Posted by Alissa Ferrino on Sun, Dec 21, 2008 @ 05:54 PM
All of us at ContextWeb, Inc. and the ADSDAQ Ad Exchange wish you the best for a very Happy & Healthy Holiday Season!
In lieu of sending out holiday cards this year, we will be making a donation of up to $5,000 to the New York Ad Club Digital Action Program, but we need your help!
- » $2.00 – for each of you that posts a holiday greeting in the comments on our ContextWeb blog, we will donate $2.00
- » Another $2.00 – for each of you that subscribes to our ContextWeb blog via email or RSS, we will donate an additional $2.00
Please help us support local and diverse students get closer to realizing their educational goals. Here’s a quick description of the program:
The AD Club has been serving our community for over 110 years. One of the most important things they do is help students looking to break into the advertising industry. Digital Action supports 2 specific initiatives:
- » The High School of Innovation, Advertising & Media – The Ad Club is building an endowment for the graduating class of 2011
- » Undergraduate scholarships for New York City area students studying the business side and the creative side of digital communications
To learn more about the AD Club fundraising programs visit www.theadvertisingclub.org/foundation. Once again, Happy Holidays from your friends at ContextWeb.
-- Alissa Ferrino
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Posted by Alissa Ferrino on Mon, Dec 15, 2008 @ 01:36 PM
On Monday, December 8th, at the iMedia Agency Summit in La Quinta, CA, an experienced group of senior online executives gathered together for a panel entitled, “Finding Brand-Safe Inventory in a World of Media Fragmentation.” As audiences continue to move beyond the portals and out to mid and long tail sites, panelists discussed the possibilities in aggregating and reaching their clients’ target customers in such a dynamic marketplace, while juggling the issues of scale and control.
Participants included:
- » Don Epperson, CEO, Havas Digital
- » Jim Meskauskas, VP, Director of Online Media, ICON International
- » Jay Sears, EVP, Strategic Products & Business Development, ContextWeb Inc. / ADSDAQ Exchange
- » (moderator) Doug Weaver, CEO/Founder, Upstream Group / iMedia Senior Analyst
Each of the participants provided insights on the different roles played by ad exchanges, networks, portals and branded sites in the growing fragmented world. Roles within the industry have become more and more blurred, as buyers are becoming sellers and sellers are becoming buyers.
Moderator Doug Weaver started off the discussion with addressing this new trend in the industry, as seen by agencies becoming their own networks and essentially, becoming reverse demand aggregators. Speaking on behalf of an agency, a so-called “demand aggregator,” Don Epperson said “We’re working on the benefit of the client and that means that we’re not trying to arbitrage inventory, per se, we’re trying to get the best value for our clients…There’s a lot of value that’s not accruing to the advertiser that we think with the new systems, it will.”
Representing an ad exchange, Contextweb’s Jay Sears addressed the ways in which the ADSDAQ Exchange provides a platform where both buyers and sellers have control. “A lot of our control for the buyer has to do with page level content type and context. And for publishers, a lot of our control has to do with setting the price that you want; setting your clearing price.”
Bob Verrico spoke about the role that traditional networks play in aggregating and centralizing certain operations for mid and long tail sites. Since these sites generally lack the content distribution and infrastructure needed to position their ad inventory to the buying community at large, networks are able to provide a very true de-fragmented approach to buying.
The conversation then led to the underlying dichotomy between control and scale. Jim Meskauskas raised the issue of the bifurcation of the agency model and how to find balance between its two parts – the transactional enterprise and the architecture enterprise. “If we focus too much on the data drive aspect and try to approach advertising from the perspective that all of human behavior and its secret motives can be rendered into machine readable form, we’re going to lose some of the successes that we’ve had in advertising in the past.”
Ultimately, panelists agreed that media planning needs to be approached with the perspective of finding balance between art and science in order to yield the greatest efficiency. The planners and sellers have been and always will be the problem solvers, yet the technology that they use has become an enabler in its ability to automate low value operations. The brains behind sales organizations can now focus on solving unique capabilities and hopefully, in the future, compete based solely upon the things that they do first, best or only.
To view the full video from the panel, please click on the link below:
Part 1:
Click here to see Part 2
-- Alissa Ferrino
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Internet Advertising blog, follow
ContextWeb on Twitter and join the
Ad Exchange Traders Group via LinkedIn.
Posted by Alissa Ferrino on Thu, Dec 04, 2008 @ 06:01 PM
Search Engine Strategies (SES) will host SES Chicago at the Hilton Chicago from December 8–12th.
This year’s conference will be packed with 60+ sessions, multiple keynotes and Orion Strategy sessions, exhibitors, and networking events to create a unique setting for fellow marketers other industry professionals to discuss the trends in search engine marketing. Derek Brinkman, Vice President, Product Management, ContextWeb Inc./ADSDAQ Exchange will speak at SES Chicago as part of a panel entitled “Contextual Ads & Ad Sense Clinic” on Thursday, December 11th at 9:00am. Anne Kennedy, Managing Partner & Founder, Beyond Ink, will moderate the panel. Other speakers will include:
This interactive session will take volunteers from the audience and examine their web sites live to provide general feedback about improving them to do better from Google Adsense and other contextual ad placements.
We hope to see you at SES Chicago!
-- Alissa Ferrino
Subscribe to our
Internet Advertising blog, follow
ContextWeb on Twitter and join the
Ad Exchange Traders Group via LinkedIn.
Posted by Alissa Ferrino on Thu, Dec 04, 2008 @ 05:50 PM
iMedia will be hosting their Agency Summit at the La Quinta Resort & Club in La Quinta, CA from December 7– 10th. This exclusive, invitation-only summit, consisting of more than 140 interactive agency leaders, features two full days of exciting keynotes, power panels, breakout sessions, and roundtable discussions. Jay Sears from ContextWeb, Inc. / ADSDAQ Exchange will speak on a panel entitled, “Finding Brand-Safe Inventory in a World of Media Fragmentation” on Monday, December 8th at 10:30am. Bob Verrico, Founder, InvestingChannel, will moderate the panel.
Other speakers will include:
“Finding Brand-Safe Inventory in a World of Media Fragmentation” will address the issues facing agencies as audiences continue to move beyond the portals and out to mid and long tail sites. The issues of scale and control are playing an even more important role than ever as agencies find themselves trying to target their customers in such a dynamic marketplace while ensuring that their advertising creative is placed onto brand safe sites.
-- Alissa Ferrino
Subscribe to our
Internet Advertising blog, follow
ContextWeb on Twitter and join the
Ad Exchange Traders Group via LinkedIn.