Executives from ContextWeb’s ADSDAQ Exchange will be attending numerous, upcoming industry events both here in the U.S. and in the United Kingdom - in support of our new UK offices recently opened by ContextWeb’s UK Country Manager Ross Caveille.
May 12-14 - “ThinkTomorrow ~ Today” conference from ThinkPanmure will be held at The Ritz-Carlton in Half Moon Bay, CA. From ContextWeb, Anand Subramanian, CEO, and Jay Sears, SVP of Strategic Products and Business Development will attend. Anand presents ContextWeb at 2:15 p.m. on the 13th which is followed by his participation in a 3:15 panel entitled “David vs. GOOGliath: Next Generation Ad Platforms Speak Out,” moderated by ThinkPanmure analyst, Bill Morrison.
ThinkPanmure’s conference attendee list includes key industry figures such as:
Marc Andreessen (Co-Founder, Ning & Netscape, Founder & Chairman, Opsware)
Wolfgang Büchner - Executive Editor, Spiegel Online
Emily Bell - Director of Digital Content, Guardian News & Media Limited
Saul J. Berman - Global Strategy & Change Services Leader, IBM Global Business Services
Tom Chavez - Founder and CEO, Rapt
Ien Cheng - Publisher and Managing Editor, FT.com
Pete Clifton - Head of Editorial Development, Multi-Media Journalism, BBC
Henrique de Castro - Head of European Sales & Media Solutions, Google EMEA
Dr. Scott Gallacher - Director of Online & Partner Marketing, BSkyB
Curt Hecht - EVP/Chief Digital Officer, Starcom MediaVest Group
Pam Horan - President, Online Publishers Association
Spencer Hyman - COO, Last.fm
Jeff Jarvis - President, Buzzmachine.com
Steve Kaufer - CEO and Founder, TripAdvisor
Doug Knopper - Co-Founder/co-CEO, FreeWheel
Larry Kramer - Senior Advisor, Polaris Venture Partners
Andy Lark - Vice President Global Communications & Marketing, Dell Inc.
Alison Leonard - Head of Digital Solutions, HSBC including First Direct
Caroline Little - CEO and Publisher, Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive
Nils Müller - CEO, TrendONE
David McMurtrie - Optimization Sales Director, International
Tero Ojanperä - Executive Vice President, Entertainment and Communities, Nokia
Simon Pestridge - Marketing Director for Nike UK & Ireland, Nike
Geoff Ramsey - CEO and co-Founder, eMarketer
Mark Read - Director of Strategy, WPP
Dr. Stephan Roppel - CEO, Holtzbrinck eLAB
Douglas Scott - Director of Branded Content and Entertainment, Ogilvy Entertainment
John Squires - Executive Vice President, Time Inc.
Nada Stirratt - Executive VP, Digital Advertising, MTV Networks Digital
Rishad Tobaccowala - CEO, Denuo and Chief Innovation Officer, Publicis Groupe Media
Craig Walmsley - Director of Strategy, AKQA
Larry Weber - Chairman, W2 Group, Inc.
May 18-21 - iMedia Agency Summit Austin- John Ruvolo and Megan Sandahl from ContextWeb’s Sales team will join more than 140 interactive agency leaders at the 4-day summit in Texas. Conference participants include top agency managers such as:
Christian Arens, VP, Director of Digital Strategy, DraftFCB
Rhonda Fortner, Media Director, Saatchi & Saatchi LA
Adam Gordon, Chief Revenue Officer, World Now
Helen Har, VP, Advertising Sales, West, imeem
Carrie Lane, SVP, Online Media Director, U.S. International Media
Hugh McGoran, VP, Eastern Advertising Sales, TACODA, Inc.
John A. Messina, Director of Emerging Advertising Sales, AWS Conergence Technologies
Scott Witt, VP, Creative Director of Media, Denuo + Droga5
John Durham, CEO/Managing Partner
May 19-20 - Pay Per Click Summitwill be held at Marriott San Francisco Airport in Burlingame, CA. Jay Sears, SVP Strategic Products & Business Development, and Karen Trendell, Director Customer Service & Sales, will attend. Mr. Sears presents “Why Content Matters: Content VS Search” on May 19th at the Keynote Lunch starting at 11:45AM. Mrs. Trendell will be present at the exhibit table for both days of the summit.
Register today! ContextWeb and PPC Summit are offering 10% discount code: CONTEXT10. Don’t miss this opportunity to learn about PPC from the experts.
Today, ContextWebannounced the launch of the ADSDAQ Reach Extension Program. This program will enable publishers to access targeted reach on a risk-free, on-demand basis – and most importantly, ContextWeb’s real-time scan of the pages will ensure that this inventory is provided in a brand-safe manner.
The industry trends show that the online user base is getting highly fragmented as users spend more and more of their time on long tail sites. This makes it challenging for marketers since they can no longer access all their potential consumers by going to the lead publishers in their category. Publishers are attempting to solve this problem by building out their own network of sites with content endemic to their brand property (as seen by the launch of Martha’s Circle and Forbes Audience Network). Building their own network is a significant amount of work and effort for publishers and a distraction from their core business of creating great content. To date, companies such as Adify (acquired today by Cox Enterprises) have attempted to meet this need by providing a white-label vertical network infrastructure.
With the ADSDAQ Reach extension program, site publishers now have an out-of-the-box solution to create their own branded network on the Exchange, without all the cost and effort of building and maintaining their own network.
When it comes to the effectiveness of online advertising, most people just think that if an ad for a product or service runs on a page of content directly related to that ad, it will be noticed, read and/or acted upon more than the same ad run in unrelated content, out-of-context; pudding if you will. But how do you prove it?
We started by working with some pros - OTX, a leading global consumer research and consulting firm (http://home.otxresearch.com/) that specializes in measuring and testing the impact of advertising messages on brands. In fact, we have done two, separate industry category studies on the effectiveness of contextual advertising with the folks at OTX; one with a leading personal consumer electronics advertiser and have just completed a second with a leading consumer packaged goods advertiser (Download the PDF).
The results prove what many have thought, but very few have ever tested: context works.
Our study tested the same skin care ad for three separate placements; on a general news page, on a page of content from a general news site specifically about skin care, and finally on a website specifically about skin care. 600 women between the ages of 18-65 saw each ad. The results conclusively show that the ads seen on pages of content directly related to the product produced significantly higher brand recognition for both the product and the advertiser than the ad seen in out-of-context content. (Read the press release here.).
Sometimes some of the most effective solutions in advertising are right in front of us. There certainly are a number of targeting options available for advertisers and their agencies. Geographic, demographic, behavioral, time-of-day are just some of everyone’s favorites. But as audiences continue to pursue their interests out beyond the portals, on the millions of vertical content sites (we like to call that the “Passion Tail“), smart brands will do well to start “in context,” before heading to the pudding.
Attendees from BIMA, and Boston-area agencies such as Media Contacts, caratm Hill Holliday, Holland Mark, Partners + Simons, Mullen, Fulgent and direct advertisers such as TJX, Staples, Fidelity and more discussed the rapidly fragmenting online advertising marketplace and the possible solutions ahead for advertisers in the conference entitled, “Wandering Audience and What Advertisers Can Do About It.”
It was an apropos topic considering the recent discussions in the news media about ad exchanges and networks, brand publishers and advertisers, and the evolution of online media which was covered again yesterday by Jon Fine of BusinessWeek. Mr. Fine paraphrased ContextWeb Board Member, Wenda Harris Millard:
“In an appearance earlier this year she warned traditional media players that if they allow ad networks to mediate the buying of their Web sites’ ads, they run the risk of commoditizing these ads’ value as if they were the media equivalent of “pork bellies.”
If you would like to download a PDF of the presentation, click here.
To view photos of the event, visit our Flickr site here.
The full presentations made by Jay and Steve as well as the Q&A are available here in three parts in video format below: (with MP3 audio-only at the bottom of the page):
Part I
Part II
Part III
To download the audio-only, MP3 file of the presentation, click here.
William Morrison and Robert Coolbrith of ThinkEquity provided a thorough overview of the challenges and opportunities in online advertising as a whole and with advertising exchanges and ad networks, in particular. They closed their presentation with important questions for the marketer. We have those questions available for download here.
Among the most important topics of the day was the “pork bellies” or commoditization issue around ad networks originally raised by ContextWeb Board Member and Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia President of Media, Wenda Harris Millard. Searchblog and Federated Media’s John Battelle has been referencing Wenda lately, too:
The concerns of the brand advertiser are well-founded and one reason the ADSDAQ Exchange provides an excellent fit to many current, brand advertiser clients.
The premium inventory offered to advertisers on ContextWeb’s ADSDAQ Exchange is made available through page-level contextual technology that reads the web page, categorizes it - and if it is not appropriate for our brand advertisers - passes it to the next advertising exchange or ad network in the publisher’s daisy chain. This brand safe environment along with the reach of 93 million+ U.S. uniques (Feb. 2008, ComScore) is a powerful combination required by many brand marketers in the increasingly fragmenting world of online advertising.
For more photos of the “IAB Marketplace: Ad Networks & Xchanges,” visit our Flickr site here.
If you would like to view video of our sales and publisher presentations from the IAB Marketplace, please view the following…
Robert Daniel, SVP of Sales and Publisher Development - the Advertiser presentation
For an MP3 audio only download of Robert’s presentation, click here.
Ryan Becker, VP of Publisher Development - the Publisher presentation
For an MP3 audio only download of Ryan’s presentation, click here.
Last night, John Pavley, CTO of ContextWeb, and Derek Brinkman, VP of Product Development, presented the ADSDAQ Exchange self-service publisher portal at Scott Heiferman’s New York Tech Meetup.
With the able coordination of Dawn Barber from the NY Tech Meetup, John and Derek were pleased to be a part of the jam-packed agenda which included the following exciting, New York-area technology companies and technologists - check ‘em out!
Tonight, John Pavley and Derek Brinkman will be presenting at Scott Heiferman’s New York Tech Meetup where area technology companies demo their new technology. John and Derek will demonstrate the new self-service publisher portal for the ADSDAQ Exchange.
This morning we announce that Michael J. Kelly has joined ContextWeb as a Senior Advisor to the Board of Directors. Mike is the former president of AOL Media Networks and the current Chairman of the Board of Directors of Eyeblaster.
As President of AOL Media Networks from February 2004 until September 2007, Mike was responsible for AOL’s global advertising business, including revenues, product and platform development, and media strategy for all of AOL’s properties, as well as its Advertising.com network. During Mike’s tenure, revenues grew from $600 million in 2003 to over $2.1 Billion in just 3 years.
He also oversaw the acquisition of Advertising.com in 2004, the negotiation of a multi-year, multi-billion dollar contract with Google in 2005, the development of AOL’s network strategy and other acquisitions (such as TACODA, Lightningcast and Third Screen Media) as well as the global expansion of Advertising.com to 11 countries.
The past several years have brought a dramatic shift in the buying and selling of online media. Platforms, publishers and even agencies are acquiring, creating and partnering with ad networks and exchanges to secure their presence in the new industry space.
At the forefront of this revolution is Michael J. Kelly, who in 2004 orchestrated AOL’s acquisition of Advertising.com while serving as the President of AOL Media Networks.
What’s next for ad networks and exchanges? Will media ever become a commodity? Will networks and exchanges remain relegated to non-premium inventory? Will they move out of the interactive space into TV, print and radio? And, amidst all the change, how do you, the marketer, agency or publisher, stay in control?
Michael will address these questions as well as reveal other underlying forces that will no doubt impact your business as this revolution continues.
Yesterday, Search Engine Strategies brought together the three main players in the world of online advertising exchanges - ContextWeb’s ADSDAQ Exchange, Yahoo!’s RightMedia and Google/DoubleClick’s AdX - for a lively discussion on the origins, current state and future of advertising exchanges.
The “Ad Exchanges Are Changing Everything” panel was moderated by Rebecca Lieb, Vice President & Editor-In-Chief of The ClickZ Network, and she was joined by:
The panel came fresh on the heels of ContextWeb’s announcement regarding the ADSDAQ Exchange Agency Trading Desk as detailed in the Wall Street Journal (PDF here) which Jay touches upon in his presentation at SES.
If you would like to download Jay Sears presentation at SES, please click here.
To view the complete video, click the “Play” button on any video below.
Jay Sears of ContextWeb’s ADSDAQ Exchange
Ramsey McGrory of RightMedia
Scott Spencer of DoubleClick
Q&A
To download an MP3 version of the audio, click here.
What has a parent that is seven years old, siblings all across the US and lives in Covent Garden, London?
As of today, ContextWeb’s ADSDAQ Exchange has a footprint in the UK online marketplace. The initial murmurings about the introduction of a highly intuitive, page-level targeting solution that was soon to enter the UK market could be heard in and around St. Albans at the first UK iMedia seminar. One week on and the ripple of activity created at iMedia, and covered by Alan Moore here, now has a physical presence in the form of a UK footprint, the first European office – no doubt with additional markets on the horizon.
I am happy to say that I am enjoying first-hand the experience of this grand opening, albeit a relatively quiet and lonely one given that the office comprises of one . . . for now. With regard to new recruits I hope to be able to double the UK staff level by the end of April, or at least have the new hire and start date in place. What with over 800 contacts from 80+ agencies in the UK, we are hoping to build the team relatively quickly so we can gain a good foothold in the market and provide first-class service to go along with our first-class marketing solution.
Since being exposed to the unique technology behind the ADSDAQ Exchange platform, I can’t help but notice articles and industry trends relevant to contextual targeting . . . a result of my new state of mind and subsequent qualification for relevant content, to be sure. One thing that all analysts agree on is that the marketplace is becoming more fragmented so advertisers are having a tougher time reaching niche target audiences. There is a need for targeting solutions beyond that which is currently universally adopted.
Although in it’s infancy, I have high hopes and aspirations for the UK operation and early feedback from advertisers is welcoming. So, keep an eye out for industry news - and not just about contextual - but about ContextWeb’s ADSDAQ Exchange in the UK.
Jay Sears, SVP of Strategic Products and Business Development at 
