Media Buyer For Hire

Advertisers Weigh in on BT
July 19, 2006
By Dawn Anfuso More by this Author
We asked some Amelia Island iMedia Summit attendees their thoughts on behavorial targeting. Here's what they had to say.

What is the greatest advantage of behavioral targeting? In what part of the campaign process does it make the most sense?

Christine Bensen, Vice President, Media, Modem Media: One of the great strengths of behavioral targeting is that initially, it is a relatively easy sell. It makes logical sense. "We are going to use observed behaviors that have historically resulted in certain activities, as a predictive methodology to determine what will work for you." That statement is difficult to argue with until you have an experience to the contrary.

Stephen D. Kempisty, Director, Business Development, Flatiron Media: Behavioral targeting allows you to reach a consumer that has exhibited tendencies towards a specific behavior outside of the normal context for that behavior (i.e. beer ads to males in Webmail).

Lee Slovitt, Media Supervisor, Heartbeat Digital:Reaching users outside the "norm"-- you can give them a relevant ad in content unrelated to the brand.

Mark N. Dorf, Managing Partner, Acuity Media Group:One modality today with behavioral targeting… publisher side and network side. Network side behavioral targeting allows an advertiser to re-target and re-message a user. I am bullish on the ability to do sequential messaging and see a large growth area with that opportunity. Publisher side behavioral allows an advertiser to reach a consumer in areas that could be less expensive but just as targeted. For example, advertiser xyz is targeting the travel market. They want to place their ad on a website that has a travel section and (a) that section is sold out or (b) the CPM is too high to get the return the advertiser needs. These publishers can provide the advertiser the ability to reach the consumer that visited the travel section in another area knowing they have demonstrated a propensity to the travel section, thus having a higher probability of being receptive to their message at a better price point. Another potential added benefit is the advertiser won't be in a cluttered environment with many competitors most likely.

Jack Goldberg, President, Windy City Advertising, Inc.:Lower costs to reach the same target audience when they may not be expecting our message. This can also lead to less competitive ad clutter for our client's message.

Erik Harbison, Director of Performance Marketing, Refinery: Advantage-- being able to leverage existing offline audience data to develop targeted categories. This data will help validate if their audience's behavior offline matches online.
Assuming a client does not have much audience data, behavioral targeting could work best at a later phase once audience behavior is validated. With existing audience data, behavioral targeting would work best at launch of a campaign.

Is there a downside to BT? If so, what?

Christine Bensen, Vice President, Media, Modem Media: There are two potential downsides that come to mind. The first is the potential for it not to work, for a particular campaign, resulting in a loss of faith for the technology itself. The second is the possibility for another privacy scare in the public sector-- whether or not it is warranted.

Stephen D. Kempisty, Director, Business Development, Flatiron Media: It doesn't always work for DR advertisers; and can be a shock for some consumers if they realize the ads are being targeted towards them.

Lee Slovitt, Media Supervisor, Heartbeat Digital:Some users may wonder and find it offensive, but for the most part I think it's a good thing.

Mark N. Dorf, Managing Partner, Acuity Media Group:Over promising what it can do.

Jack Goldberg, President, Windy City Advertising, Inc.:Privacy concerns.

Jason Weidner, Director of Performance Marketing, Refinery: I believe that it is packaging unsold inventory -- ROS if you will -- with a fancy new buzz name. It is great for publishers, but in my mind, not too proven for advertisers.

Erik Harbison, Director of Performance Marketing, Refinery: While behavioral targeting has been around for a while, it still struggles to be more widely accepted by agencies. As of recent, it appears that anyone can start a behavioral targeting company, state that it is "different from ad.com" and ask for marketing dollars. Partnering with one rotten apple may ruin the reputation and adoption of behavioral targeting as a staple channel in an online marketing mix.
What's the next generation of targeting going to look like? What technologies and platforms should marketers look to embrace via BT?

Stephen D. Kempisty, Director, Business Development, Flatiron Media: I believe the next generation of behavioral targeting will be shaped by consumer's search behavior. This will influence how ads are served to them across a network or portal. Technologies and platforms may start speaking to each other more as technology providers distribute their cookies in new ways and form partnerships with publishers and ad-serving companies.

Mark N. Dorf, Managing Partner, Acuity Media Group:Marketing in the search field will be very popular-- the ability to re target someone that visited you from Google or Yahoo! for example and did not take the action you wanted. This is where sequential messaging will be a very powerful tool to use.

Jack Goldberg, President, Windy City Advertising, Inc.:I think targeting may evolve to permission being granted by consumers to show ads on content that is relevant to them. The control has to be placed in their hands so they can have the ability to see what information about them is being disclosed. They also must be allowed to share only the information they are comfortable disclosing. If I am in the market for a new car, I am more than happy to be served ads about new car deals. On the other hand, if I have an illness I do not want insurance companies or other prying eyes to know about this very private matter as it may affect my being approved for a new job or insurance coverage.

Erik Harbison, Director of Performance Marketing, Refinery: In addition to "targeting people" via banners, behavioral targeting companies are now focused on "re-marketing" to search traffic with text ads that appear similar to Google ad words listings. This appears to be a fairly new and untested technology. Networks are still gathering case studies for release. Only time will tell.

Dawn Anfuso is senior editor, iMedia Connection. Read full bio.

Help for Picking a Shop
July 18, 2006
By Dawn Anfuso More by this Author

Some Amelia Island Agency Summit attendees suggest three questions to ask potential vendors.
iMedia asked Summit attendees: For the marketers out there looking for a media planning and buying shop, what are three questions they should be asking?

Christine Bensen, Vice President, Media, Modem Media:
What is your opinion of what each media form brings to the mix?
What is your experience with integrating multiple media platforms?
How will you use my customers/potential customers to further enable my marketing communications?

Bryan Wiener, President, 360i:
How will the agency leverage technology to manage your campaign, and how is this balanced with the human element of the account team structure? Be wary of agencies that are either under-reliant or over-reliant on technology. The former will be inefficient and your account team will get bogged down on tactics and won't have time for analysis or strategy. The latter will undervalue the importance of analysis, testing strategy and overall service.
How will the campaign be staffed in terms of people and time allocation? The client should insist on meeting personally all the key members of the account team prior to signing on with an agency.
How will the agency keep you ahead, or at least concurrent, with the rapidly changing media landscape? You need to be innovative in order to create buzz for your brand. You need to understand what your agency is doing to make sure they are on the cutting edge of the industry. This should also translate into specific recommendations for an evolving testing budget that will help your company stay ahead of your competitors and hopefully create positive buzz in the marketplace. The agency of the future (or present) should be strategic marketing consultants helping your company navigate a time of unprecedented change.

Stephen D. Kempisty, Director, Business Development, Flatiron Media:
What kind of clients do you work with (DR/Branding/both)?
How much experience do you have with _____ (all the media types that are important to me)?
Can you provide three references from satisfied renewing clients?

Lee Slovitt, Media Supervisor, Heartbeat Digital:
Are you full service?
Do you offer technology-driven solutions?
What have you done for other clients?

Mark N. Dorf, Managing Partner, Acuity Media Group:
I would always recommend that they look for an agency that has been around a while. If a company has made it through the dotcom bust, those media buyers have thick skins and have become quite versed in the many styles of planning and buying. I would look for a shop that has a strong depth of knowledge in all facets of buying (CPM, CPC, CPL, CPA), and in-depth knowledge of working with the various sellers (portals, networks, top destination sites). I would make sure the shop has strong relationships with the media sellers (ask for references not just of clients but of the media sellers as well). Make sure they understand data and what to do with it. Online media is very different then buying radio, television and print. A strong campaign manager can be the difference in making a buy work or not

Jack Goldberg, President, Windy City Advertising, Inc.:
What experience does your team have in my particular industry, and what quantifiable results have you been able to generate for other clients like me in the past?
Do you fully understand our business model and our value proposition to our customers? (There will be a test before you are awarded our business.)
Who will be managing my account on a day-to-day basis after I award my business to you? (I have seen so many cases of major agencies assigning junior people to blue chip accounts and not providing these neophytes with the proper training or tools to properly service the client.)

Jason Weidner, Director of Performance Marketing, Refinery:
Are all services under one roof?
Do they have a capability in search?
What kind of reporting options are there?

Michael J. Konowicz, VP Integrated Strategy, MarketSource IMS:
What's an example of an integrated execution of an online advertising program, even if that media planning/buying shop wasn't responsible for all channels used? If they have no example, or their only example is simply tagging other channels with a URL, keep looking.
What's the most innovative thing they've done with emerging media?
What's an example where they completely changed the way one of their clients goes to market or messages their marketing?

Erik Harbison, Director of Performance Marketing, Refinery:
What is your view on integrated media campaigns? Please share an example.
Please introduce team members who will be executing the actual media plan/buy.
Please provide detailed breakout of your process, including samples of deliverables at each stage.

Dawn Anfuso is senior editor, iMedia Connection

What Advertisers Say about UGM
July 18, 2006
By Dawn Anfuso

We asked some of our Amelia Island Agency Summit attendees about the pros and cons of user-generated marketing. Here's what they had to say.

What's your approach/attitude toward user-generated media? Have you embraced it? If yes, how? If not, what will it take to get your clients involved with it?

Christine Bensen, Vice President, Media, Modem Media:
This is an incredible opportunity to learn and share with customers. We have definitely embraced the idea of UGM; honestly you have to in order to be a marketing agency in 2006. However, we are approaching UGM cautiously. This is not because we are afraid of the mechanism itself, but because we are cognizant of potentially intruding on a communication trend before it is ready for advertising.

Stephen D. Kempisty, Director, Business Development, Flatiron Media: I have experience with it as the advertiser from my past role at another organization. It can be an effective way to reach new consumers and it can also be a way to advertise in highly targeted content.

Lee Slovitt, Media Supervisor, Heartbeat Digital:
Yes I have embraced it, but it varies by client. Some are willing to try it out and others are not. It will take a lot more education and more safeguards from the sites.

Jason Weidner, Director of Performance Marketing, Refinery:
I believe it is the future of the internet. Yes, I have embraced it personally with my own blog and MySpace account. Professionally, blog development is a core recommendation from our agency.

Michael J. Konowicz, VP Integrated Strategy, MarketSource IMS:
User-generated media is a fad that comes and goes with time. User-generated content should always be factored into a brand's strategy-- inbound dialogue can help craft new products, improve existing ones or alter the way a business maintains/grows success. However, a brand marketer and its agency should never put consumers in the driver's seat of their marketing strategy. Consumer dialogue is meant to enhance marketing, not replace it. I think some brands are jumping on the user-generated content bandwagon too aggressively, leaving Marketing/Advertising 101 principals behind. And there's also other brands that are equally ignorant of consumer content, and do nothing to incorporate consumer thoughts and opinions. Marketers must find the happy medium between the two and engage consumers with an efficient two-way dialogue. Anything more or less and you expose yourself to business risk.

Erik Harbison, Director of Performance Marketing, Refinery:
We view UGM as a strategic piece of a campaign/site's overall presence. We are in the process of helping a client implement this within their site; however, because of its infancy we are in a holding pattern with legal. We want to make sure that the proper monitoring system is in place and that fair and reasonable expectations are set.

What are the benefits and risks of UGM?
Christine Bensen, Vice President, Media, Modem Media:
I am not sure that we are far enough along to have identified many of these yet. However, there is definite appeal in finding an extremely vocal "consumer credible" marketing channel who is willing to talk about your brand without being compensated. The downside, of course, is that they may or may not say what you want them to about your company and/or its products/services.

Bryan Wiener, President, 360i:
There are many benefits: It engages consumers as active participants with the brand. It provides content that can be optimized, creating a broader footprint in search engines. Often UGM content is of a viral nature; it facilitates organic traffic growth. It increases the base of registered users, especially if there's a community aspect. The risks include opening yourself up to negative feedback and having to play the role of censor. Depending on the scope of the UGM program, it could require extensive staff resources to monitor the content.

Stephen D. Kempisty, Director, Business Development, Flatiron Media:I know this will sound like a cop-out, but sometimes it is good, and sometimes it is bad. If you are comfortable with the risk you face when exposing your brand to this type of media and the attention it can garner, then it can perform well for you. If you are risk-averse, stay away. There are always ways to make sure that you minimize the risk that you will face (GM received criticism for this with a recent promotion, but was still able to capitalize on the trend).

Lee Slovitt, Media Supervisor, Heartbeat Digital:
The traffic is immense (MySpace); they have great reach into a demo that many advertisers want to hit. The risk is that you are never more than a click or two away from profanity/sexual content, et cetera.Jason Weidner, Director of Performance Marketing, Refinery: For top marketers: control and moderation. It is a fundamental change in believing the company controls the brand as opposed to users/consumers controlling the brand. The risk is control; the benefit is true partnership with consumers.

Michael J. Konowicz, VP Integrated Strategy, MarketSource IMS:
User-generated media can lead credibility to a brand. There's no better advocate of a brand than a consumer who communicates effectively and positively about a product or service. However, that power can backfire-- and there's nothing worse than a consumer who can manipulate the media to communicate effectively and negatively about a product or service. The rewards must be weighed with the risks.

Erik Harbison, Director of Performance Marketing, Refinery:
Benefits: Provides your consumer with an outlet; allowing them to feel more connected to your brand Provides additional, relevant content for your site; resulting in greater opportunity for success in organic rankings
Risks: Without proper monitoring, brand is at risk for negative feedback from consumers… brands must be aware of the downsides before entertaining UGM as an option.

Advertisers Comment on Engagement
July 14, 2006
By Dawn Anfuso

We asked some iMedia Agency Summit attendees their thoughts on engagement-- the theme for the conference. Here's what they said.

Do you have a one-sentence definition of "engagement" that you can share?

Christine Bensen, Vice President, Media, Modem Media:Engagement is the result of an experience shared between a marketer and their customers.

Bryan Wiener, President, 360iEngagement is the consumer's active involvement with the campaign and brand so that the consumer is cognitively aware of the campaign and brand, and they develop a degree of affective (or emotional) attachment.
The most engaging campaigns are those that actually change consumer behavior-- such as getting the consumer to register or complete a purchase. A campaign can succeed with engagement with the affective and cognitive components, though impacting behavior is the ultimate goal.

Stephen D. Kempisty, Director, Business Development, Flatiron Media: Yes. Engagement is not that difficult of a concept. Simply put-- it's grabbing your customers' attention and actually conveying your intended message.

Lee Slovitt, Media Supervisor, Heartbeat Digital:Engagement is any form of interaction with a user/brand.

Jason Weidner, Director of Performance Marketing, Refinery: Other than I believe the term to be too clichéd?! Engagement means that both parties get value… plain and simple.

Erik Harbison, Director of Performance Marketing, Refinery:Noun-- a customer's (either existing or potential) intent to interact with your brand/product/service; influenced by previous experience, word of mouth or other media outlets allowing for one's expectations to be met or exceeded.

One of the great things about interactive marketing is how measurable it is… does that hold true of an idea like engagement?

Christine Bensen, Vice President, Media, Modem Media:I think that engagement is one of the best possible concepts that we can and should measure. The important thing to remember is that numbers tell you what happened, not why it happened. We cannot rely solely on digits to tell us if someone is engaged-- this data must be combined with other qualitative research to understand reasons for engagement and the resulting impact on the brand. This combination of information will allow us to truly learn what drives effective engagement.

Bryan Wiener, President, 360iYes, it's true, although you have to define what it is you're trying to measure. Say a campaign moves branding metrics through the roof. That could count as engagement for some marketers, but others might only care about engagement if it's in the context of increased sales or some other more tangible metric. Engagement can be measured, but there are several ways to measure it, and you need to establish that at the outset of the campaign-- not as an afterthought.

Stephen D. Kempisty, Director, Business Development, Flatiron Media: Engagement definitely translates into ROI ultimately, but it is much more difficult to quantify with an Engagement "Quotient", or some similarly manufactured statistic.

Jason Weidner, Director of Performance Marketing, Refinery: That's to be determined.

Erik Harbison, Director of Performance Marketing, Refinery:Yes and no. While you can quantify a user's 'engagement' (time spent viewing an ad, return purchases), there does not appear to be one set level of metric that is ubiquitous across all media.
As engagement becomes the new reach, how does that affect how you measure ROI?

Christine Bensen, Vice President, Media, Modem Media:In this manner, engagement almost becomes the equivalent of a qualified lead. ROI measurements are always dependent on a variety of factors. I believe that engagement metrics will fall into a similar "cost per __" ROI metric-- it's just that they will likely be worth spending more to achieve.

Bryan Wiener, President, 360iIt depends on your goal. An e-tailer is going to have a pure economic ROI on their campaign while a packaged goods marketer may be looking at indirect ROI metrics such as lifts in brand awareness or some form of engagement metric.

Stephen D. Kempisty, Director, Business Development, Flatiron Media: ROI will still be measured, but engagement becomes the new "Reach" for online.

Lee Slovitt, Media Supervisor, Heartbeat Digital:Advertisers need to change their idea of top metrics; interaction rates are key for awareness-driven campaigns.

Erik Harbison, Director of Performance Marketing, Refinery:It will most likely force establishing two levels of ROI: primary, based on true CPA/ROAs, et cetera; and secondary, based on factors such as return visits, posted comments/feedback and other levels of interaction.

Dawn Anfuso is Senior Editor, iMedia Connection.

Advertiser Advice on Planning & Buying
July 11, 2006
By Dawn Anfuso
We asked some of our Amelia Island Agency Summit attendees to address buying challenges and to name their favorite campaigns.
What is the biggest challenge for online media planners and buyers in 2006? Any advice for dealing with this issue?

Bryan Wiener, President, 360i:Two significant challenges exist: The first is the integration between digital media campaigns and "traditional" advertising campaigns. Whether or not the same agency or holding company is handling digital and traditional, digital campaigns are rarely integrated adequately into the broader strategic marketing mix. Clients need to elevate the digital agency relationship to the same level as traditional agencies. Insights gleaned from search and digital marketing campaigns can be leveraged to better inform offline campaigns on how consumers are interacting with their brand and category.
Second, the increased fragmentation and innovation in the online space, while leading to new opportunities, is making it a harder place to plan and buy media efficiently. Consider options for video, RSS, local search, social networking and other channels. Buyers and planners can potentially get bogged down putting a lot of effort into a niche, hyper-targeted campaign. Our advice is to section off an ample testing budget for new initiatives but make sure that the team does not lose focus on the vehicles that can provide delivery today.

Christine Bensen, Vice President, Media, Modem Media: I fear it will be burnout. We have had a hard time replacing the generation of media planners lost during the bubble burst. As the volume of work continues to pick up, so do the hours for those who remain in the media business.

Stephen D. Kempisty, Director, Business Development, Flatiron Media: The biggest challenge for 2006 is dealing with the influx of traditional advertisers who are driving up online ad rates and eating up several of the high volume opportunities.
Advice: If you can't afford to compete with the GMs, find ways to target your advertising to more relevant content. Quality can't completely make up for quantity, but it will help to mitigate the shortage.

Lee Slovitt, Media Supervisor, Heartbeat Digital:The increase of user-generated content. Advice: Educate clients and work with reputable sites.

Mark N. Dorf, Managing Partner, Acuity Media Group:An over-abundant choice of media vehicles, many providing the same service. For example, working with ad networks today, there are many offering large reach (many publishers), optimization technology, behavioral technology, remnant pricing, et cetera. If you buy ValueClick, do you really then need to buy Advertising.com or vice versa since they duplicate often times the same publishers serving your ads-- which can hurt your campaign.
My advice is to develop consistent relationships with a few, rather than the many, so you can be assured of top client service and attention to your campaigns. Volume speaks loudly, and in a congested marketplace, even more so. However, you need to maintain a balance because putting all your eggs in one basket can be detrimental as well.

Jack Goldberg, President, Windy City Advertising, Inc.:Recently online ad networks have been getting a lot of press about having sites in their networks that have not been properly cleared for their content. A major advertiser was unknowingly running their banner on a terrorist site; I heard one story about Disney having their ads on a porno site; and you hear about new problems every day. A majority of the ad networks do offer the large reach numbers but unfortunately are blind. In many cases the inventory is often sold and re-sold by brokers. At the end of the day, you don't really know exactly where your impressions are being shown.
My only suggestion is to use the bigger networks that are transparent and disclose their entire site list. I would really avoid networks that buy remnant inventory from other sources because you will really never know what you are getting.

Jason Weidner, Director of Performance Marketing, Refinery: The constantly changing landscape challenges buyers and planners to stay on top of trends and options. Staying abreast of happenings within SEM alone requires full-time dedication.

Michael J. Konowicz, VP Integrated Strategy, MarketSource IMS:There are two major challenges facing online media planners/buyers for '06 and '07.
The first is limited talent in our field. The agency space is desperate for strategic thinkers with experience and knowledge of online advertising. There is a shortage of talent here, and schools aren't pumping out talent in the numbers our industry needs.
The second is increased demand and decreased inventory availability. While not the best news for buyers, I think this is great news for the industry as a whole. It shows that our space has matured to the point where more and more dollars are coming into play, buying out premium inventory at a premium price. Planners/buyers need to take steps to buy as far in advance as possible... while also preserving inventory by delivering media assets on-time.

Erik Harbison, Director of Performance Marketing, Refinery: Biggest challenge = integration: making sure that your plan/buy is not executed in a vacuum. With media consumption so fragmented, it is important to make sure every possible touch point is taken into consideration.
From an online planning perspective, what's your favorite campaign in the last year? What made it unique, powerful?

Bryan Wiener, President, 360i:Sony's Da Vinci Code campaign with Google was incredibly well integrated and addictive. The web creative was top-notch, it had a storyline, it required immense engagement by anyone participating, it benefited both the advertiser and the media property, and it inspired a wealth of buzz, including blogs, Digg posts, and entries on Wikipedia. As a runner-up, I liked the fun American Airlines "Keeping up with Jenkins" campaign, which had a good retention hook by offering daily instant win prizes of AAdvantage miles.
Lee Slovitt, Media Supervisor, Heartbeat Digital:I liked the VW ads both on and offline-- the creative was spectacular.

Stephen D. Kempisty, Director, Business Development, Flatiron Media:American Express' Wishlist campaign, follow up to the hugely popular MyLifeMyCard.com. It kept consumers coming back and had strong promotions that helped maintain the staying power of the first campaign that launched in November 2004. They were the first ones to do anything like this, and set the standard for this type of promotion. It would be hard for anyone to replicate their success without looking like a copycat.

Michael J. Konowicz, VP Integrated Strategy, MarketSource IMS:
My favorite campaign from last year was American Express' My Wishlist/My Card program. Through this program, at peak spending times of the year, you could use your American Express card to purchase normally very expensive items for just a few dollars. As an example, you could buy a pair of Business/First tickets to Europe on Continental for $200. The catch was you needed to complete the purchase for the items within a few moments on specific days within the promotional period; quantities were limited, so you had to be there at the right time. I thought this was a great, integrated program. Throughout the promotion, simple online media creative crafted awareness for the effort on a variety of sites. Consumers were emailed reminders as the promotion went along. And because the effort, promoted in traditional media too, was all anchored around a simple ecommerce site, everything was seamless... and each channel was maximized for maximum impact. I haven't seen any metrics come from American Express or their agency for this effort, but for me the impact was noticable: I participated in the program daily, had American Express on top-of-mind throughout these peak shopping periods (like Christmas shopping season), and increased my use of American Express as a result.

Dawn Anfuso is senior editor, iMedia Connection.