Towards A Bill of Rights for Online Advertisers - Michael Kassan Media Link-ed: - MediaBizBloggers

What does the advertising industry need to succeed in today39s economy and grow in the future How can advertisers ensure consumers are interacting with their brands and that advertisers are getting return on their investment Every year the ANA Annual Conference offers an opportunity for marketers to learn from one another to leverage each other39s strengths and to work together to improve the quality and accountability of our marketing efforts In this rapidly changing marketing and media mix industry collaboration at events like the ANA Conference is even more criticalOf course the Madison Avenue stylized socializing circa 1960s quotMad Menquot is important But with online advertising growing rapidly and an abundance of digital channels social networks mobile applications and video the dynamic is changing and advertisers have to work together to evolve with these new opportunities and challengesDuring Advertising Week in September Ben Edelman an assistant professor at the Harvard Business School who specializes in internet security and online advertising suggested a Bill of Rights for Online Advertisers Professor Edelman offered five fundamental rights for advertisers1 An advertiser39s right to know where its ads are shown2 An advertiser39s right to meaningful itemized billing3 An advertiser39s right to use its data as it sees fit4 An advertiser39s right to enjoy the fruits of its advertising campaigns5 An advertiser39s right to resolve disputes fairly and transparentlyThese essential rights will allow for greater transparency fewer fraudulent advertisements better ad placement and improved control and value This should be the norm for online advertisers rather than an environment with terms controlled by a few players and complex relationships amp8211 one that Professor Edelman described as the quotwild westquotAs the leading marketers come together this week in Phoenix I hope the industry will have a chance to think about what advertisers require for growth As a start l wanted to share Professor Edelman39s Bill of Rights belowTowards a Bill of Rights for Online Advertisers Benjamin Edelman Assistant Professor Harvard Business SchoolSeptember 21 2009I offer five rights to protect advertisers from increasingly powerful ad networks avoiding fraudulent charges for services not rendered guaranteeing data portability so advertisers get the best possible value and assuring price transparency so advertisers know what they39re buying I explain the need for these rights by presenting specific practices causing particular concernOnline advertising presents remarkable efficienciesamp8212better targeting improved measurement and greater return on investment By dramatically lowering distribution costs online ads cut fat from placements that had assumed significant waste Pairing precise measurement with increasingly specific targeting online ads can show the right message to the right user with commensurate increases in effectiveness Furthermore online formats invite interactivityamp8212not just text pictures and videos but evaluation discussion and customization The opportunity is staggeringYet there are challenges particularly when networks of intermediaries place ads through convoluted relationships and all the more so when advertising powerhouses dictate unsavory terms The result is a troubling mess of ads gone wrongamp8212advertisers charged in ways they didn39t fairly agree to and on terms they didn39t meaningfully accept These problems threaten to destabilize online advertisingamp8212wasting advertisers39 budgets slowing transition to online formats and reducing payments to online publishersBut online advertising doesn39t have to be a wild west In the sections that follow I propose five specific rights advertisers should demand as they buy online placements1 An advertiser39s right to know where its ads are shown It is nonsense to pay for ad space without knowing where an ad will appear sites vary too much in user quality and context Even for quotblind buysquot advertisers need enough information to determine whether a given site qualifies to show an ad Anything less undermines accountabilityamp8212inviting fraudulent sites that devour advertisers39 budgets And with all manners of fraudamp8212from spyware popups to invisible banners to adult sites slipping into networks that claim to be brandfriendlyamp8212advertisers need to be wary2 An advertiser39s right to meaningful itemized billing Clear records protect advertisers from accounting games Otherwise ad networks can claim quotWe already credited you for those clicksquot knowing that advertisers cannot prove otherwise But some ad networks provide invoices that are opaque at best3 An advertiser39s right to use its data as it sees fit Campaign configuration details such as keywords and targeting are an advertiser39s own creation to be retrieved whenever and however the advertiser chooses Same for records of campaign performance Yet some ad networks impede data portability in an attempt to increase their share of advertisers39 spending Such restrictions can lock advertisers into needlessly expensive ad platformsamp8212sharply increasing advertising costs4 An advertiser39s right to enjoy the fruits of its advertising campaigns When a user clicks an ad the advertiser pays fair value to reach that user But in a world of behavioral targeting a network can later resell that same user to the advertiser39s direct competitor Click one airline39s ad and a network may conclude you39re in the market for travelamp8212then show ads for other carriers That39s a poor value for the advertiser whose spending sparked the targeting5 An advertiser39s right to resolve disputes fairly and transparently Ad networks generally write the contracts that govern their dealings with advertisers Networks often use this drafting power to tilt contracts in their favoramp8212disclaiming promises that ads will appear anywhere in particular and denying responsibility for fraud even when they know about it and fail to take action At face value these contracts purport to grant networks effective immunity from advertisers39 complaints But advertisers don39t accept such onesided provisions in other procurement contexts and they need not be so lenient in online adbuyingIn this time of plummeting ad prices networks are increasingly anxious to attract advertisers With increased negotiating power advertisers can and should demand moreBen Edelman39s full report continues hereTowards a Bill of Rights for Online AdvertisersMichael E Kassan is Chairman and CEO of Media Link LLC a leading Los Angeles and New York Citybased advisory and business development firm that provides critical counsel and direction on issues of marketing advertising media entertainment and digital technology Michael can be reached at michaelmedialinkllccomRead all Michael39s MediaBizBloggers commentaries at Michael Kassan MediaBizBloggersFollow our Twitter updates MediaBizBlogger

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