Hyper(Ad Network)Tension
November 29th, 2010 § Leave a Comment
Tension follows the ad network model like a bad penny, doesn’t it?
Erick Schonfeld’s “deep dive” at TechCrunch into Demand Side Platforms (DSPs), and particularly the relationship between Google and Publicis’s VivaKi unit illustrates it again: where the ad network model goes, tension goes with it. One might start to think, what’s wrong with this picture?
The short answer is a lack of transparency. In the desert south west, guides will tell you not to stick your hand where you can’t see it lest you be bitten by a poisonous snake. The warning is enough to make you tense for the duration of any walk, despite keeping your hands in your pocket. A lack of transparency is a fearful thing.
Unless you‘re Gavin Dunaway. Over at Adotas, he vigorously rebuts Schonfeld’s commentary in a piece that says – basically – get over it. Writes Gavin:
“Sure, you can complain about a lack of transparency in the buying process, but do advertisers really care about all the nitty gritty details? If their campaigns aren’t showing results, advertisers will move on.”
That’s a very good question. How much do advertisers care about “nitty gritty details”? Of course, if their campaigns aren’t showing results, what’s to blame: the details, or the lack of details? And which details specifically: buying details or creative details?
Home is where the details are, so is it a creative business (therefore advertisers care about creative details) or a buying business (therefore advertisers care about media buying details)?
Gavin implies it’s still a creative business. The “nitty gritty” details of media are what they’ve always been: the brief thirty minutes that follow hours with the client discussing advertising creative and strategy.
This is the problem with supposing that new media is the new creative. We don’t want to agonize over media. It is why the ad network model has persisted, for the most part, in its “don’t ask, don’t tell” form. It doesn’t confront the world with the details, except, occasionally, when things go boom.
Notes Kurt Unkel, VivaKi’s Senior Vice President, who is quoted in both stories:
“We used to have a reliance on intermediaries who gave the appearance [emphasis added] of adding value. They were able to take on risk and remove complexity. I now can create that in house, and don’t have to pay as much.”
He gives the appearance that nothing much has changed, except the actors. Not surprisingly, the tension remains.
