What I *Started To* Say at OMMA Global*

Last week at OMMA Global, I was a panelist on "Can Publishers Play the New Data Game? Peril and Profits in Sharing Your Audience’s Behaviors". As there were four other gentlemen on the panel discussing a topic that can go in lots of different directions, and only 30 minutes of actual discussion before Q&A, I wasn’t able to fully explain a statement I made in the beginning. It was this: “Publishers don't always realize the goldmine of data they're sitting on”. I’ll expand below.

1. Publishers are the origination point for audiences based on their content and environment – always have and always will be. Audience-based buying is a growing trend. Publishers have an incredible opportunity ahead of them to complement their core, content-based selling proposition by leveraging their data (which informs audience targeting and buying) in the right way.
2. Using their proprietary data for better targeting on-site is a first step. On the panel, Yahoo!’s Ramsey McGrory hit the nail on the head with a real world example of how that works: depending on who you are, you will get a different ad on the homepage of Yahoo! (arguably one of their most premium placements). This is powered by data, both proprietary and potentially via third parties. Several companies and moving aggressively into this space to bring data-driven, on-site targeting to publishers.
3. Proprietary data can also be used to drive different/larger packages for advertisers off-site. At Undertone we have been championing the concept of Audience Extension (U360) for a year now. Undertone publishers are leveraging their audience data to create more high-value inventory during periods of sell-out, submitting for larger RFPs and a host of ways that ultimately drive significant revenue.

Numbers two and three leverage an asset that is second only to content and environment for a publisher: their audience. The opportunities for publishers are significant and I believe we’ll see evidence of that as the ad tech landscape evolves.

*credit to Mark Suster for the title

No Consolidation Yet

Terry Kawaja of LUMA Partners released his new version of the industry eye chart display advertising technology landscape. I re-tweeted it and several others chimed in, with the usual comments that it is confusing still and that consolidation is coming.

Last week on the way into work, I did a quick comparison between the old chart and the new one. If inclusion on Terry's chart is any kind of proxy for the industry (and I believe it is since previously it included companies that had a minimum amount of VC funding) things are moving in the opposite direction of consolidation.

Take a look at the images below. I counted 21 additions on the "new" version and 8 subtractions on the "old" one, with one or two moves within the bubbles. That's a net positive in terms of entrants to the chart of 13. Also interesting is that several of the deletions are companies we all know have not been "consolidated": namely, Expedia and eBay (definitely not!).

So while we continue to call for consolidation it continues to move in the other direction. Which means that publishers and advertisers are still going to have to sift through a myriad of choices to determine the right partner for them and other implications.

One other interesting thing that my eye was obviously drawn to was the DSP/Ad Network space. The biggest change to these bubbles over the past few months was not acknowledged by Terry, in that there are several in the Network space that are absolutely calling themselves DSPs and not networks anymore. That would be a suggestion to make the chart more accurate moving forward.

Compare the old eye chart with the new one.