Catalyst S+F: An Entrepreneur Walks into an Agency - Ryan Huber - MediaBizBloggers

I can still remember the first time the advertising technology landscape was explained to me It was three years ago it was new it was exciting it was confusing as hell Behavioral targeting demand side platforms this crazy thing called the exchange everyone was speaking Greek anyone who39s seen the Kawaja Chart knows exactly what I39m talking about My background at that time had been in owned and earned media and I hadn39t put much thought into the complexities of the display advertising landscape So I took it upon myself to learn as much as I could so I could apply what I learned to the startup I was working onThe more I learned the more I felt a good portion of the companies in the display advertising market ended up complicating and confusing the overall landscape shrouding portions of the industry in quotblack boxesquot As an entrepreneur trying to simplify life for consumers this baffled me The opportunities that I saw and continue to believe in focus on consolidating and simplifying the Kawaja Chart while providing transparency to advertisers While I won39t go into specifics for every opportunity I see in the market I do want to share a couple I personally would like to see addressed in the near futureTarget Audience TransparencyThis is an area ripe with opportunity Everyone today is selling some sort of targeted advertising data from behavioral semantic demographic psychographic inmarket and intentbased just to name a few an advertiser has a wealth of data they can leverage The biggest objective I have to data providers is their lack of transparency regarding the methodologies used to gather this information While I realize a company has to protect its IP but as an advertiser I want to make sure the data I39m leveraging was gathered legally and actually delivers what is being promisedCompanies like Double Verify provide a level of transparency providing advertisers a complete breakdown of where their advertisements ran thus ensuring only brand safe publishers were served This is the type of transparency I want to see in regards to targeted audience data Now I39m not saying some companies aren39t already pushing for transparency Quantcast for example seems to be a good example of providing a higher degree of data transparency Unfortunately it39s only Quantcast data that39s transparent Data aggregators still have a high degree of quotblack boxquot magic The opportunity I see is a data aggregator that validates the gathering methodologies for the data companies they aggregate verifies the targeted audience against some sort of control leverages historic categorical data to ensure the right data is utilized for the right campaign and provides complete target audience transparency to the advertiserEngagement Metrics Transparency Once you39ve decided on your target audience it39s important to measure and understand your audiences39 engagement This can be measured a number of ways clicks views interactions time on page etc Seems simple enough right Wrong Say I use DoubleClick Google Analytics and Omniture to track my engagement metrics Most likely I39m going to get different numbers and see inconsistencies from each one of these services Even when looking at something simple like the number of ads viewed there are numerous inconsistencies How is this possible Well the devil is in the detailsWhen would you consider an ad viewed Some measure an ad call as a view The request was sent and the ad was called but that doesn39t necessarily mean the ad actually displayed on the page Now imagine the ad actually displayed on the page Would that be considered a view Well not necessarily If the ad unit is below the fold it39s technically not visible As you can see there are discrepancies even with the simplest aspects of display advertising This is driven by a lack of industry standardization which yields lower transparency for an advertiser While we can39t force industry standardization over night providing an advertiser controls and the ability to customize how engagement metrics are measured seems like a logical and potentially profitable step in providing full transparency for engagement metricsIf you haven39t already take a look at the Kawaja Chart Now imagine this chart doubling in size over the next 24 years this just isn39t sustainable While it39s a given new companies will continue to enter this space and this chart will continue to expand The real opportunities I see lie in simplifying this chart and providing advertisers the transparency and tools necessary to make educated display media buys leveraging the correct audience data and engagement metrics

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Catalyst S+F: An Entrepreneur Walks into an Agency - Ryan Huber - MediaBizBloggers

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