The advertising world rejoiced today with the announcement that the complexity of buying and selling online advertising had been solved. The company X, formerly known as The Doubleyieldmeldmatictail Project, has been working secretly for months with a select group of agencies and publishers to beta test their products, BUD (Buy Unifying Delivery) and BUD Light Systems. The product is now out of beta and ready for installation. Installation is reported to only take a couple of weeks and automatically incorporates all existing processes and eliminates any need for Excel spreadsheets or other workflow systems. BUD will allow agencies to effectively buy only the impressions needed to meet the advertiser’s objectives. BUD for agencies automatically connects with BUD for publishers, negotiates the best rate and terms for both sides, delivers 100% of the needed impressions without discrepancies.
For Ad Operations professionals this essentially eliminates not only the mundane tasks repeated daily, but the complex issues of yield management with imperfect data. Initially there was concern that this could put Ad Ops people out of a job and relegate the position of ad operations to that of an assembly line position, simply watching impressions being filled automatically by highly targeted, relevant advertising. That concern has dissipated as Ad Ops leaders realized that with this new product they would be able to work on new ideas to help their companies succeed without all the operational headaches. A few members of the Ad Ops community even went so far as to say they couldn’t get enough of BUD and looked forward to waking up every morning and opening up a BUD.
For intermediaries in the space – the networks, exchanges and so forth – there is obvious anxiety for those companies that aren’t providing value to the process.
X’s buying and selling platform’s success at eliminating the friction can be attributed to addressing some fundamental issues in online advertising:
Transparency throughout the process. The beauty of the system is that for both buyers and sellers, the system is able to use data that makes sure each decision to serve an impression is made with all the available information from all parties. BUD then optimizes the buy based on each impression and adjusts the price for the seller to maximize revenue automatically. This transparency allows agencies to truly demonstrate the effectiveness of their online advertising to clients. For publishers, the data available will allow them to understand their audience and grow their businesses based on this data.
Impressions that actually make an impression. X’s platform uses some unique technology to insure that each impression served is effective. First, it makes sure that each impression is going to be seen. It then dynamically adjusts both the ad creative’s size as well as creative message for maximum results for that specific user. For many, this will mean that they will see more engaging but far fewer ad units per page. X has said that they have an ‘anti-creepy’ filtering system that keeps ads from crossing the line with users.
Display advertising online now makes sense. With their concerns with online display advertising addressed, brands are excited to move significant budget online. Search advertising is a different story. “Why would I wait for someone to search for something before I had my advertising message served?” said one head of marketing for a major consumer brand that preferred not to be identified. “It’s simply inefficient compared to the display alternative.”
As everyone races to get X installed and prepares for a new world of online advertising, many are taking this moment in time to reflect at all the hard work of the last 15 years. For many, there is a sense of relief that in their lifetime that they saw their industry work efficiently and that future generations will not know of discrepancies, make goods and default gifs. A new day for online advertising has dawned.
Editor’s update to the story: It’s now being reported that the BUD/BUD Light user interface and ad delivery only work on IE6. Representatives from X refused to comment on when a fix for other browsers would be available.