Havas' Nathan Woodman in Interview Prior to September 25th Panel (Part 2 of 2)
Posted by Jay Sears on Wed, Sep 23, 2009 @ 09:33 AM
Today we are running Part Two of our interview with Havas' Nathan Woodman who serves as Managing Director of Adnetik. This is part of our series of Q&As with top agency execs on our upcoming panel discussion, "Agency Demand Platforms: Is Everyone a Media Trader?" during Advertising Week this Friday, September 25th at 11:00am until 11:45am.
Woodman joins a panel of agency executives with similar responsibilities including Curt Hecht, President, VivaKi Nerve Center, VivaKi (Publicis); Darren Herman, Founder & President, Varick Media Management (MDC Partners) and Quentin George, Managing Partner, Cadreon (Interpublic). ContextWeb's Jay Sears will moderate a discussion about the "demand platform" strategy of each company.
To attend the event as a guest of ContextWeb and the ADSDAQ Exchange, you can register here. ContextWeb's ADSDAQ Exchange is donating $25 for every attendee to GeneratioNext.
We'll be posting Q&A with panelists and further information leading up to this event, so make sure you subscribe to our Internet Advertising blog, follow ContextWeb on Twitter and join the Ad Exchange Traders Group via LinkedIn.
Today we continue our Q&A with Nathan Woodman of Adnetik and Havas Digital. The first part of Woodman's interview appeared yesterday.
In his continued Q&A, Woodman tells us about the Long Tail's place in the media plan and how media is valued in three parts - inventory, audience and context.
Woodman, part two:
As you continue to implement your agency's trading strategy, does it permeate across the agency, requiring new skill sets among employees and new workflow for the purchase and assessment of media? Or is the strategy concentrated in a trading group or division that acts in a service capacity to existing client account groups?
I think we will see the return of buying specialists to digital media shops and this is a skill that ultimately needs to belong inside the agency. The difference is that the new class of buyers will have better tools at their hands that will allow them to focus more on value than on price.
At the 2008 IAB Annual Meeting, Rob Norman, Global CEO of GroupM Interaction Worldwide said: "Today, we plan and trade on behalf of our clients. Tomorrow and in some places today we also trade on our own behalf where we can create value and deserve our place in the chain... We charge at the moment for the cost of inputs but again if we charge on the basis of the value of the outputs we are perfectly entitled to do that too."
Should it be permissible for an agency to conduct arbitrage? - to purchase media for the "house" and re-sell it to clients, making a spread?
An agency will always be aligned with the interests of the advertiser. The agreements between the advertiser and the agency take many forms. In some contracts agencies are incented by a cost + formula, in others they are aligned to hit performance metrics and receive a performance bonus. In many other cases the incentive is for the agency to reduce the costs to the advertiser by getting paid by the publisher. The common thread across all of these arrangements is that the advertiser and agency are in agreement on the agency compensation model. The advertiser is diligently aware of the cost benefit trade off between them and their agency partner.
Do you believe in the substitutability of media? Quantcast says you can reach 13 million users looking at sports content on ESPN and you can reach 16 million users looking at sports content on the ADSDAQ Exchange and that both audiences have similar demos. Say pricing for ESPN is $30 (CPM) and ContextWeb's ADSDAQ Exchange is $8 (CPM). Discuss.
As I mentioned above media is valued in 3 parts 1) Inventory, 2) Audience and 3) Context. Each of these attributes has its own value to each advertiser. There are a few mega publishing brands that can demand such a premium and ESPN is one of them.
Tell us about you.
What's the best conference you attended in the last two years?
Either the Right Media Open or the Rapt Summit. Both were closed to the press and are/were an intimate audience. However, any panel that is moderated by Bill Wise is always entertaining and I try to make those whenever I can.
If you could be appointed to any position in a US Presidential cabinet post, what position would it be and why?
FCC or FTC Chair on consumer privacy.
Thanks Nate!
Need to register for this Friday's panel discussion, "Agency Demand Platforms: Is Everyone a Media Trader?" during Advertising Week (Friday, September 25th at 11:00am until 11:45am)?
To attend the event as a guest of ContextWeb and the ADSDAQ Exchange, you can register here. ContextWeb's ADSDAQ Exchange is donating $25 for every attendee to GeneratioNext.
We'll be posting Q&A with panelists and further information leading up to this event, so make sure you subscribe to our Internet Advertising blog, follow ContextWeb on Twitter and join the Ad Exchange Traders Group via LinkedIn.
Subscribe to our
Internet Advertising blog, follow
ContextWeb on Twitter and join the
Ad Exchange Traders Group via LinkedIn.