The need for 'blind' Exchange Buys - in a Secondary Global Marketplace
Apr. 18, 2011 2:13 AM ET1 Comment
LookingConfident's Blog
84 Followers
Please Note: Blog posts are not selected, edited or screened by Seeking Alpha editors.
Seeking Alpha Analyst Since 2006
Longstanding investor in Looksmart (and a 70 yr old ex-tradesman), who has a passionate interest in the problems of newspapers along with their success in all their monetisation attempts made, on the web. For the "times are indeed, a changin", I feel.
[17th of Aug, 2011 - Print media (sadly), has lost a sense of that preponderance it once held in our society. There is hope. - But it needs a fundamental change in that ingrained culture that has been the way, of the past.
Please read the article linked below (and especially all the 'free' user comment), that has also been added today.]
And, history will soon show that ACAP (the, Automated Content Access Protocol), that I have been so "passionate" about in many a post made everywhere over the past few years, will not only become a part of our every-day lives, but will be fiercely-enforced along the way...And rightly so...
Where your "free" (Local) "rag", may well even survive and become (as was also predicted by myself back in 2005). the very "lynch pin" between local business and the web!
:)
And it seems that Europe will lead the way....It's a lengthy read, that some will find is well worth-while to do so.
"Publishers demand IP Rights To Protect Journalism"
Cheers!!
Added August 16th, 2011 - "Newspapers Need a DNA Transplant"
http://www.editorandpublisher.com/Newsletter/Article/Newspapers-Need-a-DNA-Transplant
March 6th, 2012 - "Newspapers: It’s not a revenue problem, it’s a culture problem"
http://gigaom.com/2012/03/05/newspapers-its-not-a-revenue-problem-its-a-culture-problem/
“Publishers need to think how that [their] brand lives on the Web" - http://www.digiday.com/publishing/in-turnabout-publishers-act-like-marketers/
Rupert Murdoch: The future of newspapers is all digital http://dlvr.it/1V8dPY
New Orleans, newspapers and the beginning of the end
By Mathew Ingram May. 25, 2012
http://gigaom.com/2012/05/25/new-orleans-newspapers-and-the-beginning-of-the-end/
Friday Sep 21, 2012, 11:22pm EDT
LOOK: $0.89 Up 0.08 (+10.53%) 4:00PM EDT|After Hours : 0.89 Up 0.00 (0.03%) 4:09PM EDT
Two excellent articles I've just read (I feel) encapsulate this lon 'drawn out' road to come up with a solution that becomes, the 'intersection of search and display'.
Read on....
"Do you hear that rumble in the distance? It’s change coming. What sort of change, you ask? Well, the events of the last few weeks collectively point to a pretty big shift in the search landscape.
First, has traditional search engine usage reached its peak?
When people skip over a search engine and go straight to Amazon for product search, it’s clear that either Amazon is doing something very right, or search engines need to improve their results. Changes to Google Shopping may help improve the experience for users, but is it too little too late?"
http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/183511/the-future-of-search.html
Then....
"Google News, its executives tell me, now "algorithmically harvests" articles from more than 50,000 news sources across 72 editions and 30 languages.
And Google News-powered results, Google says, are viewed by about 1 billion unique users a week. (Yep, that's billion with a b.) Which translates, for news outlets overall, to more than 4 billion clicks each month: 1 billion from Google News itself and an additional 3 billion from web search.
As a Google representative put it, "That's about 100,000 business opportunities we provide publishers every minute."
http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2012/09/google-news-at-10-how-the-algorithm-won-over-the-news-industry/262641/
It's been an amazing story all the way. With LUMA Partners publishing it's LUMAscapes that map over 1,500 companies across seven sub-sectors of digital:companies saying, that within the circles alone [they] represent approximately $3 trillion of market capitalization and $450 billion of cash and securities. - http://www.lumapartners.com/the-strategic-buyer-lumascape/
Where do they start to rein-in some of that invested capital? My thoughts are contained in the following two links: https://www.facebook.com/ross.bradley.18/posts/10151231209526605
http://seekingalpha.com/instablog/36191-lookingconfident/932031-an-rtb-global-open-marketplace-handling-up-to-100-billion-events-per-day?source=kizur#comment_update_link
In an interview - - [If You're A Publisher Today, What Are Your Data And Ad Exchange Strategies? - @ adexchanger.com today] - Scott Knoll, President of Datran Media’s Aperture business uses what I believe are (old) "Time" magazine 'values' (in a 'new' digital world), - when partly answering the question as put to him.
But is he correct in all he assumes and says?
"For a publisher, once a critical mass of inventory is available - which has already happened - then you almost have no choice, because exchanges have created all kinds of efficiencies for media buyers - [and,] if you don't participate you're going to miss out on a lot of dollars in the marketplace.
.......The main reason that we have seen a proliferation in exchanges is because there is, first of all, much more supply than demand & as long as there's more supply than demand, you're always going to have remnant inventory and pressure to try to figure out a way to sell it."
A definite "yea" in agreeance with Scott - - - for his 1st paragraph but a resounding NO for his second line of thought, I'd say.There's no disputing the many millions of potential monetisable pages (of inventory) that's becoming available & being published on the web, daily.
But an (that's any) impression - only becomes an impression when a user visits that page and not (ever) before, his or, her doing so. Millions of published pages get to generate 'zero' revenues as a consequence. (Generally speaking, a user is reading just 'one page at a time', no?)
I fully agree that .. 'advertising agencies asks for some sort of audience targeting, and audience targeting is typically defined as someone who is actually in market for some type of product or service.'
I also agree that ... 'it's important for publishers to understand what data will supplement their site and will help them to tell a better story - versus what data [as Scott says], will replace the need for their own - and hijack their audience.'
And it's a completely 'fair' argument Scott puts for when publishers are selling 'direct' (their premium - or, gauranteed inventory) to advertisers and agencies. - Data (from the likes of Aperture) is of most importance at the premium level offer (or, @ a gauranteed impression level), had from Exchanges.
Note of importance: http://bit.ly/gDuijT
Scott then suggests:
Then because there's so much fragmentation on the supply side, on the publisher side - anyone with a website becomes a publisher - – there is no way to get the millions and millions of website owners to act in the best interest of traditional publishers and stop providing impressions to a blind exchange."
Again, that's clearly not the case (as I have hilighted) and it's far from being so. The best interest of publishers would be to have advertisers bidding 'blindly' for targeted 'users' - across the total marketplace.
Surely there is (when the focus is on re-targeting of 'users') ALWAYS (and always will be, I believe), an 'equal' supply, to meet any kind of demand. And at each & every single (individual), impression point.
And if 'traditional publishers were to stop providing impressions to a blind exchange' (being those that are operating in what clearly is an indisputable global marketplace), how do the smaller publishers get to see revenues generated from users - who are coming to them from all corners of or, across the entire web?
The very need for a 'secondary' (or, global remnant), marketplace, no?
Aperture claims expertise in Audience targeting and retargeting:
'Aperture [ ..who have previously advised that they - - 'pull data from offline giants like Experian, Acxiom, and Nielsen’s Claritas - - -to form detailed portraits of individuals on the web, and - - then combines that with Datran’s massive database of e-‐mail addresses], opens the door to your ideal customers, serving the ads they want to see based on what we know they're interested in.'
www.datranmedia.com/aperture/targeting/
< The combination of Aperture's innovative targeting technology with verified household data means you'll never have another wasted impression.
- Aperture is the only advertising solution that uses verified household demographic information to precisely target banner ads online and report on the ads' audience AND responders.
- Retargeting capabilities bring customers back to your site with an added level of insight into their attributes.>
The targeting of them across the full (Premium) marketplace (instead of selecting out individual Premium sites, such as Time.com), should be the true focus. - - You get to target premium users across the full premium level no matter where they may appear.
Bids (starting with that agreed and a 'set' minimum base price), will then, always be determined by market forces.
There's no doubt that the likes of a Time.com can get & do get to sell their own (and the much more treasured), 'certain' inventory, as many would currently be doing so. --- But a marketplace on a global scale makes that just a tad more difficult to do so - for so many of the smaller (quality), premium publisher site players.
On April 8th, 2010 it was once again suggested in a post, that:
........In keeping the RTB (secondary) marketplace "free" of "BT", the compromise would then be, that the use of "BT" and all it's (many and varied) analytical interpretations, could be then used (only), in a direct (or, single) buy with a/any participating site/s & may well be a solution? With NO targeting (at all), to be enacted within that secondary (remnant) marketplace?
seekingalpha.com/instablog/36191-looking...
[ That's apart from Looksmart and across the/it's total marketplace with performance marketing and specifically, with retargeting/CPAs - - now likely being, an exciting prospect. seekingalpha.com/user/36191/instablog/se...]
Where a 'one-fits-all' DATA is provided, for optimum buy/sell results.
As always, just an opinion.
LC
ps; LookSmart Announces Appointment of Scott Kauffman to Board of Directors - http://tiny.cc/32wm3
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scott_Kauffman
HMMm? - Re: Scott Kauffman
Disclosure: Long LOOK and Happy to be so, too....
.
Seeking Alpha's Disclosure: Past performance is no guarantee of future results. No recommendation or advice is being given as to whether any investment is suitable for a particular investor. Any views or opinions expressed above may not reflect those of Seeking Alpha as a whole. Seeking Alpha is not a licensed securities dealer, broker or US investment adviser or investment bank. Our analysts are third party authors that include both professional investors and individual investors who may not be licensed or certified by any institute or regulatory body.