Hey! Are you free on June 7^th What about the 8^th?

More questions: Do you live in New York, or, better yet, Not New York – a place that some Big Apple centrics would
consider a neverending parade of baloney sandwiches on Wonder Bread and taupe
colored SUVs – and are craving a few days in the big city? Moreover, do you
work in online media, and are willing to admit it?

If you answered yes or even maybe to any of these questions,
have I got an offer for you.

The Future of Online Advertising
conference is coming to Gotham Hall in NYC next week, and Carson Systems, the
masterminds behind the very successful Future of Web Apps (FOWA) and
the Future of Web Design (FOWD) conferences,
have generously donated several tickets to the event for us to give away on the blog. They’re all about equal
opportunity for all media types, especially those who take the time to stay
updated and entertained by reading lowly agency blogs like ours. (Theirs is way better.)

So,
here is the contest:
Below
you will see four images. Your job is to match both the product and location with each advertisement. Please
send your attempt here in the following format: Name/Product #/Location # and allow
me a few days for a reply if you are a winner. I’m honeymooning in Marrakesh. Really.

Ad

Product                                          Location
1.
math club                                                1.
billboard
2.
travel booking website                             2.
magazine advertisement
3.
zen center                                               3.
banner ad
4.
local youth group                                      4.
television still frame
5.
online advertising agency                         5.
sponsored vehicle
6.
a university                                             6.
guerilla (outdoor)
7.
church of the latter day saints                  7.
guerilla (indoor)
8.
television show                                        8.
sidebar ad
9.
eastern european country                         9.
bus stop
10.
clothing boutique                                  10.
youtube pre-roll still frame

P.S.
If all these numbers are confusing to you and you’d like to win the contest in a more, um, creative way, feel free to write us a long,
witty essay on the topic of your choice, preferably something related to the
semantic incongruencies of most spam messages or a short fictional work related
to Second Life Crisis. We’re supplying this literary option for the support of
content over figures, strange as it may be coming from a number-crunching
industry.

The first time was a great time  Yahoo! already had a
foot in the door at Right Media when they paid $45 million for a 20% stake back
in October. Right from the get-go, they knew they had a piece of something
good. After seeing a 50% increase in the price of ads on the “non-premium”
pages made available through Right Media (via BusinessWeek)
they were sittin’ on top of the world with Barrington Levy. But, like good little major portal, they
were wanting more ammo in the fight against Google. With the formation of
GoogleClick, the wheels started turning in Terry Semel’s head. Oh, and people
probably started yelling at him too. Catch up, they said, and do it fast.

The second time was a blast One of the major values that
he probably saw in Right Media was their ability to create bundle deals that
include both premium ad space – or le crème de la crème
as they might say in countries of the French persuasion – with lesser,
“secondary” spaces. These second-timers have value, too, as advertisers are
looking more and more for visibility in niche audiences like blogs and
community Web sites. These “twice-removed” spaces are more than happy to be
included in the family because it helps them to monetize their otherwise
segmented inventory. Another type of second-tier community based platform that
could join the Yahoo!/Right Media network would be something like digitized
billboards, which would be a wise move considering the rise
of out-of-home media ad spend by 27%.

The third time I fell in love They’re gazing lovingly into each other’s eyes. They’re petting each other in public. It’s
true love. Yahoo! could (and has) talked for hours about Right Media’s open
auction system that gives marketers targeted information about Web viewers that
helps them to decide what to bid for that space. Furthermore, the transparency
of the system encourages more bidders, which then results in higher prices for
the sellers. Both benefit, both enjoy the fruits of the system. It’s the kind
of thing that might make your heart go boom.

I’m not even going to talk about why Right Media likes
Yahoo!. How many times can you say 20-something multimillionaire three times
fast?

Now I hope it lasts  So, as with any love story, we have to question, how long
can this last? He’s a poor farm boy, she’s a pretty pretty princess. Not just a
princess, but one whose father insists that they eventually incorporate his
small farm into their large kingdom, and something tells me that his sheep are
not going to be selling for the same prices as before. When Daddy knows all,
how can you keep it fair?

“If
the exchanges all become owned by the large competitive ad networks, aren’t
they just really big networks then?” asks Greg
Sterling. Right Media CEO Mike Walrath retorts:

It’s
important to reiterate publicly that the acquisition will in no way afford
Yahoo! any unfair advantage in the Exchange. A level playing field is one of
the foundations of the Exchange and its success–it remains level. The fact that
the Right Media Exchange will operate as an independent division of Yahoo!
ensures this.

Terry
Semel of Yahoo! also
insists that they will continue to follow a capitalistic, democratic model,
in which “supply and demand [are] regulated by the marketplace, not a closed
platform.” I would say this sounds very patriotic, but look at how he is slamming
Google! That’s just un-American.

Speaking
of capitalism and big players, take a look at how Microsoft
is eyeing 24/7 Real Media, driving its original valuation from $600 million
to $1 billion. People have also speculated that they are considering an
acquisition of aQuantive, partly for Atlas ad-serving capabilities but also to
have stake in creative ad agency Avenue A/Razorfish. Now that’s just downright annoying.

But maybe
they’re just all after the right stuff and, like the New Kids, looking for that
one thing that will make “all of their dreams come true.”

They
must have been giving out free donuts again in the conference room hallway
during Jump Ball: TV, Print, Radio and Web Hustle for Local Ad Dollars. The
mean count (taking into consideration the trickling in and out of misdirected
expo hall salespeeps) was 42 conference-goers – and that is including the panelists and moderator David Hutchinson of
Program Partners, Inc. Maybe the 2-day hangover had finally set in for 90% of
conference attendees, or maybe, just maybe, nobody wanted to hear about how
local ad dollars are being spread across multiple media platforms.

I
certainly hope that this is not the case. If so: shame, shame, shame on you, ad:tech attendees. Don’t
cha know that local is the way of the future? Seriously, folks. We talk about
demographic targeting and direct marketing, but often ignore the fact that
where the consumer lives and works Is a major factor in their buying decisions.

Geographically
relevant content surely has promise. LA
Times Sales and Marketing Managing Director Juliana Jaoudi pointed out that
the popularity and higher click-through rates of portals like Yahoo! Local
shows that there are major potential revenue buckets available for those
prepared to focus on regional commerce, catching consumers “at the end of the
buying funnel” and more importantly, before the big guns have a chance to get
in there. (Oops, CBS
has already “jumped the ball” on that one.)

Interesting
that she should mention the “big guns,” because she’s one of them – as were the rest of the panelists. Dan
Rodrigues, Director of Sales at CBS-Affiliate KPIX-TV, for example, spoke with
the confidence that one best finds in television sales departments. He also had
a commanding stage presence, front and center on the midnight-blue couch. Was
that thing mad comfortable? Sean Cummings of Ask.com definitely looked like he
was sinking in nicely. Cummings was the
black sheep of the panelist family, surrounded by major media: TV, newspaper,
and radio (KFOG 104.5 FM Sales Manager Omari Patterson). He had nothing but
nice things to say about the quality and scope of the content that his comrades
provide, but asked an important question: “How are you going to build a revenue
model for online advertising?” It’s a young industry – 30% of media consumption
is online, yet ad spending is still in the single digits. Dan the Man jumped in, noting
that a problem may be that local online outlets can be so fragmented that they
lack the critical mass necessary for focused advertisers.

The
master plan for local media, therefore, is to slowly develop online extensions
of trusted local brands and leverage their community relationships with new
media. Online is no longer a side note to traditional platforms, they agreed,
as the fear of computer generation is being (partially) overcome. “It’s going
to be a while before it changes,” said Ms. Jaoudi, as she explained that
economics dictate the attitude of the advertiser. For example, as long as print
is still the more expensive buy it will be deemed the more effective medium.
However, as personnel are trained in how to effectively sell new media, we will
see a faster and more complete transition, particularly in the local ad sphere.
“We need to be on the forefront – at the local level – of how people are
consuming media so that they don’t go somewhere else,” said Rodrigues.

The
last question that arose was measurements of their success. I particularly
enjoyed Sean Cummings’ statement that “the Internet suffers from
over-measurability.” This, coming from the sole online guy? But it was all
about relevance: You can’t ask for click-through rates on a highway billboard. You know what else you can’t do?  Roller-skate in a buffalo herd.