Brain Exchange: Are Ad Exchanges Changing Everything?
By Greg Jarboe, Guest Blogger
I’m not an ad guy. I’m the co-founder of SEO-PR, a search engine optimization firm and public relations agency. So, why should I care if ad exchanges are changing everything?
I care because I’m a former radio reporter and newspaper editor, who was also the director of corporate communications at Ziff-Davis when the Internet changed everything I knew about the news and media. And I’ve learned over the years that ads pay the piper, even when readers, listeners, viewers or visitors call the tune.
Yahoo! Internet Life didn’t fold because it didn’t have enough readers. The magazine had a paid circulation base of 1.1 million subscribers when Ziff-Davis closed it in 2002. Yahoo! Internet Life’s operations were shuttered because advertising dollars declined precipitously after the dot-com bubble burst.
Now, if ad exchanges are turning the advertising world upside down, then they’re also going to turn the news and media worlds upside down, too.
So, are ad exchanges changing everything?
Well, according to one of the sessions in the ClickZ track, which was held on August 20, 2007, at Search Engine Strategies San Jose, they are. In fact, the session itself was entitled, “Ad Exchanges are Changing Everything.”
Speakers at the session included Jay Sears, the SVP of Strategic Products and Business Development for ContextWeb; Michael Rubenstein, Vice President & General Manager of DoubleClick, which has been acquired by Google; and Anthony Taylor, Director of Strategic Operations at Yahoo’s Right Media. The only major ad exchange not represented on the panel was AdECN, which was acquired by Microsoft at the beginning of August.
While I should disclose that ContextWeb is a client, it was pretty clear that the ad exchange that generated the most interest at SES San Jose was ContextWeb’s ADSDAQ. Of the 10 questions from the audience during the Q&A part of the session, half were directed to Sears, a couple went to all three panelists, one was directed to Rubenstein, and one was directed to Taylor.
The blog and news coverage of the session also focused on Sears and ADSDAQ. For examples, read the blog post, Ad Exchanges are Changing Everything, by Chris Boggs for Search Engine Roundtable, read the news story, SES: Ad Exchanges Are Changing The Game, by Jason Lee Miller of WebProNews, or watch the video interview, SES San Jose: Jay Sears of ContextWeb on Ad Exchanges, by Abby Prince for the WebProNews Video Blog.
What captured everyone’s attention was ADSDAQ’s ability to turn “the long tail into a clean, well-lit place for advertisers.” This could also shed some light on the blogosphere, which is currently “perceived as a scary place” by many public relations professionals.
Another indication that ad exchanges are changing everything comes from Jack Meyers, the editor and publisher of MediaVillage.com. On September 4, 2007, Meyers wrote:
“ContextWeb’s contextual ad exchange (www.Adsdaq.com) enables buyers to place their web ads in content that is contextually relevant at significant discounts compared to site-specific advertising, while at the same time enabling publishers to generate significant premiums for that inventory. Sound impossible? Not as explained by ContextWeb founder and CEO Anand Subramanian and SVP Strategic Products Jay Sears.”
So, it’s pretty clear why ad guys and online publishers might get all excited by this. But, what does it mean to top bloggers and PR professionals?
Let me try to connect the dots.
According to a study released last month by Fusion PR, 78% of the 1,100 tech reporters surveyed said they read blogs on a regular basis, 67% cite blogs in their articles, and 35% maintain their own blog.
So, whether you’re an ad guy or a PR gal, wouldn’t you love to be able to target these news sites and tech blogs when you launch your next computer or electronics product? And whether you’re an online publisher or a top blogger, wouldn’t you love to be able to charge a premium or demand an exclusive from these marketing geeks when they come a-knocking?
If ad exchanges can do that, then they would change a lot of things. Heck, they might even end up changing everything.
Greg Jarboe is the president and co-founder of SEO-PR, a search engine optimization firm and public relations agency. He is also a frequent speaker at Search Engine Strategies, PubCon, and other industry conferences.
-- Guest Blogger
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