Third-Party Data Gaining Ground

Posted on May 16, 2013 by admin

Advertisers’ use of outsourced data to help target consumer segments is increasing dramatically

Data is used for everything, from predicting presidential elections to figuring out Lebron James’ shooting percentage. And the ever-increasing influence of data is granting it an increasingly vital role in several industries and applications, with advertising at the top of the list.

Nearly every online advertiser is using audience targeting to create more efficient campaigns, and that requires Big Data—and the more data, the better. But when internal data plus whatever can be gleaned from the supply side isn’t enough, brands are looking outside these boundaries for external customer insights.

TubeMogul, an online video brand advertising firm, found that 70.9% of marketers operating in the organization’s platform utilized third-party data in their targeting mix, which is more than double the number from last year. This increased use of data is being driven by results: TubeMogul reports that viewers of an audience-targeted video spot voiced an intent to purchase that was 3.2% higher than that of a control group that didn’t see the targeted ad.

Right Media Enhances Click URL Targeting

Posted on May 10, 2013 by admin

Click URL Targeting enables publishers to easily manage creatives that are served on their sites

Continuing with Right Media’s efforts to provide publishers with more control of the creatives that appear on their sites, we’re pleased to announce the updated functionality of Click URL Targeting. This new capability enhances Right Media’s Competitive Exclusion feature, which enables publishers to specifically identify and exclude creatives that carry click URLs leading to competing sites.

In conjunction with this launch, Competitive Exclusion has been folded into a new “Click URL Targeting” feature that offers the following capabilities:

Continue to efficiently define and manage lists of click URLs to prevent creatives that lead to competitive domains from being shown on their sites.
Set up a whitelist to specifically allow creatives that carry approved click URL domains.
Bulk upload of click URLs and associated adjustments.
Ability to maintain separate set-ups for hosted and RTB demand channels.

Right Media Team on Display: Q&A with Shoen Yang

Posted on May 1, 2013 by admin

Our Director of Professional Services provides insights into today’s most pressing advertiser challenges

Editor’s Note: Shoen Yang oversees the development, sales and execution of custom advertising platform solutions. She focuses on strategic partnerships with large global marketers, packaging technology with consultative or fully managed services. Across her digital media career, she has led revenue and client-service efforts on both the agency and ad network sides of the industry. Shoen recently spoke with the Blog about what she sees as the key advertiser innovations that are just around the corner.

Right Media Blog: What are the biggest challenges or trends facing brand advertisers today, and how is Right Media helping to meet these challenges?

Shoen Yang: Ad tech/programmatic/RTB is a difficult space to understand. There’s a lot of smoke and mirrors with business models and products, algorithms that all sound the same, and technology that changes every quarter (and has a new acronym attached to it). We’re also not seeing the consolidation that everyone predicted.

Programmatic Gains Steam among Premium Publishers

Posted on April 25, 2013 by admin

Automated ad-buying picks up among some of the most noteworthy publishers in the arena

Without question, the ever-widening participation of buyers and sellers in programmatic trading has bolstered the power and influence of ad exchanges. Yet, one industry group has shown a hesitancy to jump in with both feet: premium publishers.

Some of the biggest names in publishing haven’t fully embraced programmatic—seemingly holding out over reservations about quality or the ad-buying format itself. But as programmatic continues to make inroads in the advertising community, many high-profile publishers are rethinking their positions.

Forbes, NYT Warm up to Programmatic
In a sign that programmatic is building some cache with big-name publishers, an official for one of the premier online publications recently made its support for real-time bidding and automated ad-buying known. Speaking with MediaPost, Mark Howard, Senior Vice President of digital advertising strategy at Forbes Media, reasoned that changing needs and an evolving digital marketing landscape necessitate that the magazine balance its traditional approach with more programmatic-tilted strategies.

Big Data to the Rescue

Posted on April 23, 2013 by admin

While a few might grumble about RTB negatively affecting ad quality, experts disagree and point to Big Data strategies as the solution

Real-time bidding and programmatic trading have been widely lauded for extending the ability to automate the ad-buying process. But while the technology has been a boon for publishers, buyers and creatives alike, some say that it may be impacting the quality of the ads themselves.

However, many other experts have expressed the opposite viewpoint: That Big Data is the solution for not only increasing relevancy, but also for raising user and creative satisfaction with ad quality.

Does the Accelerated Nature of RTB Negatively Impact Ad Quality?
According to a panel discussion on RTB and ad quality reported on by MediaPost, the answer to this question is no. In a post for the site, Cory Treffiletti describes the concern that real-time advertising hampers the ability to deliver high-quality campaigns, because the creative process necessitates advertisers taking their time in creating brand messages that resonate with viewers and impart a storytelling vibe.

Ad:tech San Francisco Recap

Posted on April 19, 2013 by admin

A look back at three busy days for Right Media and the rest of the online ad industry

Scores of digital advertising professionals descended on San Francisco last week for the annual ad:tech SF conference and expo, and the heat generated by the show transcended the bay area’s typical cool weather. The Right Media team was out in force, holding dozens of great meetings with current and prospective partners in our meeting rooms.

We started the week with some schmoozing: The Right Media Mixer, a well attended cocktail party at the W Hotel, saw hundreds of attendees getting insights from our executives and teams and offering their own perspectives back to our open ears.

Also held on Monday the 8th was AdExchanger’s one-day Programmatic I/O conference, where speakers opined that automated ad buying is reaching a tipping point less than 10 years after it began. AOL’s Ned Brody predicted that in the near future the ad industry will consolidate and offer publishers fewer, but easier choices—a one-stop shop that would provide all the services currently offered by a multitude of platforms.

Is Local Programmatic the Next Big Thing in Digital Advertising?

Posted on April 16, 2013 by admin

Two high-flying rockets in the digital advertising universe—local and programmatic—are getting advertisers talking

Real-time bidding and programmatic trading aren’t the only rising stars in the world of advertising. Assisted by the explosion of mobile strategies, local-based campaigns are increasingly getting marketers’ attention, due to their ability to resonate with geo-targeted consumers.

This is backed up by new forecasts that have hinted that local advertising will prove to be a valuable revenue-generator for publishers and become more ingrained in the overall marketing world by way of local-orientated digital strategies.

So the question arises: What does the future hold for local automated ad-buying? Many experts believe that the two trends will conflate at some point, but still up for debate is at what point this occurs and to what extent.

Read More →

The Price is Right

Posted on April 11, 2013 by admin

Case Study: Creafi sees a 5X lift in eCPM with the help of Right Media’s Reserve Price enhancements

Whether it’s an airline ticket, a bunch of bananas or an ad impression on a website, when you sell a “perishable commodity” with a limited lifespan, you want to get the most value possible—but you also want to make sure it sells before its value falls to zero. Having pricing flexibility, in conjunction with lots and lots of data about the marketplace and its buyers, goes a long way toward ensuring that a seller isn’t throwing out spoiled fruit or seeing web pages with house ads.

This was top-of-mind for ad network Creafi when it agreed to participate in the pilot launch of new Reserve Price enhancements from Right Media. With these new price controls, Creafi was able to filter out lower-quality campaigns to increase CPMs for its publishers.

The Challenge
Creafi was born in 2005 as an advertising brokerage for financial clients, and since has evolved into a transparent network that helps publishers book premium campaigns from global agencies. The firm began working with Right Media in 2006. “Right Media offers fantastic reach for advertisers,” says Tom Horsey, Co-Founder of Creafi Online Media. “And one thing we really love is that it allows high fill rates for publishers across all geographies, not just in ‘premium’ territories.”

RTB en Fuego with Latinos

Posted on April 9, 2013 by admin

Programmatic buying is becoming more important in marketing digitally to the Hispanic market

The Hispanic population of the United States has been rapidly increasing for decades, but it’s only been in recent years that marketers have truly recognized its buying power. We’re seeing that in the rising number of ads targeting this burgeoning market. However, due to both its size and breadth, it can be a tough one to crack.

One emerging method for solving how to best to engage and reach that market is programmatic ad buying. The automated ad-buying structure has received plaudits from all corners of advertising, but only now is becoming the answer to the question of how best to resonate with the Hispanic market, according to a couple of industry experts.

Hispanics are Responsive to Online Ads
When talking about programmatic and its potential influence on the Hispanic market, it’s important to note that such consumers have already been shown to be highly engaged and responsive to online advertising. In a 2012 study on digital Hispanic consumer behavior by Terra and comScore, 36% of Hispanic respondents said they usually remembered the brands they saw on digital adverts across all devices, compared to 20% of non-Hispanic respondents who said the same.

Connect with Right Media at ad:tech SF

Posted on April 5, 2013 by admin

Come to our Mixer on Monday night to kick off the conference right

President William Howard Taft called San Francisco “The city that knows how.” And among many others, one thing it knows how to do is throw a great digital marketing conference.

We’re talking, of course, about ad:tech, and the show returns to The City by the Bay next week—Tuesday and Wednesday, to be precise. Many of our blog readers probably already have plans to attend, but if you are having some indecision, perhaps this will sway you: Right Media has a limited number of free passes we can give away. These comps will allow access to both the exhibits and keynote address (does not include other conference sessions). If you’re interested, go to this registration page and enter the code SF13EX159C when prompted for an Expo + Keynote pass.

Right Media will be out in force at ad:tech, including hosting meeting space at Alcoves 3 and 4, on the left side of the hall right across from the Mobile Marketing Zone. We’d love to talk with you or answer any questions you have about Right Media, so please pay us a visit.