spend on an automated call system and spend it on training a human or two about what your company does and who at your company does it. The revenue you’ll capture from customers you’d otherwise lose because of corporate incompetence will be far more than you’ll spend to field a couple of knowledgeable team members.

Has anyone else run into corporate incompetence similar to what I’ve described above? I’d love to hear about your experiences.