DRIVEpm, Broadband Enterprises and Ad.com Lead Advances of Online Sales Reps and Behavioral Nets

By The Myers Report Archives
Cover image for  article: DRIVEpm, Broadband Enterprises and Ad.com Lead Advances of Online Sales Reps and Behavioral Nets

Myers Survey of Advertising Executives Results

Sales representatives and behavioral networks have emerged as the driving force behind the growth of online advertising, having the contradictory qualities of both commoditizing the business while creating greater value to push higher costs-per-thousand. The sixth annual Myers Survey of Advertising Executives on Online Sales Organization Performanceevaluated 125 online sales organizations including 24 sales reps and behavioral networks. These companies are evolving quickly. In the past year Right Media was acquired by Yahoo!, Tacoda was acquired by AOL, 24/7 Real Media was purchased by WPP, Blue Lithium was acquired by Yahoo!, and Poindexter was renamed x+1.

Among the 24 reps and networks, DRIVEpm is the top rated sales organization with an Overall Performance Power Score of 54, followed by Broadband Enterprise, a close second with an Overall Performance Power Score of 53. Advertising.com ranked third (47), and Tacoda Systems, Tribal Fusion and Gorilla Nation each had an Overall Performance Power Score of 43. The top sites in this category ranked highly among all 125 websites in our survey. DRIVEpm ranked eighth across all 125 sites, while Broadband Enterprises ranked 11. Additional details are available at jackmyers.com.

Prior to asking about specific websites, we asked respondents for their unaided recall of "online media sales organizations that provide the best overall support for your marketing and media buying needs." Overall, there was very low unaided mention of sales rep firms and behavioral targeting sites. Tacoda was mentioned by 6% of respondents and DRIVEpm by 3% of our sample.

Myers Power Scores provide a unique view of the overall performance of each site across all attributes, with attributes weighted according to their importance and influence on the media planning and buying process. These scores were used to determine the sales organizations that have the highest quality relationships with advertisers and media decision makers.

The Overall Performance Power Score attributes evaluated include:

  • Sales Reps are responsive to my needs and interests
  • Sales Reps have knowledge of product, content & competition
  • Organization delivers on promises
  • Organization offers valuable non-traditional opportunities
  • Overall value of the relationship to you

• POWER SCORES: All of the sales rep firms and behavioral networking companies measured in our 2006 survey saw a performance increase in 2007. DRIVEpm's Overall Performance Power Score almost doubled from 28 in 2006 to 54 in 2007. Advertising.com and Tribal Fusion also saw significant increases year over year.

• USAGE BY ADVERTISERS: Usage of sales rep firms and behavioral networks for online media buys is prevalent. The top ten companies in this category are used by at least one third of our respondents for online advertising buys. Many of these companies are new to our survey in 2007. Those companies that were tracked in 2006 were on average flat in terms of usage year over year. 24/7 saw a significant increase in usage from 26% in 2006 to 43% in 2007. Blue Lithium increased from 27% usage to 33%.

 % Use Site% Use Site
 20072006
Advertising.com 55%52%
ValueClick Media 46% NA
Gorilla Nation  44% NA
24/7 Real Media 43%26%
Tacoda Systems 42% NA
IAC Advertising Solutions 39%40%
Specific Media, Inc. 37% NA
Tribal Fusion 37%37%
Vibrant Media 35% NA
Blue Lithium 33%27%

 

• AVERAGE ATTRIBUTE RATINGS: The average ratings for each attribute were relatively high compared to the other categories we measured. Across the five attributes rated for each website, knowledge of products, content and competition and responsiveness of sales reps rated higher on average across the 14 sites included in this category than the other attributes (both were 44% top two box).32% of our respondents gave a top two box rating for the organization delivering on promises(at parity with the top two box score for portals and search engines). 34% gave a top two box rating foroverall value of the relationship to you, while 29% gave a top two box rating for organization offers valuable non-traditional opportunities.Note: while there is still huge room for improvement on offering non-traditional opportunities, the top two box rating for this category was the highest of the seven categories analyzed.

• ATTRIBUTE RANKINGS: Broadband Enterprises ranked in the top five across all attributes rated, and was ranked first on knowledge, responsiveness and non-traditional opportunities. DRIVEpm is ranked in the top five across four categories and is ranked first for keeps promises and overall value. After these top two rated sites, there is variability in the ratings. There are seven additional sales organizations that comprise the second or third ranked brand across the five attributes.

• OVERALL VALUE: Most of the sales rep firms and behavioral networks included in our 2006 survey increased significantly for overall value of the relationship in the 2007 Survey. More than twice as many respondents rated DRIVEpm top two box on overall value in 2007 (58%) than rated it top two box on this attribute in 2006 (25%). Tribal Fusion and Advertising.com both increased from 27% to 49% in 2007. This is a sign that this evolving category is increasing in relevance and perceived value among the online advertising community. IAC Advertising Solutions and Casale Media both had directional decreases year over year on overall value.

The sales organizations of one hundred twenty five (125) websites were evaluated for the 2007 Myers Survey of Advertising Executives. Respondents evaluated each sales organization on five attributes, using a one to seven scale, with one representing extremely poor performance and seven representing excellent performance. The performance rankings incorporated into this report are based on the percent of respondents who rated each organization "6" or "7" on the seven point scale, also referred to as top 2 box percentage.Additional details are available at jackmyers.com.

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