Couldn’t make it to OPS? Check out the event updates from AdMonsters OPS – all times Eastern. Thanks everyone for making it a great event!
9:00 am — Welcome to OPS! After a very creative opening and introduction from Bowen Dwelle and Matt O’Neill we are already feeling this isn’t your typical AdMonsters conference. Get ready…
9:15 am — Rob Beeler lays down the ground rules. The veteran Monsters stand up – get with one of these experts in the room today.
9:20 am — Josh Wexler from the Rubicon Project is introducing the first keynote speaker Gordon McLeod.
9:30 am — Gordon McLeod’s keynote: the death of the trafficker… how the role is changing. “Ops is the heart of digital advertising but it’s so much more than that.”
9:35 am — GM: Ops will be front and center more than they have. We need to look at the pricing strategy, there’s more thinking going on now. McLeod is leaving his current position.
9:40 am — GM: Yield – Rapt had the right idea and smart thinking. Publishers are getting smarter about this. He understands the important of yield. McLeod is talking about Dan Reiner’s upcoming presentation.
9:41 am — GM: The only way Dan can be successful is if you have a strategy. For a while we will focused on sell through, then we re-thought that. In the end it’s a happy medium.
9:47 am — GM: This world still highly labor- intensive. Need to get the team to scale; 08 and 09 were tough years; a far more complex world.
Count one for the famous “industry” slide!
Only ops understands this chart. Traffickers need to die because they can not deal with this world. This is the whole new world. The complexities are crazy.
9:50 am — GM: Anaylitics – really hard questions to answer. And they are coming from agencies so they end up on Ops to answer. There are many readers on many different platforms, Kindle, iPhone, Blackberry, etc. How many people clicked on the ad? What’s the ROI? These ads don’t work the same as online. Still trying to get a handle on it and the ops team is a big part of it.
9:55 am — GM: going over the WSJ privacy article. Networks and Exchanges are part of the eco-system but for WSJ it was about data. People coming in for small buys and reusing that data. Started auditing cookies that were being dropped. Started enforcing the T and C’s. That can be tough – you have to say no and that took some work.
QA – looking at creative to see what’s in there – are there cookies, what behind that technology.
This process is on going. The ad ops team owns this.
Self-regulation – we will see where the legislation goes. GM has been in Washington talking about these issues.
10:00 am — Q from Rob Beeler – GM jokes “no questions!” GM goes into answering the question by talking about their review and submission process.
GM goes into talking about the international business and the considerations for that: time zone, customer service, pricing differences, higher mobile penetration, local selling.
10:10 am — GM: Sales strategy – let the ad ops team handle sales strategy? They have to be a part of it.
Two examples – Video and Mobile:
Video – there’s been an investment but people don’t come to the Journal to watch video so it’s an inventory problem
Mobile – customers want it, there’s a lot of considerations but there’s great opportunity. WAP – tons of inventory but pricing is an issue. The growth has been so dramatic. Apps – most people still think this is WAP inventory so we’ve had to education people about the difference.
Rich Media – new technologies and the market is headed there; it’s a lot of work and expensive.
Apps – the device was marketed so well that pricing and predicting what the inventory will be is a challenge. Since April they have unbundled a little but they want to protect the privilage and the user experience.
10:20 am — GM: Apps – there’s great opportunities for us as a content provider and for advertising. There’s an expectation for users that they will need to pay for content. The web is not going away – it’s different technologies so there’s a parallel world between the platforms.
Thank you!
10:21 am — Q and A with Gordon McLeod
10:30 am — Break (back at 11:00 am)
11:00 am — Sponsor Sessions: DoubleClick and Pubmatic
11:10 am — DoubleClick by Google’s Scott Spencer is discussing what not to do in yield management.
11:10 am — Pubmatic’s Rajeev Geol talking about challenges facing publishers including the dreaded malware.
11:20 am — Geol: Only takes one offensive ad to lose a user
11:20 am — Spencer: How do you as the publisher what’s going on with your inventory?
11:30 am — Spencer is walking through some common “pitfalls” and how to avoid them.
11:30 am — Geol is going through the demo
11:45 am — Spencer wraps up… so does Goel – heading into the break. Monsters making their way to the terrance… back at 12:00 pm
12:00 pm — Member sessions with Mitch Weinstein, Michael Healey and Cristina Cieplensky, as well as Daniel Reiners.
12:00 pm — There’s the music… Everyone is heading into the following sessions:
Mitchell Weinstein of UM presenting “Getting the Right Impression in Front of the Right Person”
Michael Healey and Cristina Cieplensky of NBC Universal presenting Commerical Excellence in Online Video
Daniel Reiners of Dow Jones with the Zen of Yield Management
12:10 pm — DR: If you aren’t selling that inventory why are you spending time and ad serving costs on it?
MW: It’s critical for clients to understand ops too.
12:15 pm — MW: Agencies don’t have time for another system
MH and CC: Talking about their case studies including Beijing Olympics
12:20 pm — MH and CC:The goal is simple – one spot to run everywhere – on all NBCU Platforms
12:30 pm — CC is talking about VAST 2.0
MW is talking about how media teams rely on ad ops
DR asks How do your pricing decisions influence salespeople?
12:45 pm — Lunch Break (back at 1:45 pm)
1:55 pm — Everyone is making their way back to the main room for the second keynote (starting at 2pm). There’s the music.
2:00 pm — Edward Montes is the second keynote of the day “When will Online Advertising Evolve?” Right now Jen Hanks from AdMonsters Professional Services https://www.admonsters.com/services
Now up: DoubleClick by Google introducing Ed Montes.
DoubleClick is talking about partnering with Adnetik and their new ad campaign.
2:05 pm — Edward Montes: half of career on agency side and half on publisher side. There’s been some change in the space that he’s never experienced before. Most has come through the display channel and impacts ops.
The ad ops teams are the most important part of the ecosystem today.
2:10 pm — EM: World of Acronyms- do we all know what these mean?
(Chart count – up to 3 or 4!! Going for a world record?)
Does this point to change? Not so sure. We still treat digital advertising with the same metrics – click through rate, impressions? – this is not evolution.
2:15 pm — EM: Buyers want an open and flexible marketplace. Agencies are calling themselves “traders?” The way we are buying media is changing.
All media is addressible – it doesn’t matter display, video, etc – we are trying to prepare for that. Adnetik is trying to use the same targeting parameters across media – universal id.
2:20 pm — EM: I want eCPMs to go up – but publishers need to give more transparency into the inventory
Adnetik is a targeting and trading company – spun off from Havas (Read the release).
A lot of the data in the marketplace is the same. Most important data in the marketplace is your data. When the data is oversupplied then it starts to lose it’s value. Client side data is an advantage – information that publishers don’t have.
2:30 pm — Q from Rob Beeler – what’s the impact on publishers?
A: What it means is the agencies serve as a central point of knowledge. Client’s don’t have the time to evaluate all those companies on the chart. People will start buying audience direct.
2:35 pm — EM: If we lose the ability to get data from cookies we will take a step back in our evolution.
Are you waiting for more money from CPG? Budgets are going to video. Creative is a whole additional segement.
Publishers need to understand the value of the ad ops team.
On the demand side – machine learning algorithm works off a pixel fire.
Campaign wasn’t set up correctly – those responsible for setting up the campaign are the most important people; if it’s not excuted correctly then it doesn’t have the value.
2:40 pm — Q and A with Edward Montes
2:45 pm — Break (back at 3:00 pm)
3:05 pm — Rounding up everyone for the afternoon sessions.
John Linden, CTO OpenX “Ad Serving Transformed: How ‘Revenue Serving’ Will Power Future Growth”
C. Eoin Townsend, SVP Partnerships and Business Development, DoubleVerify “How to Make Verification Work for You”
3:15 pm — JL: When you take control of your data, you can start making decisions about how to sell and optimize.
CET is discussing the scope of verification
3:20 pm — CET: Verification is an opportunity of publishers: Reduce waste, Improve operations, Improve performance, Expand inventory, Drive revenue
3:30 pm — JL: When was the last time an advertiser said they wanted to buy your zones? They want your content, audiences, and sponsorships, right?
CET: Myth : Verification reduces and limits publishers inventory
Reality : Verification can be used to increase inventory and drive higher CPMs
3:40 pm — Sessions wrapping up.
3:45 pm — Break (back to sessions at 4:15 pm)
4:08 pm — People are gathered around the monitors checking out the photos from the event. Sessions to start shortly.
4:10 pm — There’s the music! Right away people started heading towards the session rooms.
Up next: Rob Deichert, SVP of Ad Ops, The Weather Channel “Publisher Success Across Multiple Platforms – The Operations Opportunity”
Ali Mirian, VP, Product and Technology, IAC
“Audience Targeting Strategy”
Adam Solomon, VP of Ad Product Solutions, MTV Networks
“Art Meets Science: Executing Creative Campaigns”
4:25 pm — AS: Talking about NBD – Never been Done Before;
AM: Going over the a brief history of audience targeting
RD: Talking about ad ops traditionally and in the future (non-traditional)
4:30 pm — AS live demo of ads
RD: Talking about TWC’s executions on mobile, tablets, iTV
AM: Talking about Data Types and Data Providers
4:40 pm — AS is talking about Ad Product strategy and compares Ad Product to the Jersey Shore’s “The Situation”
RD: Does your new platform offering address your key consumer and advertiser needs? How it’s sold directly impacts operations
AM: Going over IAC’s approach with data
5:10 pm — Getting ready for the OPS Wrap Up with Jack Myers and Rob Beeler (at 5:15) …
and later – the OPS After Party
5:20 pm — Rob and Jack Myers discuss how ops is sexy – becoming more visible and more apparent (less like roadies more like rock stars)
5:25 pm — Jack Myers talks about how he hated math in school but now he’s an economist.
5:30 pm — Jack Myers is commenting on the concept of transparency – a dangerous word.
Traditional advertising had demand exceeding supply – now its supply exceeding demand.
These companies are trying to build their own unique offerings are being used by the industry to drive commoditization instead of real value.
Apps is a complete game-changer. We are moving towards an app based media model.
5:40 pm — Jack Myers: marketers looking at themselves as media companies… example: in car advertising opportunities, retailers, Starbucks
We are right in the middle of a huge transformitive period.
5:45 pm — Rob asks about paywalls – JM: My business is dependent on a paywall. However – the low end pay for play model doesn’t work. The paywall works when there’s real value and where the price is enough to support the business.
5:50 pm — JM: Ops has not had a seat at the table – that has to change. Media companies need to understand the opportunities and how to generate revenues otherwise they will not survive.
5:55 pm — Rob is asking about privacy issues: “We’re not sexy we are creepy!”
JM: Surprised that is had not be a major political issue. The trade associations are trying to communicate with Washington but its a dangerous road to go down. It’s easily politicized. There has not been a clear message to prevent them from doing this.
Rob – have you trafficked an ad? JM: Yes at CBS [broadcast traffic] I used to log into the system and move my clients into the best pod position (laughs)
6:00 pm — Rob, Matt and Bowen wrap up the day and announce the After Party!!!