Q&A: Lonely Planet on Using Automation to Capture Ad Spend

During Advertisingamp160Week in New York Jay Sears leftamp160of Rubicon Project Ryan Davis of The Weather Company Tim Daugherty of Lonely Planet and Al Maitland right of Kijiji appeared at a program titled 50B Left Behind Capturing SMB SpendBe sure to read Part One of this series Jay39s interview with Ryan Davis of The Weather CompanyYour Name Tim DaughertyYour Company Lonely PlanetYour Title Director of Ad Operations and Programmatic RevenueJAY SEARS What do you read to keep up with politics art and cultureTIM DAUGHERTY PBS NPR Vice Any content producer that approaches information objectively holistically and with patienceSEARS What do you read to keep up with friendsDAUGHERTYamp160 FacebookSEARS What do you read to keep up with our industryDAUGHERTY AdExchanger Ad Age Adweek company press releases However I find the best industry source is connecting with colleagues in the industryamp160 Thatamp8217s how you find out what is real vs what is smoke and mirrorsSEARS Whatamp8217s your favorite commercial of all timeDAUGHERTY Apple 1984 Iamp8217ve always appreciated Appleamp8217s unique and meticulous marketing approachSEARS With regards to selfservice advertising automation what are Lonely Planetamp8217s three biggest companywide initiatives for the remainder of 2015 and into 2016DAUGHERTYamp160Outreach Rather than an amp8220autopilotamp8221 selfserve offering we plan to leverage marketing efforts to proactively inform and incentivize small businesses to use this platformProduct Optimization As we evolve our product offering in the areas of mobile and native we will add these to the mix as wellamp160Geographical Diversity Given our global audience we want to ensure buyers can purchase media in their local currencyamp160 This may involve us managing several instances of selfserve but in the end it should help with adoption and comfortability with the platformSEARS Selfservice advertising is used in a variety of customer use cases Which of the following use cases apply to your current businessWalkup business from small and medium size businessesSmall and midsize agenciesSpecialized markets such as bed and breakfasts for a travel publisher or home appraisal services for a real estate publisherVendor or coop advertisingInternational marketsDAUGHERTYamp160 A C and E are most relevant to our current businessamp160 Having an option for small independent businesses to purchase advertising without allocating large amounts of human capital is key to maximizing ROIamp160 This is particularly true for international clients that reach out to us looking for ways to connect to our audienceSEARS Do you anticipate other future use casesDAUGHERTYamp160 I imagine there will be a time when there is more adoption and optionality for nonstandard digital products such as print or business development type productsamp160 Also building and maintaining custom purchase portals for agencies with negotiated rates and terms feels like a natural evolution to the technologySEARS What are some of Lonely Planetamp8217s unique assets and or advertiser value propositions you are able to leverage using a selfservice system1st party dataHyperlocal targetingMobile ad opportunitiesVideo ad opportunitiesNative ad opportunitiesEmail opportunitiesAd creation via selfservice3rd party ad tags via selfservice for approved buyersSelling in local currencies around the worldAccepting credit card paymentDAUGHERTYamp160 B C E G I J The big exploration for us at the moment is Native as a productsamp160 From there weamp8217ll figure out how and if that suite of products can translate into a meaningful selfserve opportunityamp160 Our unique asset will continue to be our content and brand which has built a passionate and loyal audienceamp160 It is our aim to build advertising products that are scalable and meaningful to our audienceSEARS Do you foresee using selfserve in areas such as print radio outofhome and television in the futureDAUGHERTYamp160 Yes I do for all marketing mediumsamp160 However it will take some time and further advancement of the tools and industry mindsetamp160 The trick is finding the right balance of technology and support No matter how advanced a technology platform becomes there will always be a human element in marketing dealsSEARS When did you first add a selfservice component to your sales effortsDAUGHERTYamp160 Selfserve and programmatic was implemented for the Lonely Planet brand in Q1 2015 Selfserve provides Lonely Planet an opportunity to serve hyperlocal and specialized clients without expending a lot of human capitalamp160 Prior to selfserve we would have to turn away smaller clients because managing the account was cost prohibitiveSEARS How many people internally are involved in the management of the selfservice offering DAUGHERTYamp160 Between our sales and operations teams we have around 10 people that are involved with some component of selfserveSEARS What is the percentage increase selfserve sales 2014 vs expected 2015DAUGHERTYamp160 Given that we started in 2015 revenue this year is considered incremental versus 2014amp160 We do expect significant revenue growth for this platform from now until the end of the yearSEARS If you could go to the airport right now with friends or family and fly anywhere in the world for vacation who would you take and where would you goDAUGHERTYamp160 I would take my wife and son to Hawaii for as long we could stayamp160SEARS If you could create an endowment to fund any existing nonprofit you designated what lucky nonprofit organization would that beDAUGHERTYamp160 The Carter Centeramp160 It has such wonderful human rights and health initiatives all over the worldamp160 Jimmy Carter recently gave a TED talk about one of the major issues the foundation is combating the mistreatment of women around the worldamp160 I found the conversation particularly impactfulSEARS What is your favorite restaurant in the worldDAUGHERTYamp160 10th and Willow in Hoboken NJamp160 My wife and I have been going there for yearsamp160 Wonderful place with the best wings and martinisSEARS Thanks TimThe opinions and points of view expressed in this commentary are exclusively the views of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillageMyersBizNet management or associated bloggers

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Q&A: Lonely Planet on Using Automation to Capture Ad Spend

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Q&A: Lonely Planet on Using Automation to Capture Ad Spend

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