On Middlemen: AKQA’s Symonds Discusses The Online Advertising Value Chain

AdExchanger.com recently asked several members of the advertising ecosystem about "Middlemen" and, specifically:

* "Are there too many parties trying to insert themselves into the online advertising value chain? How do you see this playing out?"

The following contribution is an agency perspective from Scott Symonds, General Manager of AKQA Media, Search & Analytics.

Answer: Too many from a capitalist perspective? No. Too many from a usability perspective? Yes.

What do I mean? Working in such proximity to Silicon Valley, I have great opportunity to be impressed with all the technology and entrepreneurialism evolving around the digital marketing ecosystem. First, there were networks and search, and now there are social, mobile, application, exchange, data, location, and verification providers all looking to insert themselves in the online advertising value chain. If there wasn't a market for it, call it leakage or call it room for improvement, they would not exist. I have come to see it as yet another inevitable cycle of capitalism, creativity, technology, chaos, and eventual resolution within this still young medium.