ADOTAS

The key points in this platform are that agencies will be able to integrate its technology with their own software, making the process of launching a campaign more efficient, and that, as we said, they’ll be able to customize features like reporting, decisioning and DSP management. Basically, it’s aimed at demystifying the trading desk and allowing agencies to take a more hands-on role in a process that used to be handled by an external party and that folks at the agencies often couldn’t sufficiently explain to their clients. “Trading desks were always seen as peripheral,” MediaBank president John Bauschard said today in a phone conversation. “When the dollars were small, it was one thing,”  added senior vice president of product (and former AdBuyer CEO) Tim Ogilvie. “But the dollars are no longer small.”

After MediaBank acquired AdBuyer, Bauschard explained, “we were looking at ways we could use the technology for agencies, so it’s no longer a black box.” In developing the trading desk, he said, MediaBank approached a small group of “technology-focused” (Bauschard’s description) agencies and worked to build tools around their needs. “The direction is almost entirely driven by our agency partners,” Ogilvie pointed out.

“We’re trying to get the agencies to do this themselves,” Bauschard explained. “They need to explain this to the client.”

MediaBank has created this platform, which employs tools it’s developed, but Bauschard compares the company’s system to what Apple has done with apps — created a forum that others can work in and build upon. “We have to show people how we’re going to plug in,” he said. “We’re open to others doing their own thing.” But for
the time being, he said, they’re containing it within a fairly intimate circle. “We’re limiting this program to about a dozen agencies this year, because it’s a big commitment,” Bauschard said.

According to Bauschard, MediaBank is expected to announce those dozen or so partners “in the next couple weeks.”

Last week’s news of the merger between Donovan Data Systems (DDS) and MediaBank was certainly exciting. In digital media management terms, it’s kind of akin to rooting for the Yankees; only their fans want to see them grow more powerful, because it sure ain’t good for baseball.

These two behemoths have been fighting over agency budgets for the last four years, and have managed to steal a bit of market share from one another, while advancing the cross-media efficiency agenda slightly. The stated hope for this merger is that the corporate combination will give them enough firepower to finish the golf swing and solve the insanely complicated digital media puzzle, making cross media management possible in a real way.

Is this merger good for the digital media ecosystem? Maybe. Here are the three factors that will determine whether MediaOcean will become the digital media industry’s defacto system:

Standards are good

First off, it helps when everybody is reading from the same sheet of music, and there isn’t an industry that hasn’t benefitted from a common, accepted set of standards. The IAB has done a great job in terms of helping standardize ad sizes and out clauses, and some of the systems and procedures that help oil digital business transactions. An argument could be made that having 80% of agency dollar volume running through the same system brings efficiencies to the entire media buying landscape, but I’m not sure anyone in the industry would say that this was the case when DDS had larger market share.

For digital marketers, a significant hassle has been bill/pay and reconciliation, and that has been an area of focus for DDS and MediaBank across digital and traditional media. There is no doubt they can help standardize the process by which advertisers and publishers reconcile delivery even just by being the largest player – they can bring a de facto standard to bear, but how quickly can they really react to a rapidly evolving space with myriad nuances in ideal workflows for almost every customer? If they can change their DNA, they will be a force to be contended with.

Platforms Are Good

Secondly (and most importantly), the right approach to solving this problem is an open platform approach. But none of the leaders in this space have shown any predisposition for opening things up. This is in large part because the technology landscape has evolved so fast that the legacy companies haven’t been able to adapt their systems to keep up. The market needs an open, extensible platform approach to solve its numerous problems, the question is can any of the existing leaders in the space, including MediaOcean, provide that?

My colleague, TRAFFIQ Chief Product Officer Eric Picard, learned about the power of platform effects while working at Microsoft over the last several years. He recently educated me on the varieties of platform approaches that could be taken in our space, and has offered to let me publish that here:

Systems vs. Platforms: The first thing to discuss is that most companies in our space have built systems – not platforms (despite everyone using the word platform for everything.) A system simply exists on its own, is proprietary and closed – it doesn’t allow third parties to build on top of it. This describes almost all the offerings in our industry today.

Simple Platforms – or Mashups: Most of us have experienced a “mashup” in one shape or another by now. This is where a tool or web site is built that calls to numerous remote services (APIs or web services) to build one cohesive interface. In this case, the platform is really all the multiple different systems used “behind the scenes” to create one simple application that you could use. Many web sites use this technique, using various content management systems, ad servers, etc… A lot of the SEMs and DSPs use this approach, building their own interface that hits each of the paid search providers or ad exchanges via API.

Consumable Back-End Platforms: Lots of companies now offer API access to their systems. This kind of “back-end” access is then used by third parties to “mash-up” the functionality with either their own or other third-party functionality. AppNexus, Right Media Exchange, Atlas, DoubleClick and numerous others provided this kind of back-end access by API. Some of the more sophisticated providers, like AppNexus and RMX even enable third parties to extend their functionality to some degree – but they don’t make that extension generically consumable.

Ecosystem-like Platforms: A great example of this is Salesforce.com – which has built out a platform that really begins to live up to the market opportunity that the industry should be looking for. Salesforce enables numerous services that can be consumed, like the platforms and mashups we discussed above.

But they also let third-party vendors come in and extend the functionality of the core Salesforce platform. They even provide an app marketplace, similar to iTunes, that allows third party vendors to distribute their applications to existing Salesforce customers. This is a powerful approach, but requires a whole new set of skills that most companies in the ad technology space are not quite able to pull off.

Within this overall context of platforms verses systems, you can see the variety of approaches being taken by the various parties in the ad ecosystem:

• Google offers third parties APIs to write against, but keeps the vendors playing in the search ecosystem on their toes by frequently changing the APIs, and it’s fairly clear that their goal is to be both the platform and the applications that run the advertising ecosystem. They support third parties, but only as it furthers their end-game.
• The ad servers understand that their value is in the engine, much more-so than their workflow. And they’ve opened up APIs to let other workflows plug in and become mashups that ultimately are powered by the smarts of the ad servers behind the scenes.
• Donovan Data Systems has brought one mashup workflow to market, their iDesk product. It interfaces with DDS’s other applications fairly well, and can integrate with the dominant ad servers. MediaBank has done somewhat similar things with their application suites, but has taken a more “Google-like” approach when it comes to their business – investing in their own DSP and automated media buying systems. This investment in products that compete directly with the very vendors that would need to integrate into the combined system causes me to pause a bit.

At the end of the day – it’s hard to understand who might have the right DNA among these constituents to actually roll out the right platform to solve the industry’s needs.

Creativity is good

Finally, I think a development like MediaOcean is excellent, if it actually creates an environment that transforms where digital media people spend their time. Right now, digital agencies spend most of their time and effort trying to wrangle an “ecosystem” of nearly 300 technology, data, and media providers. They spend the bulk of their time trying to execute media plans, rather than coming up with creative strategies to engage consumers.

The mess of systems, lack of standards, multiple log-ins, and unmanageable hoards of data that each system throws off has created the ultimate irony: digital media is becoming the least creative, least profitable, and least measurable channel for marketers. If the merger brings us one step closer to making the digital execution piece easier, and gets the conversation back to creative, than I think it’s a step in the right direction.

After being out in the field, and talking to over 400 agencies about their digital media needs, I know that a standardized platform is what everybody wants. Whether or not MediaOcean is going to be nimble and creative enough to deliver a system that meets the needs of our growing ecosystem is very much in question. Technology has always thrived on choice, flexibility, and open standards. I believe that the company that can deliver on all three will end up winning.

TRAFFIQ is one of the sponsors of next week’s Adotas Off-Duty party at Cipriani Downtown– have you RSVP’d?

Together, the two companies will provide the media buying systems — which include integrations with data providers, exchanges, DSPs, etc — for all six of the major ad holding companies. More fascinating, technology is in the works for an integrated cross-channel buying system developed with a whole new paradigm. as well as a burgeoning media marketplace.

MediaBank invaded a space that DDS had long dominated, stealing the back-end media-buying business of Starcom MediaVest Group and Interpublic Group. DDS still had the other four major holding companies in its pocket, but MediaBank was certainly pushing the redline on the buzz meter, with venture capital rolling in and a charming, well-known face in the CEO’s office: former Yahoo! Right Media President Bill Wise.

Reportedly MediaBank’s media-buying back-end technology was not as thorough as DDS’ (SMG apparently had a lot of growing pains integrating MediaBank’s system), but it was sold at a lower pricepoint as the company was trying to push the other side of the business: a media marketplace, bolstered in the past year by the acquisition of DSP AdBuyer.

That company’s single platform for managing and optimizing search, display and retargeting campaigns was integrated into MediaBank’s buying system, offering agencies access to search and display exchanges as well as third-party audience targeting data from AdBuyer partners like BlueKai, eXelate and TargusInfo. Then in June, MediaBank partnered with TRA to enable clients to match TV planning data to purchase data.

TV has been heavy on Wise’s mind lately as he’s penned numerous bylines arguing that GRPs and other TV metrics aren’t keeping up with the times; however, his most salient point revolved around the amazing amount of data coming from the channel.

That hasn’t been lost on DDS either, which integrated Rentrak’s TV Essentials, StationView Essentials and OnDemand Essentials databases into its agency media buying tools back in February. Oh, don’t think DDS was sitting back on its haunches all this time — in particular, to dodge claims it was looking gray after more than four decades in the business, the company hired young buck J.T. Batson, a veteran of both supply side platform Rubicon Project (which integrated with DDS in February) and the marketing team of Mozilla.

Responding to complaints that DDS’s tools haven’t kept up with the rapidly evolving digital media world, the company launched a revamped iDesk in July. The digital media-buying system, which manages the complete campaign including billing and other financial tasks, was re-imagined with a whole new architecture by some “rock star user-experience folks.” It took three years to build the original iDesk but six months to redeisgn it with a slew of new technologies and a greater focus on user experience rather than just the user interface.

This included color-coded command functions, Facebook-style notifications and one-click execution from the main screen. Oh, and not to forget standard integration points for just about any third-party ad tech you could imagine. During a demo of the new system, Batson told me clients were simply “giddy” trying it out.

“It’s the most exciting thing done in this space in years,” he said. According to DDS, $6 billion dollars of digital media spend are currently flowing through iDesk.

In general, DDS has made major overhauls to its media-buying systems across channels — including making the cable television buying process far more efficient —  with the overarching goal of a unified operating system for purchasing media, regardless of the source. Batson spoke of a global operating system that could be plugged into anything; an open platform that handles all creative and media buying and is customized at an agency level.

“We want to change the current process from an application structure to an operating system model,” Batson said. “In addition to being a more efficient system, the cost structure would less expensive.”

Bold, certainly — and it will be curious to see what effect the merger with MediaBank (if it’s approved by regulatory forces — there’s a strong case to be made that the move is anti-competitive) will have on plans to launch this before the end of the year.

Interestingly, Wise has been named CEO of the new entity, MediaOcean, with DDS founder and chairman Michael Donovan serving as executive chairman. So no doubt the OS will be hooked into the Marketplace DSP — apparently MediaOcean believes it can have it all.

Following the big Epsilon breach, the Online Trust Alliance reported that 84% of the Internet retail 100 have adopted email authentication, meaning you can trust what’s sent to you.

MediaBank has partnered with TRA to enable clients to match TV planning data to purchase data.

Undertone has introduced the PageSkin ad unit, which transforms the borders around web content into space for advertising creative.

The real secret to Facebook ads? It’s all about the image. (All Facebook)

Digital agency Tribal Fusion has opened offices in Jeddah and Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

After introducing free phone support for advertisers in April, Google apparently is “testing additional phone support” for AdSense publishers. (Search Engine Land)

Google has also enabled AdWords to allow five My Client Centers to manage a single AdWords account, simplifying networking between clients, agencies, SEM companies, AdWords API developers and/or other third-party services.

The latest tool from IBM’s cloud-based analytics division uses those handy-dandy analytics to study customer buying patterns from conversion to retention, promising insight at every step. In particular, it notes the speed of customer lifecycles — when they speed up and when they slow down.

In addition to industry-based, customizable Lifecycle templates, the tool can be integrated with the Coremetrics suite for near-instant retargeting of specific subsets.

“IBM is driving the transformation of online marketing into a useful, consumer-facing service that drives business results,” commented John Squire, chief strategy officer for Coremetrics. “We are dedicated to delivering capabilities that equip marketers with analytics-based insight into how customer lifecycles speed up or slow down over time, benchmarking current results against previous ones, and laying the foundation for consistently smarter marketing.”

John Ebbert at AdExchanger adds that this product plants Coremetrics “right in the middle of the media buying and planning business.” He thinks IBM needs a DSP, and the software giant couldn’t do wrong looking at MediaBank, which enriched both its agency systems and marketplace offerings with the acquisition of DSP AdBuyer last week.

“They” would be Donovan Data Systems, chief supplier of multi-channel – online and offline – media-buying tools for agencies for the last four decades or so. MediaBank is its upstart competitor, which named Wise, whom you might remember from his tenure at Yahoo! Right Media, CEO last year.

Wise clams in the interview that Mediabank’s agency systems are now managing $50 million in ad spend in North America, which he puts at a little under 50% of the market. The addition of AdBuyer’s DSP — which offers a single platform for managing and optimizing search, display and retargeting campaigns — will offer agencies access to search and display exchanges as well as third-party audience targeting data from AdBuyer’s partners (usual suspects: BlueKai, eXelate, TargusInfo, etc.).

AdBuyer’s technology will be used to power MediaBank’s Marketplace, its proprietary cross-channel planning and buying platform introduced earlier this year. MediaBank says the platform enables targeted buying across roughly 80% of all U.S. print inventory.

The whole AdBuyer team is coming to MediaBank, with CEO Tim Ogilvie taking the role of senior vice president of product.

“We believe that the market is truly at a tipping point, that ad agencies need to evolve. They need to embrace newer technology that exists,” Wise says in the BI interview. “And really one of the things in digital is supply and demand need to coexist on the same platform. And that platform needs to be open and transparent, whereas some of the … archaic older technolog[ies] are really closed.”

– Compete and Omniture are teaming up to give marketers all the data they could ever need to design their websites for maximum monetization and optimization. The partnership will integrate Compete’s panel-based digital measurement capabilities with Omniture’s robust site-centric insights.

– Two dozen publishers and a handful of advertisers participating in a three-week beta test can confirm that Hydra has souped up its next generation of proprietary campaign tracking software. In addition to beefier compliance and fraud protection, HN 2.0 promises increased accuracy and tangier performance analytics through a more powerful user interface.

– Adometry has enhanced the virility of Veracity, its ad verification and effectiveness software. Version 1.5 now includes support for click-through and view-through conversions, date ranges and an API for customers to securely retrieve data.

ADOTAS: I understand you have been working on MediaBank for about 15 years now. What is your professional background and that of the company?
BRAD KEYWELL: MediaBank was founded almost three years ago and has since built the first-of-its-kind digital media buying platform, MediaBank O|X, which incorporates not only every stage of the media segmentation and buying process but also includes every form of digital media (display, search, mobile, and more). Through a strategic acquisition of Datatech Software in 2007, we integrated our digital media expertise with Datatech’s 25 years-plus of traditional media experience. Today, MediaBank is a fully integrated, “future proof” solution, in that we designed it to meet both today’s needs and to easily evolve as media types proliferate, with the reality that very soon ALL media will be digitally delivered.
We also recently announced the release of our A|X 2.0 analytics suite, which is the only cross-media analytics tool natively integrated into actual media buying data across all media types. MediaBank A|X provides the most advanced analytics insight by managing hundreds of data sources and consolidating information onto one dashboard to keep a real-time pulse on performance.
We believe huge advantages in the media planning and buying space are gained through the creation of innovative technology that enables the harnessing of data for superior buying and analytics. This is what MediaBank does for its clients – make them competitively superior to those using legacy technologies, through a more flexible, transparent technology platform. We believe that MediaBank presents an unparalleled solution for media buyers and advertisers and a massive improvement over the once-dominant legacy systems.

ADOTAS: The company is expanding and looking to the future with two major acquisitions. What will the addition of DataTech and BlackFoot do for MediaBank?
KEYWELL: Our vision at MediaBank is to provide the absolute best technology and solutions to improve media buying and to make both media buyers and advertisers more efficient, more intelligent and more capable of leveraging the massive amounts of data that are in today’s media landscape. In a world where the average cost of an ad has gone from the thousands of dollars (when network TV was dominant) to hundreds or tens of dollars (given the growth of digital media), the reality is an explosion of transactions and an abundance of data. Most of the legacy systems simply aren’t built to this scale, given the limitations of their old technology architecture and preference for “closed” systems. Our focus is on open systems, transparency of data and flexible technology. We’ve found significant opportunities of acquiring complimentary businesses and enhancing them with our platform, perspective, and capital. The Datatech acquisition gave us a fantastic boost to our functionality in analogy media operations (TV, radio, print, and more). At the same time, we have migrated the Datatech application to our ASP hosted environment, making it easier to use, more visually appealing and capable of dynamic customization. The Blackfoot acquisition demonstrates our commitment to being the analytics leaders. We feel our analytics platform presents an opportunity for our clients to be smarter and more insightful stewards of media buying dollars.
ADOTAS: Some of the members of your board are high powered business people with very reputable histories. Can you give some details on these members and any strategy MediaBank had in mind in creating this board?
KEYWELL: We feel that a truly independent and qualified board is one of the best insurance policies of long term stability and prudent corporate governance. Given that our software is a critical component of the operations of our clients, it is essential that a client can look at the board of directors of its technology partner and see disciplined leadership. At MediaBank, our board includes:
• Ted Leonsis (Vice Chairman of AOL and the owner of the Washington Capitals and Washington Wizards)
• Betsy Holden (formerly the CEO of Kraft and a senior advisor at McKinsey & Co.)
• Jack Greenberg (formerly the CEO of McDonalds and the Chairman of Western Union)
• John Walter (formerly the CEO of R.R. Donnelly and the President of AT&T)
• Linda Wolf (formerly the CEO of Leo Burnett and currently on the board of directors of Wal-Mart)
• Dipak Jain (Dean at Kellogg School of Business at Northwestern University)
• Peter Barris (Managing Partner of New Enterprise Associates)
• Harry Weller (Partner at New Enterprise Associates)

This is an exceptional board by any measure, and we believe independent and qualified governance is a litmus test that all media agencies and advertisers should put their technology partners through.
ADOTAS: How does MediaBank displace the monopoly of Donovan Data Systems? Why is this important for the industry?
KEYWELL: It is critical for this industry to focus on innovation and efficiency, not stagnation. What we see in this industry is a lot of great ideas and thoughts, too many of which end up being shelved because the legacy technology platforms are too rigid and too “closed” to accommodate any innovation.
By way of comparison, MediaBank has created a flexible platform, with transparent access to data, on a single database that enables cross-media visibility that would be impossible on the legacy platforms. This kind of innovation is important to the industry on many levels – one, it gives media agencies an edge in the marketplace as they become more efficient and intelligent by using insightful data; two, choice is good and we are giving clients a choice of operating systems that they never had before; and, three, the limitations of the legacy systems have separated operations from intelligence, previously rendering analytics nearly obsolete from the media buying process.
A U.S. Supreme Court justice once said, “Sunlight is the best antiseptic.” MediaBank is helping shine light on the operational inefficiencies of the media buying process through the flexibility and transparency of our platform. The result is not only a cure to lagging operational issues, but also an elevation of “the game” to new levels. Those who choose MediaBank will find themselves at a distinct competitive advantage when pitching new business and that is the ultimate testament to the value of our platform.
ADOTAS: Your platform shows you front and back end analytics for five different ads in one place. Why has no one been able to accomplish this before?
KEYWELL: Great analytics depends on two things – great data and a great technology platform. MediaBank’s system hosts massive amounts of media spend across all media types, so not only do we have access to comprehensive data; we know how to manage it and how to make it useful for clients. Our methodology was to spend time with media buyers and listen to what they needed to do their job better. We heard them loud and clear, we made the investment and we built it. We also built the A|X analytics platform from the ground up, on the same premise – give people what they need. And now, we’ve created an analytics platform that outperforms some of the biggest and most expensive business intelligence applications on the market. MediaBank A|X enables deep analysis of multiple media types against each other (for example, TV, radio, search, and display) as well as bringing result data (for example, brand sales data or call center response data) and demographic data all together for predictive analytics. It’s very powerful, and has never been done before in an integrated and automated fashion, and it is a huge differentiator for those who are on the MediaBank platform against those who are not.
ADOTAS: MediaBank moves analytics closer and closer to real-time. How do you accomplish this?
KEYWELL: Again, good analytics is about good data, and we are data experts. While historically analytics were done looking back weeks, months, quarters or even years, we know it’s most useful to give our clients the ability to see performance measurements from just minutes, hours or days ago. What’s recent is what’s relevant. We enable a level of predictive analytics that can make the difference between “great” and “good” media buying.
ADOTAS: How have you seen the recession affect your business and the industry as a whole?
KEYWELL: The economic issues in our country, and in the world, have touched nearly every corner of business, and the advertising space is no exception. At the same time, we are seeing our business experience significant growth in the face of these challenges. I think that’s because we offer a solution to truly meet media agencies’ needs and our clients see the cost savings in using software that helps them be more efficient and make better business decisions.
ADOTAS: Who are your clients? How has their response been to your services?
KEYWELL: Our clients are most of the major media buying agencies as well as a large number of mid-size agencies and advertisers that buy media directly. On the analytics side of our business, clients span a wide range, from media buyers, advertisers, ad networks, publishers and more. We hear a lot of thanks for making things more simple, logical, connected, and transparent, and we also hear useful feedback to further enhance features and functionality, which we incorporate into our systems on an ongoing basis. As a result, we continue to make what you see today better, and our clients appreciate that commitment.
ADOTAS: Who would you consider MediaBank’s greatest competitors? What does MediaBank do better than these firms and where does the company still need to improve?
KEYWELL: We have competitors across each of our product lines – competitors to our O|X media buying operations system, competitors to our A|X analytics system, competitors to our I|Q data warehouse and dashboard system, and competitors to our soon-to-be-released X|G buyer/seller portal system. But, when it comes to an integrated solution that spans both media buying operations, reporting, analytics, workflow and buyer-seller efficiency, no one has the breadth and depth of our solutions. With that said, MediaBank is not resting on its laurels of bringing great technology to the advertising industry. We are committed to advancing the capabilities of our systems and continuing to adapt as media types proliferate.
ADOTAS: What are the next steps for MediaBank? Will the firm be venturing into other aspects of advertising?
KEYWELL: We continue to relentlessly innovate. We are committed to leadership in innovations for advertising types, delivery systems and targeting methodology into our platform. We understand that soon all media will be digital and are committed to being the leaders in operational and analytics systems so media agencies can make the most of that wonderful tidal wave of data. We are committed to being the most progressive company on the technology landscape in enabling buyers and sellers of media to communicate, interact and transact more efficiently and effectively. Innovation is fun, it’s exciting and it makes each day a day of opportunity and promise. That’s how we look at the world.

“Greg is an advertising veteran and understands what emerging technologies mean to the industry — we are thrilled to welcome him to our team,” said Brad Keywell, chief executive officer of MediaBank, in a statement. “He brings a wealth of knowledge, and most importantly, shares our vision to bring media buying technology into the digital age.”

Most recently, Koerner was senior regional vice president of sales at Yahoo, where he spent six years overseeing roughly one-third of all display ad sales. Before that, he was vice president of national advertising sales at DoubleClick, Inc. Koerner says he hopes to transition his background in and passion for advertising, media buying and technology to MediaBank.

“Information, data and analytics are increasingly important to managing the complex advertising agendas of clients and understanding the expectations of agencies,” Koerner said in a release. “Advertising is in a transitional phase. Digital media has evolved from being a part of the marketing strategy to being the core of it. Agencies and advertisers need the tools to harness data and utilize it to their maximum advantage.”

MediaBank allows media buyers to manage media procurement, planning, billing and tracking across all advertising channels on one platform with a synchronized database.

The software and technology supplier allows media buyers to book advertising time, make sure the ads run, send bills and make payments. In a December Supreme Court of the State of New York filing, Donovan accused Starcom of conspiring with MediaBank LLC of “cloning and reverse engineering” its technology.

Starcom’s customers include Proctor & Gamble Co., Kraft and Pizza Hut. Starcom and MediaBank deny the allegations, the Journal reports. In court documents. Starcom said that its contract with Donovan did not end Dec. 31 as Donovan said and that it would be “irreparably harmed” if it didn’t have access to Donovan’s services. The court denied the company’s request for an injunction to prevent Donovan from cutting its service, according to The Journal.

Starcom and Donovan are currently in arbitration and Starcom is getting its software services from MediaBank and Datatech, a firm MediaBank recently bought.