Burst Media’s web site has a new look. Spend a minute with it and our primary business proposition should be clear: we work for quality web publishers that extend deep into the Long Tail. Not just large web sites, but also small web sites, with robust content and well-defined audiences. Thousands of them. Earnest, dedicated publishers that may begin as hobbyists and eventually quit their day job. Small business people with real business requirements, such as reliability, service and results. Experts and enthusiasts, not simply observers and reporters. Mothers, doctors, builders, gamers, movie buffs, travelers, little-leaguers, dieters, humanitarians, vegetarians, programmers, teachers, fellow sufferers, and those who hope for wealth and glory.
Our job is to represent the value of this army of writers and producers to advertisers in a way that makes the opportunity as compelling as any other media opportunity those advertisers could choose in order to achieve their results. We don’t pretend there is a solution for every advertising circumstance, but we insist there is a solution for every advertiser.
Ultimately, we want advertisers to see what’s “new”, in New Media, which is access to a staggering abundance of content that is guaranteed to be of relevant value to everyone on earth at the moment they require. Burst Media and it’s army of publishers will be there, at those moments and in those places, to offer advertisers the chance that has avoided them since people began to leave the farms and villages where they grew-up for the big city: timely, relevant, personal connections that create the new word of mouth in a global village era. It is new media for a new time.
In this week’s Behavioral Insider from MediaPost, the results of some <shameless self promotion warning> Burst Media research on consumers’ concerns about privacy. The “Truman Show” moment is a perfect analogy for when you see an ad that is just a little too relevant, like when Laura Linney turns around and does the product promotion for laundry detergent, and Jim Carrey gives his googly-eyed all.
The key finding from the research is that 80% of people online are concern about their online privacy as it relates to age, gender, income and web surfing habits.
See the research here and subscribe here to future reports.
MediaPost’s “Around The Net” wrap-up alerts us to this lament by Douglas A. McIntyre at Time.com: “Content, Once King, becomes a Pauper.” The upshot is that the recession, but mostly the changing circumstances of digital media economy, have eroded the value of branded media content to such a low level that it may never recover. Even the accountants are piling on, insisting that major media companies write-down their content assets to reflect diminished value.
Yes, it’s true. The value of Time’s content and other mainstream media companies has been seriously diminished by the recession and the steady advance of the digital media economy. But it always strikes me how self-absorbed these expositors are, as if in the absence of value at Time Magazine, the value of content itself shall cease to exist.
It is time to see the value of content differently, and not as Time or many newspaper publishers would want to. The economics of content don’t support the industrial media mills of yesterday – or, frankly, the online portals of today (see also: the history of Yahoo!). The value of content today is in its ability to proliferate and find success in small numbers where advertising can comfortably support the cost to sustain a profitable business.
Burst announced its Custom Network building capabilities this week, powered by our adConductor ad management platform. The announcement is the result of a lot of great work over the past year, when in response to advertiser requests, we created hundreds of Custom Networks, with aggregate reach of over 350 million impressions in the U.S. If we go back over the nearly 14 years of our history as an online ad sales representative the number of Custom Network proposals we’ve created would be thousands upon thousands. Last year’s data should be enough to give everyone the idea, and this announcement of the product is the culmination of a lot of experience and success around these efforts.
Burst Media launched oh those many years ago with the goal of helping advertisers reach the right person in the right place at the right time. Our solution has always been about custom, because it’s always been about helping advertisers reach their best, most important customers and eliminate media waste. The Internet was dominated by a different approach for most of its formative years that addressed the media waste problem another way: it didn’t charge for it. CPA and CPC were cheap (and compelling) alternatives to the work of customizing online media.
One could argue – and I do – that the affect of so much “free” advertising online stemming from CPA and CPC business was lots of advertising waste and message clutter rivaling offline media despite a significantly smaller share of budgets and, as everyone keeps saying, an over-supply of content. The result is that audiences decided some time ago they don’t like online advertising and its impact on the environment, which should never have been the case within this substantial media landscape.
Custom combination of great independent publishers for each media buy aligns perfectly with the value of Internet media, which is its ability to cater to personal interest in timely fashion. What we want, now instead of later. I use the Internet because I can customize it. I can’t customize the Boston Globe. I can’t even get them to stop delivering the Thursday edition, which features Metro West content intended to be more relevant to my interests as a west-of-Boston suburbanite. Most of that content centers on Framingham, the city two towns to the south of where I live. It’s not relevant. I don’t read it. I wish they’d stop delivering it. They force it on me as part of my Sunday subscription, and it’s simply (media) wasteful.
Custom fits with the Internet. It’s the differentiator. I’m glad it’s the first thing we learned how to do at Burst.
Today, we announced that BPA Worldwide has certified our adConductor platform for the ninth consecutive year. As the company has grown in terms of campaigns, publishers, and ads served through our ad server, we have continued to accurately report and manage our systems and our data to ensure that our results are accurate and accounted for. BPA Worldwide is the leader in media auditing, and Burst was the first online ad network to go through BPA’s rigorous auditing process. With this ninth audit we continue to adhere to this important standard to ensure that online advertisers and publishers can work with Burst Media and its divisions with the security of this audit procedure. Additionally, BPA is recognized by the IAB, meaning that Burst is an IAB Measurement Audited ad serving system.
So with all that said, why is auditing so important? As 300 or so ad networks have emerged in the past 4 years, it has become confusing for media buyers to know who to trust. Similarly, adConductor manages online delivery for some large online ad networks that need to trust the systems they use to accurately manage and report on the complex process of distributing online ads for their own ad sellers and buyers. With 10s of billions of ad impressions riding on the adConductor platform, this ongoing recognition that we provide the proper accounting for the transactions that flow through the system helps both ad sellers and ad buyers that work with Burst and adConductor rest easy.
This year, Burst Network has launched 12 vertical networks aimed at specific audiences and topics and 4 publisher-sponsored vertical networks. Our latest, the Kiwibox Teen Network is now ready for advertisers. This network is significant to us for a number of reasons, the most important of which is our partner, Kiwibox.com, one of the coolest sites for teen guys and girls. This site is a classic example of what Burst Media has always stood for, the Independent web publisher. The site is written by teens for teens, so young minds learn how to become journalists, publishers, game creators, and more. Kiwibox provides them the platform and audience. Its a great example how the Internet empowers great minds to collectively create a site.
The Kiwibox Teen Network, available only through Kiwbox and Burst Network, will provide advertisers with access to this audience and 20 other high quality independent web sites like Sidereel and Popdirt in a single aggregated media buy.
With the vertical network craze continuing to appeal to brand advertisers, we think the Kiwibox/Burst connection will be a big hit.
Our CEO, Jarvis Coffin, published a counter-argument to the idea that we will see a massive shakeout of the ad network business. Read the article and let me know what you think. More ad networks or less?
Ad Age recently reported on the Epsilon CMOSurveythat noted a shift in thinking and ad budgets away from traditional media and into digital advertising among large brand CMOs. The study found 60 percent of firms are decreasing traditional media spending, while 66% are increasing their digital media allocation. While the actual dollars may not be a one-to-one trade off, this reallocation of budget exemplifies the strategic role digital advertising will play with large brand owners. Unlike the Internet bubble advertisers flush with VC cash, these are big brands making large budget shifts that will become a permanent part of their media spend.
Brand owners also want wide distribution for their message, which typically means less content integration and “out of box” creative, and far more reach. They also want to drive clicks, actions, and sales to complete the sales process and make the cash register ring. So when these brand owners move online they are not just jumping with their eyes closed. They are testing and learning ways to manage their brand in, for them, a new environment. They seek broad distribution on portals like AOL and Yahoo!, but increasingly see the importance of relevancy in their buys. They work with technically sophisticated ad networks to find the users they believe are most interested in their product. But they want to show that message when the user in engaged in a relevant topic where the ad provides value.
In addition to testing new media distribution options, marketers are making new use of sophisticated, relevant ad creative to move consumers through the purchase funnel. The creative they utilize for upper-funnel activities – brand awareness, favorability, and consideration – includes sponsorships, site takeovers, roadblocks, as well as a liberal use of rich media and content integration to introduce their brand to the audience.
A spectrum of advertisers, three flavors of ad networks
Getting the proper mix of distribution and ground-breaking creative is tricky business. Enter today’s ad networks, broadly defined as companies that represent multiple sites and serve the needs of advertisers. Ad networks fit into three categories: pure brand networks (also known as site rep firms), direct response networks, and networks that can fully serve brand advertisers with both branding objectives and performance goals – let’s call the last type “brand response networks.”
Comparing, and depending on the campaign using, all three requires some definition. On one end of the spectrum lie networks that offer premium content and focused audience composition at high CPMs, but limited distribution and reach. These networks focus on pure brandadvertising, where the brand plays a large role in supporting the content on the site. These networks often own or control the content on the sites they work with, limiting their reach. The other extreme consists of the horizontal ad networks and their exchange partners that flood the market with low priced ad impressions and focus on driving a direct response metric. These are networks that tout the ability to reach nearly all Internet users at some point during the month, and use a mix of tools to reach an advertiser’s performance goal. However, these ad networks are more focused on massive reach than focused targeting or transparency.
Emerging in the marketplace between the brand and direct response extremes are the transparent, vertically focused ad networks that offer reach, direct relationships with publishers and very detailed reporting. The value they offer as brand response networks marries the requirement to distribute and promote the brand, deliver results, and protect the brand asset along the way. Brand response networks narrow distribution to capture the highest composition audience to an advertisers target while still providing reach. They are fully transparent and provide advertisers with a full site list specific to a campaign, site level reporting and work towards a performance goal based on the metrics set by the advertiser. Additionally, brand response networks run on the type of technology platform that provides state of the art targeting options, as well as unique, distributable creative units to get the message noticed.
What’s your brand response sensitivity?
The brand response advertiser walks a very fine line between the brand part of the brain (“I must retain the highest standards of quality no matter what cost”) and the response side of the equation (“We must meet our numbers at all costs”). Both needs of the advertiser are effectively addressed by the brand response networks if they:
Live by metrics. Measurement, as we all know, is the key factor in driving performance. However, advertisers must be certain they are using the correct measure or combination of measures vis-à-vis their campaigns overall objective. Effective campaign measurement can incorporate a host of ROI metrics including CPA, CPL, CTR, eCPM, brand lift, ad recall, interaction time and many others. A brand response network can provide you the metrics you need, not just the one they have for you.
Are fully (and I mean fully) transparent. Most networks will provide you with some form of a site list. But to be truly transparent, the network must provide a site list of the exact placements (to the URL level) for your campaign – not an abbreviated or exhaustive list of where you ad could appear. Additionally, campaign reporting must be to the site level (see previous bullet point) and show you how sites were optimized on and off the campaign. This site level reporting is critical for you to understanding where your campaigns work best and allows you to optimize future media spend.
Excel in customer service. While it is imperative that the first two criteria are met, it is more important that the company serves your brand needs. Getting to the root of a performance issue – be it a creative or placement issue– requires your network rep to be available at all times. If you can’t get them by phone, email, Blackberry, Facebook profile or any other means of communication, you risk your brand’s reputation while trying to track them down.
Do brand response media buys cost more than direct response? Yes, but the value an advertiser receives from the higher CPM on a brand response network offsets the additional price. They provide a closed network of high quality sites, a finely targeted audience, and the reporting and service to back up what they promise to deliver. They cost less than content integration platforms, but more than broad, blunt, blind reach networks. For advertisers balancing the demands for both branding and performance – brand response networks may be the answer. They provide the creative solutions, targeted reach, transparency and reporting that ensure success.
A challenge faced by media planners who work for the studios and production houses is finding the right advertising network for each movie release in a short amount of time. How do they buy media for each release in the time frame they are given, find relevant audiences to advertise these movies to and somehow gain exposure on the more engaging web sites on line?
Today, Burst Media introduces a solution to that problem, with the launch of the Burst Entertainment Network. At 21 million uniques and 70 million monthly impressions, it gets the word out fast to the right consumer. Great not only for films that attract a wide audience such as Superman, Batman, but also for genre-specific movie audiences like romantic comedy lovers, indie film devotees, and X-men fans. This new advertising network provides the most efficient way to reach these target audiences on sites selected based on the genre of the film. Our entertainment network can be quickly sub-divided into four specific genre-centered categories, providing a one-stop shop for advertising new releases online:
Action and Sci-Fi (men 18-34 years)
Kids and Family (women with children in household)
Comedy and Romance (men and women 18-34 years)
Independent (adults 35-54 years)
No more debate over which site or network of sites “might” work for advertising your upcoming movie and game releases. We hope you’ll agree!
It seems like last year’s video buzz has ebbed, and for the moment the spotlight has been directed at behavioral targeting. Behavioral targeting comes in many forms, including but not limited to: 1) the analysis of clickstream behavior through tracking cookies, 2) remarketing to prior visitors of an advertiser or content site, and 3) the inspection of packets to determine where a web user has been based on their ISP connection.
ValueClick and AdBrite have just announced their versions of behavioral targeting at the OMMA Behavioral conference, and plenty of publishers and ad networks are responding to advertiser’s request for behavioral targeting with the hope of securing more ad dollars. The increased interest in behavioral targeting has raised the attention of not only consumers and web privacy advocates, but also legislators on Capitol Hill who are trying to determine where the line should be drawn in regards to tracking web surfing behavior.
Standards for behavioral targeting will undoubtedly be developed –perhaps through industry efforts, rather than government fiat.Addressing the governance issue, however, does not solve a fundamental problem with behavioral targeting: its reliance on historical behavior data to predict current consumer interest. Firms like NebuAd and Phorm view the clickstream behavior of a user as they surf from home, which allows them to extrapolate where the user has been and how recently they have been there. ValueClick’s new offer has the ability to predict what a customer may want, but not on the basis of what page they’re on at that moment. Because these campaigns are run broadly across networks, portals, and social media sites, they lack relevancy and content.
One of the advantages that ad networks like Burst Media have is that we represent publisher content. Our network is comprised of high quality, interest-based web sites in the mid- and long-tail of the Internet. This is the content that internet consumers search for, bookmark and invest in with their time and attention.Consider the fact that comScore Media Metrix’s June data release reported that the average time spent per visit to a search engine was 1.8 minutes, as opposed to the 5.5 minutes spent on a hobby site, or 4.4 minutes spent on travel information sites. It is clear where internet consumers are spending their time.
Placing a behaviorally targeted campaign next to specific content means an ad is viewed in a relevant environment to the consumer. An ad for a destination like Bermuda is appropriate if the visitor, having previously visited a booking engine and a Bermuda Tourism site, then sees the ad promoting a hotel or attraction on a sports site. Consumers engaged and invested in that environment view the ad in content they eagerly seek out, they care about, and most importantly, they trust.They are more receptive to the content, and likewise to the advertiser. What better place for an advertiser’s message?
Increasingly, high quality specialty content web sites allow for a degree of behavioral “hyper-targeting”.This type of targeting marries content targeting with behavioral targeting and allows advertisers to deliver a highly focused message in extremely focused content.An example of behavioral “hyper targeting” would be a tourist board that targets active travel researchers by placing an ad on travel sites and booking engines. The impact? Behavior + content = results.
Posted by Jarvis Coffin 
Posted by David Cooperstein 
Posted by Jarvis Coffin 
. As the company has grown in terms of campaigns, publishers, and ads served through our ad server, we have continued to accurately report and manage our systems and our data to ensure that our results are accurate and accounted for. BPA Worldwide is the leader in media auditing, and 
