Industry experts speak about the fundamentals that underpin ad operations.

Wednesday, 13 August 2008

Matt O’Neil of Admonster, Robin Wong from Agency Republic and Eyeblaster’s Anant Joshi bestowed the packed room of ad op staff with informative tips and discussed the next steps for the ad operations industry.

Sandwiches in hand, Guy Phillipson introduced the event, giving a layman’s overview of all things pertinent about ad ops. “We are still in an archaic stage with fax machines delivering ad-op bookings”, said Guy. Digital methods are here which; “make trading simpler, quicker and more efficient”. But these can put much strain upon publishers having to login into maybe five different trading systems. Guy proposed the “need for standards between systems to transfer campaign data more easily”.

Outlining the strong performance of online display advertising in 2007’s PwC adspend study, Guy explained that although we’re in turbulent times with a recession looming, online advertising is far from leveling out. We’ll be seeing adspend reach “4 to 5 billion before petering out” and in the coming years, “there’s still a long way to go in search, in video”, he explained.

Late creative was another much discussed issue. “Creative agencies deliver late, as advertisers make last ditch changes” said Guy. Creative agencies should be aware that inventory is limited, and “if creative is late, it is increasingly difficult to find spare inventory and so campaigns suffer”. The late creative policy available here outlines the standards creative agencies and publishers should adhere to.

An audience member asked for reiteration about the difference between the terms ‘discrepancy’ and ‘under delivery’. Jack Wallington, IAB programmes manager explained that when an ad is delivered it is measured by the publisher and ad server separately, sometimes causing them to reach different measurement points, therefore a discrepancy occurs. So reconciliation between the two parties’ data needs to take place to measure whether or not under delivery has occurred.

Our next speaker, Matt O’Neil from AdMonsters spoke impassionately about the economic threat as “a great chance to look over the challenges you’ve had, allowing you to re-strategise and regroup your team”. The necessity for sufficient inventory is another component that requires attention when “70% of all inventory will be social media by 2012” said O’Neil. Standardised measurability is anther area in need of improvement as well as the “lack of experienced staff”. “With video predicted to rise 280% by 2010”, investment in ad operations staff is paramount in maintaining a healthy industry.

Agency Republic’s Robin Wong discussed ad operations from an agency perspective. Communication was a strong theme to Robin’s presentation, “there needs to be more between client ad ops, agencies, media buyers, publishers and ad serving companies” said Robin. The industry is still in an infantile condition, “there’s a lot of ground to be covered in terms of opportunity, and we’ll get there faster if we talk more…there could be a lot more exciting ways to grab peoples’ attention in the future if this gap were bridged”.

The final speaker of the seminar was Anant Joshi of Eyeblaster. He showcased their new HD video facility that works in mid-page-units (MPU), and said that no matter the strength of the users’ internet bandwidth an “ad will be delivered whatever”. Anant also showcased Eyeblaster’s new site titled the ‘Creative zone’ where you can catch up with all their previous campaigns there’ve worked on, it’s a great resource for ideas.

The event flagged up many concerns the speakers had about the industry: A more uniformed base of procedures between ad operations needs to be achieved, personnel are required for the future, and standards need to be established. The existing economy presents companies in ad operations the ideal time to re-group and look to the future.