Who said the world of big data has to be boring… The folks at the Rubicon Project put together a really strong agenda for their #RTTS2 event (only a data company can come-up with such as an acronym).
It helped that the event was held in the basement of the splendid Hudson Hotel in what appeared to be a post-Valentine’s set-up. Very intimate, we could almost feel the love in the air.
As expected, there were a lot of talks about the future Real-Time Bidding (forecasted to almost double by 2015) and the efficiencies it brings to publishers. There was also a bit of skepticism about the value of fragmented advertising compared to mass broadcasting but we’ll get to that in a minute.
Here are my top 5 takeaways from the various speakers (in no particular order):
1. Frank Addante (Rubicon) divided the world of Real-Time Bidding (RTB) into 3 major buckets:
1. Ad Networks
2. Demand-Side Platforms (DSPs)
3. Self-serve Advertising (think Google AdWords or Facebook ads)
2. Joanna O’Connell (Forrester) went through the evolution of media buy and stressed some of the challenges with the ‘old’ way (i.e. not programmatic) to buy media:
1. Had to buy media in bundles (no ability to buy at the impression level)
2. Lack of placement level transparency
3. Lack of control
She also made a great point on the overlap media planners may experience when buying media through direct buy, ad network and DSPs. Finally she stressed the importance of frequency management: “Frequency management is a big deal.”
3. Michael Wolff (author of burn rate) deplored that classical online advertising was not working:
As a proof of point, he pointed out to the decrease in CPMs. In his opinion, online advertising has lost the context of creating a shared experience. He reminded us that not such a long time ago, any TV ad had the power of the SuperBowl ads. There were a limited number of ads on a limited number of channels. Everybody could see and share the same ad. He added that “Big Data replaced Big Emotions.”
4. Neal Richter (Rubicon) won the prize for best quote of the day:
“Data is like a blood test, you don’t need all the data to figure out what works.” I’d guess the 2012 would be to prove whether he is right or wrong.
5. Tim Gentry (The Guardian) reminded us of the realities of Real-Time Bidding:
It remains to be seen whether machines will replace people (non-programmatic media buy), as we often hear when we think about Real-Time Bidding. He stressed we actually need machines and people. More precisely, people with new skills are needed to run and improve those machines.
What a great day, thanks to the folks at Rubicon project and their partners for such a good job!
