The IAB’s Long Tail Alliance Fly-in

Over 40 web publishers showed-up in Washington, D.C. this week for the IAB’s second annual Long Tail Alliance Fly-in. Participants spent a day and a half comparing notes and taking their case for prudence to Congress when it comes to privacy legislation. These publishers were reflective of the vast majority of Internet content-producers who are small independent businesses that depend on the well-reasoned working of the advertising business online to support their enterprise and passion.

I’ve consumed my fair share of chardonnay and shrimp canapés as a frequent Internet conference attendee hanging-out in proximity to the beautiful people of the Short Tail. Long Tail people, I can report, are their equal when it comes to networking with a glass in one hand. And in this case, the canapés – avocado and crabmeat, and other stuff I can’t remember – weren’t bad either thanks to Google, which hosted dinner at their place in Washington. They have a very nice penthouse office suitable for entertaining (government officials).

The conversation among Long Tail publishers is a highly saturated version of what you’d get milling around the carving station at Short Tail events where the conversation mostly grazes the surface: “Oh yes. Fun. We should talk about that. Call me when you’re back on the West Coast.” In comparison, one of the Long Tail publishers at the Fly-in was persuaded to host an impromptu seminar back at the hotel on how to sell advertising directly to clients as a publisher. By the end of the first night it was my impression everyone knew exactly how much money everyone was making this year.

Long Tail publishers do not live in a highly compartmentalized world. There are no Vice Presidents of Business Development. Long Tail publishers are the Manager and the Employee and, pursuant to our world, they are content experts. Not simply experts at coding and posting content (which is to say, experts at how the World Wide Web actually works), but experts in regards to what their users want. They are rabid about what their users want. I sat next to a long-time customer of Burst Media who enables a considerable amount of automotive e-commerce across her web site. “Do you take a fee on those transactions”, I asked? “I don’t take anything from my users,” she answered.

Right. Of course not.

The Short Tail world is up in arms about ad networks and exchanges. Here’s a tip: hire a couple of Long Tail-ers as consultants. Long Tail people know ad networks. Most of them don’t have the luxury of considering life without them, and they’ve learned which ones can be relied upon and which ones can’t. They can walk you through the network user interfaces, payment schedules, contract terms, ad quality, fill-rate, chances of ever reaching a human being by telephone, eating disorders, favorite movies – all of it. Most of them have the networks chained in a pen in the yard where they can look securely on them while working in their home offices and, as required, lean out the window to yell, “Hey! Shut your yaps!”

It’s the blessed lack of pretense that pervades a Long Tail Fly-in and reminds you that – actually – you may be back in Kansas.  And, if there’s been anything about new media more compelling (or more disruptive) than its sheer diversity, it’s been the lack of pretense compared to traditional media – which for marketers trying to align their brands with substance may be something to keep in mind.

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