The Online Publishers Association vs. the Internet: next steps.

Over at the Big Picture blog, Daniel Taylor comments on the inquiry into the indifference of the OPA to the rest of the Internet world. Basically, he asks, what’s the rest of the Internet planning to do about it?

Good question.

It may interest him to know that a few years ago a group of us did, in fact, think about founding a separate trade association to represent the interests of, as he says, “the little guys.” (I used to hate that term because it’s not accurate in regards to many, many web sites out there; but now I’ve grown to like it. There’s something appealing about being on the side of the little guys, even when they might be big.) We were drivers of that initiative at Burst, but then we moved on to other things, and it lost its energy.

Daniel is right, however, it was bound to happen and we did see it coming when we tried to organize. Large publishers would have found a third-party to substantiate their “superior” claims vs. the rest of the marketplace. As I said in the Ad Age piece, these sorts of studies are instruments of state propaganda. We get it. So, logically, next we’re going to rally to produce a study that challenges the OPA claims, and we can have a fair fight back and forth.

Some of the first people we may call to work with us on that study are OPA dues-paying supporters ($5,250 annually), many of which – interestingly – are ad networks: 24/7 Real Media, Collective Media and Tremor Media, for example, along with other ad network enablers such as Ad Meld, PubMatic and Rubicon. Many of those, and many others, celebrate the fact that their networks are rich in OPA member inventory, which explains why they are OPA supporters. We work with Rubicon. We also work with Short Tail Media, another OPA supporter, which is a customer of Burst’s adConductor platform and launched with the intention to help OPA members kick the ad network habit by being the partner of choice for the OPA. We’re rooting for them, naturally.

For starters, as we design our study, we’ll want to understand the implications of the OPA study as it pertains to the value of the inventory they re-purpose through their ad network supporters. Most of those networks bill it as “premium” inventory, but it is probably regarded as scrap, or remnant, by the members themselves. Keeping things apples to apples, our study will want to strictly compare the value of the proprietary inventory of vertical niche web sites to the proprietary inventory of the OPA’s members and not – thank you very much - to the remnant stuff they send to ad networks and which they’ve just shot to hell with their study.

I am confident of the results of our study. It won’t be a hatchet job on branded web sites, however. We expect to be able to show that the abiding relationship audiences have with online media, that is of premium value to advertisers, is derived substantially from relevant and timely content. We expect to show, further, that it does not grow on trees; rather, it comes from publishers that know and care. In the end, we will show that there are many, many, many who know and care online, even some of those at OPA web sites for whom it’s just a job.

More on the Online Publishers Association’s recent “Content” study

Advertising Age featured more of my comments about the recent OPA study that sought to invalidate the broader Internet for brand advertising.

Additional coverage on the OPA report (“OPA Trashes Ad Networks…badly”) at Chief Marketer.com

Can the Online Publishers Association learn how to share value?

The Online Publishers Association(OPA) and comScore are hitting the road with a study about the ability of display advertising to support brands online. Excellent news.

The report in Mediaweek talking about the study takes a shot at ad networks – “Perhaps not surprisingly, besides defend display ads, the report also touts the power of branded content sites (rather than say, ad networks” - but we feel fine about that and are inclined to agree that not enough networks do enough to sell the value of content online. Most of them can’t, because they don’t work transparently with their publishers, which makes it hard to extol the virtues of place and position and content quality – all the things, frankly, that attract users.

That said, the OPA remains an emblem of one of the Great Barriers to advertising progress online. As an entity, it is informed by the right instincts and sells the right things online – notably, the important value of content - but it feels it must contest the ability of anything besides the large, branded media members it represents to create that value. That is preposterous. It is like anyone contesting the wisdom of self-government. Really. If, instead, the OPA or its members - as experienced advocates - could embrace the audience engagement created by the thousands of niche publishers that, in fact, make up most of the Internet, then the OPA could do a great service, and play a larger role, as an advocate of the value of online overall – and value might, after all, see daylight online. It has a clear advantage over the IAB in this regard, which has had to pick its way through all manner of sellers and agents, many of which got rich doing end-runs around value.

You see our problem. One trade group is conflicted. The other trade group is conflicted.

It’s a pickle.

New media for a new time.

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.

Enjoy it.

If the Content Matters, So Does the Advertising

PaidContent reports today on the results of research by Addvantage Media for YouGov that people don’t pay much attention to advertising online on large general interest sites. Only 12% of web users pay attention to ads on large web site. However, the power of interest-based long tail publishers is much stronger.  According to the report, 73% of users say they pay attention to the ads on specialty sites. A stark contrast.