Dump on Ad Networks Day

It was Dump on Ad Networks Day this week at Digital Hollywood, according to reports in Media Post that were picked-up in the IAB’s subscription to SmartBrief. A panel at the show on branded media marketing reportedly jumped on networks for various value infractions. Panelist Jim Heckman, CEO and Founder of 5to1.com, but formerly of Fox Interactive, said that ad networks trade in remnant inventory which “denigrates the brand.”

Anyone expecting a vigorous defense of ad networks in this space will be disappointed. Burst Media has led an uncomfortable existence as a member of the ad network community working substantially in the Long Tail of the Internet where it can act as a primary, not secondary seller of advertising inventory and keep a promise to offer complete, site-by-site, transparent reporting. This requirement – post-campaign, site-by-site reporting – has kept us largely out of the branded publisher space where lack of site-by-site disclosure is the fail-safe device in the uneasy relationship between ad networks and publishers with a salesforce. Disclosure is as much a rule for publishers as it is for advertisers that wish to work with our legacy Burst Network. Publishers must allow us to disclose our business on their site, pre and post- campaign, which means most of the top 100 comScore web sites, the ones that Adify research has documented account for 84% of the inventory of the 10 biggest ad networks, say no thanks.

So, we don’t get too defensive about the mean things that get said about ad networks on panels and in the receptions areas of ad agencies. To the contrary, as far as we’re concerned, it’s all true.

But don’t blame the ad networks. I don’t believe most of the claims of major publishers that have said they don’t work with networks anymore, but if publishers want to fix their value problems that will be the answer. Stop working with all the networks. Stop dumping off the inventory in every direction. Of course, publishers will still need a remnant solution – all businesses have remnant solutions – and it strikes me that exchanges have a capable answer for that combined with the DSPs that are white-labeling most of the in-house networks for ad agencies. Remnant inventory that finds its way into those pipelines is subject to controls that ought to at least make the sales channel conflicts apparent to the publishers. Alternatively, pick an exclusive remnant ad network provider and make it a partnership. Frankly, the audience duplication that currently exists in the market as a result of ad networks (and DSPs be warned) all piling-on the top 100 comScore sites is scandalous. Brands are being deprived of differentiated media strategies. Which means it’s all up to the creative online. 

Great…whither media as the “new creative?”

The ad network business – such as we choose to complain about it – evolved in response to market needs. Markets are perfect that way. Let’s get over it. Markets are constantly changing and today’s market has decided it’s weary of certain ad networks for probably all the right reasons, beginning with the presence of more advertising dollars, which makes both publishers and ad agencies more confident about their prospects. Supply and demand. Presto, change-O. Let’s get over that too.

Be happy, like Jim Heckman who sees the enduring, value-driven outcome that results from people in the media business at work, “on Madison Ave. With cocktails.”

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