firstround.com/review/what-
Wednesday, March 11, 2015
Don't Go Out to Raise Too Early...and Other Cautionary Tales
What the Seed Funding Boom Means for Raising a Series A - First Round Review
firstround.com/review/what-
firstround.com/review/what-
Tuesday, March 10, 2015
How Early Stage VC Became a Thing
Great podcast/video from @msuster and SoftTech's Jeff Clavier.
www.bothsidesofthetable.com/
www.bothsidesofthetable.com/
Myths Busted: Kinder, Gentler Workplace Not Effective
Basically: Happiness sucks, conflict rocks, mistakes rule, toys distract, and cultural fit's a killer.
hbr.org/2015/03/5-myths-of-
Adding my own to this list: Open floor plans must die.
hbr.org/2015/03/5-myths-of-
Adding my own to this list: Open floor plans must die.
Monday, March 2, 2015
5 Tips For Building a Strong Corporate Board
These tips from Kleiner's Juliet de Baubigny aren't bad but let's be real, "Manage Optics" has gotta be on the list, right?
- Know the company’s vision.
- Seek the right skills.
- Develop role and responsibilities for members.
- Build a culture and invite debate.
- Break through your comfort zone.
Thursday, December 6, 2012
Wednesday, December 5, 2012
The Year In Viewable Impressions: A Trade Press Retrospective
If 2012 wasn't the year of the viewable impression, it was certainly the year of the article about the viewable impression. And coverage is, unsurprisingly, heating up while adoption spikes as we approach Q1 2013.
I have been curating a list of these pieces from across the digital advertising trade press over the course of the past year, and I thought the aggregate content might be useful for those looking to research the viewable impression and the many opportunities and concerns raised by various industry players, including publishers, agencies, brands, vendors, and analysts. Enjoy, and please feel free to add your own/anything I have missed.
I have been curating a list of these pieces from across the digital advertising trade press over the course of the past year, and I thought the aggregate content might be useful for those looking to research the viewable impression and the many opportunities and concerns raised by various industry players, including publishers, agencies, brands, vendors, and analysts. Enjoy, and please feel free to add your own/anything I have missed.
Date: December 3, 2012
Author: Jeremy Stanley, CTO, Collective
Publication: AdExchanger
One-liner: “[Advertisers] should be measuring viewability today, with the best
technology vendor they can identify, and intelligently using that data to
improve their return on advertising spend.”
Date: November 30, 2012
Author: Jeremy Stanley, CTO, Collective
Publication: AdExchanger
One-liner: “No other measurement approach can claim such a simple and irrefutable link
to advertising value creation.”
Date: November 30, 2012
Author: Josh Sternberg
Publication: Digiday
One-liner: “Most likely, you’ll find 100 percent agreement
that ad viewability is an important and necessary advance in measurement and
reporting.”
Date: November 29, 2012
Author: Ari Paparo
Publication: AdAge
One-liner: “Moving ahead with a currency too quickly will be a huge setback to display
and will reinforce the perception that it is hard to measure and subject to
technology for its own sake.”
Date: November 28, 2012
Author: Mitchell Weinstein
Publication: UM Blog
One-liner: “Once
advertisers realize they are getting better quality, they will be more likely
to shift larger and larger budgets to Digital.”
Date: November 28, 2012
Author: Sherrill Mane, SVP, Research, Analytics, and
Measurement, IAB
Publication: MediaPost
One-liner: “A distinction has to
be drawn between verifying and ascertaining that a measurement vendor has a
methodology and product that can produce a given metric.”
Date: November 28, 2012
Author: Anne Hunter, SVP Advertising Effectiveness, comScore
Publication:
comScore Blog
One-liner: “Choosing an accredited vendor who can
measure cross-domain iframes and provide fully transparent accounting
of measurability is the key to moving forward with viewable impressions.”
Date: November 26, 2012
Author: Bob Liodice, President/CEO, ANA
Publication: AdAge
One-liner: “One of the most important developments was the creation of the new
standard, the "viewable impression." This will replace the archaic
"served impression," a source of grossly misleading and overstated
metrics.”
Date: November 21, 2012
Author: Cella Irvine
Publication: AdAge
One-liner: “What we need to turn our attention to is how to get great content and ads
surfaced and seen. It's time to address the true issue: viewability.”
Date: November 21, 2012
Author: David Kaplan
Publication: AdExchanger
One-liner: “This is essential in moving beyond online as a great direct response medium
to one that encompasses more branding campaigns.”
Date: November 20, 2012
Author: Jessica Sanfilippo, Group Media Director, 360i
Publication: AdExchanger
One-liner: “What’s the value in an ad that no one ever sees?”
Date: November 19, 2012
Author: Philipp Pieper, CEO, Proximic
Publication: AdAge
One-liner: “A viewable impression in a cluttered environment is unlikely ever to be
noticed.”
Date: November 19, 2012
Author: NA
Publication: 4A’s News
One-liner: “significant
progress has been made particularly in the area of shifting digital measurement
from a "served" to "viewable" impression standard.”
Date: November 5, 2012
Author: Judy Shapiro, Chief Brand Strategist, CloudLinux
Publication: AdAge
One-liner: “It's time to put the human equation back into the media equation. After
all, "impressions don't buy -- real people do."
Date: October 24, 2012
Author: David Kaplan
Publication: AdExchanger
One-liner: “Ad Verification solutions have become embedded in today’s media process.”
Date: October 18, 2012
Author: Andrew Pancer, COO, Media6Degrees
Publication: AdExchanger
One-liner: “I’m pro-viewability (it’s hard to not be!) but there are issues with
establishing it as a new metric.”
Date: October 18, 2012
Author: Phillip Pieper, CEO, Proximic
Publication: AdAge
One-liner: “Viewability is a step in the right direction, but it is not the
silver-bullet metric that some hope it to be.”
Date: October 16, 2012
Author: Zach Rodgers
Publication: AdExchanger
One-liner: “Even if an advertiser is paying only for in-view impressions, those
[unviewable] junk ad placements can continue to fire view-through cookies,
earning credit for the ad in post-conversion attribution.”
Date: October 12, 2012
Author: Josh Sternberg
Publication: Digiday
One-liner: “’Before the redesign, we had more ads, but they
were both smaller ads and not all guaranteed to be viewable (and, thus, they
were devalued),’ said Gannett chief digital officer David Payne.”
Date: October 10, 2012
Author: Peter Davies, SVP Sales & Marketing, Adconion
Direct
Publication: AdExchanger
One-liner: “RTB has enabled some people to deploy new tactics that artificially make a
campaign look like it is performing, when in fact they are deliberately bidding
on impressions that have zero impact.”
Date: October 5, 2012
Author: Stuart Byrne, UK Head
of Digital, Ebiquity
Publication: ExchangeWire
One-liner: “To see or not to
see, that is the questions.”
Date: October 4, 2012
Author: Christopher Hansen, President, NetMining
Publication: MediaPost
One-liner: “Luckily, a growing
focus on viewability may bring about the change this industry needs, with
publishers themselves making a concerted effort to improve their ads.”
Date: October 3, 2012
Author: Giselle Abramovich
Publication: Digiday
One-liner: “The digital media world is about to change
profoundly.”
Date: October 1, 2012
Author: Joe Mandese
Publication: MediaPost
One-liner: “At a time when the ad
industry is lobbying publishers to disclose the “viewability” of their ads,
publishers seem to be going in the opposite direction and making the process
more opaque and less transparent…”
Date: September 27, 2012
Author: Peter Naylor, Executive Vice President, Digital Media Sales,
NBCUniversal, and Chairman of the Board of Directors, IAB.
Publication: AdAge
One-liner: “Web publishers are at a critical juncture regarding the $10-billion display
market. We need to prepare for and embrace viewable impressions as a new
currency for measurement.”
Date: September 27, 2012
Author: Brian White, SVP Publisher Solutions, Vibrant Media
Publication: Digiday
One-liner: “You will get renewals and win over the long haul
by running viewable ads with which people want to engage.”
Date: September 20, 2012
Author: Tom Shields, CSO, Yieldex
Publication: AdExchanger
One-liner: “I’m not against viewable impressions. That’s like being against vegetables
– they’re probably good for you.”
Date: September 13, 2012
Author: Diaz Nesamoney, CEO, Jivox
Publication: MediaPost
One-liner: “I believe measuring
viewable impressions will result in better targeting and less clutter for
users. The effectiveness of an ad and giving consumers what they want is what
matters most, after all.”
Date: August 23, 2012
Author: Tessa Wegert
Publication: ClickZ
One-liner: “We
all understand that due to page placement, load times, and other unknown
factors that compromise display ad visibility, an ad served is not necessarily
an ad viewed. Viewable impressions would address these concerns.”
Date: August 16, 2012
Author: Gavin O’Malley
Publication: MediaPost
One-liner: “As measurement
technologies have improved, so has demand for -- and questions surrounding --
viewable impressions.”
Date: August 15, 2012
Author: Tim Peterson
Publication: Adweek
One-liner: “People are ultimately going to say, 'if
I am going
to be judged on the
basis of a viewed impression,
I want to make sure
that I am being judged
on something fair and objective.'”
Date: July 25, 2012
Author: Giselle Abramovich
Publication: Digiday
One-liner: “Industry-wide implementation of viewable
impressions is expected in first quarter of 2013.”
Date: July 25, 2012
Author: Ari Brandt
Publication: Digiday
One-liner: “With a glut of premium and remnant ad inventory
running through exchanges where some of the placements aren’t even in view,
isn’t it time we take action?”
Date: July 25, 2012
Author: Kate Kaye
Publication: ClickZ
One-liner: “The
largest online ad industry trade group is pushing for new ad metrics to become
standardized by the first quarter of 2013.”
Date: July 24, 2012
Author: Mark Hughes, CEO, C3 Metrics
Publication: AdExchanger
One-liner: “As an industry, we won’t see a win until we seal the blind side, solving
viewability in both JavaScript and
iFrame.”
Date: July 17, 2012
Author: Joe Mandese
Publication: MediaPost
One-liner: “Steps include the
shift from an ad impression served model to one of “viewable impressions” -- a
standard in which at least 50% of an ad is viewable to a consumer for at least
one second, the transition to an “e-GRP” for cross-platform measurement.”
Date: July 11, 2012
Author: Clive Page
Publication: Acceleration.biz
One-liner: “There
will now commence the battle for the ownership of the viewable ad metric high
ground.”
Date: June 21, 2012
Authors: Jason Krebs, CMO, Tremor Video and Amy Auerbach,
Senior Partner/Media Planning Director, MediaCom
Publication: MediaPost
One-liner: “I’m not sure if
viewable impressions are the answer, but premium publishers still need to
continue questioning how they can do business in the digital future. And that
future won’t be the same if all we are doing is firing blanks.”
Date: June 1, 2012
Author: Joshua Koran, VP Digital Product Management,
Research and Data, AT&T AdWorks
Publication: AdExchanger
One-liner: “While transparency always helps reduce market inefficiencies (and exposing
the ad location helps buyers better evaluate and sellers better differentiate
their inventory), this still doesn’t provide direct marketers metrics of
success...”
Date: May 25, 2012
Author: Steve Smith
Publication: MediaPost
One-liner: “After a decade and a
half of Web advertising, -- and in retrospect -- it seems downright daft that
the problem of viewable impressions was not front and center long ago.”
Date: May 18, 2012
Authors: Mike Donahue, EVP, Strategic Partnerships, 4A’s;
Duke Fanelli, CMO, ANA; Sherrill Mane, SVP, Research, Analytics, and
Measurement, IAB
Publication: MediaPost
One-liner: “Once in the hands of
MRC, the data will be analyzed, aggregated and anonymized so that we all can
learn more about the implications of moving to a viewable impression standard
-- and, very importantly, we can prepare the businesses for change.”
Date: May 8, 2012
Author: Joanna O’Connell, Senior Analyst, Forrester Research
Publication: AdExchanger
One-liner: “Ad impressions will drop by 50% or more. CPM’s will increase
commensurately. ComScore 500 publishers will finally get the respect they
deserve and recapture market share from their junky ad network rivals.”
Date: May 2, 2012
Author: Jack Loechner, Center for Media Research
Publication: MediaPost
One-liner: “According to a new
study from comScore and Pretarget, ad viewability and hover time are more
strongly correlated with conversions (defined as purchases and requests for
information) than clicks or total impressions.”
Date: April 24, 2012
Author: Gavin O’Malley
Publication: MediaPost
One-liner: “Continuing to lose
face among marketers, new research shows that clicks and total impressions are
far from the best way to measure online conversions.”
Date: April 19, 2012
Author: Mark Hughes, CEO, C3 Metrics
Publication: MediaPost
One-liner: “As we speak, the IAB,
ANA, and 4A’s are deliberating on a standard ad metric that could change the
very nature of how digital advertising is bought, sold and measured.”
Date: April 19, 2012
Author: Ari Rosenberg
Publication: MediaPost
One-liner: “As I began to splatter
my thoughts on the page, it occurred to me how absurd it is for anyone to
oppose this move of ensuring ads bought and sold online are actually seen --
and the reality that many will fight it.”
Date: April 17, 2012
Author: Mark Walsh
Publication: MediaPost
One-liner: “Say Media is among the
latest online publishers to adopt a “viewable” impressions standard for display
ad campaigns.”
Date: April 9, 2012
Author: Kathryn Koegel
Publication: AdAge
One-liner: “"The adoption of viewable impressions will ... give the media
community comfort and security for brand advertisers to move forward."
Date: March 29, 2012
Author: Tom Shields, CSO, Yieldex
Publication: AdExchanger
One-liner: “I think that trying to move the industry to “viewable impressions” is a bad
idea, for three reasons: it won’t make any difference to marketing ROI, it
doesn’t help bring dollars online, and it will be expensive and confusing to
adopt.”
Date: March 28, 2012
Author: Cory Treffiletti, SVP Marketing, BlueKai
Publication: MediaPost
One-liner: “Of course, we could
just piddle around on this issue for a couple of years, and have “committees”
and “initiatives” put in place to deal with it.”
Date: March 26, 2012
Author: Mark Walsh
Publication: MediaPost
One-liner: “The report found
little to no correlation between CPM and value being delivered to the
advertiser.”
Date: February 28, 2012
Author: Tim Peterson
Publication: Adweek
One-liner: “For
viewable impressions to become a new standard, Casale said, publishers need to
agree to cut their available inventory. That will be a tough sell.”
Date: January 27, 2012
Author: Mark Hughes, CEO, C3 Metrics
Publication: AdExchanger
One-liner: “Whether we like it or not, Internet users are not seeing all served ads,
and we need to find the most accurate way of painting this picture, which
admittedly is not pretty.”
Date: January 19, 2012
Author: Mike Shields
Publication: Digiday
One-liner: “The message: We can handle all of your online
campaign needs this side of ad serving.”
Date: January 18, 2012
Author: Jason Del Rey
Publication: AdAge
One-liner: “One of the not-so-secret realities of the display-ad world is that a decent
chunk of online ads are never viewed by web visitors.”
Monday, October 8, 2012
A Press Release Isn't a Partnership
Let’s get one thing clear: Supporting partners and clients via participation in case studies, white papers, events, press, and social media is just good business.
But what really matters happens outside of the trade press
and punditry spotlight. It’s the legwork conducted over countless emails, IM’s,
calls and working lunches between the actual “doers” on both sides of the deal.
Because, unlike a sales contract or service order, when a business development
deal is closed, revenue doesn’t automatically start flowing in. In fact, it’s
only post-deal that the real work begins in earnest.
The path to revenue from a concept like technical
integration, is often long, winding, and fraught with peril. Internal channel
conflict, product and development roadmap and resourcing, legal and financial
obligations, and operational complexities are only a few of the many obstacles
that can trip up a biz dev pro on her way to the revenue goal line.
Here are a few tips I have picked up along the way that
might help you clear some of the most common hurdles faced in the ad tech biz
dev game.
Treat a signed
agreement like a qualified lead.
Biz dev is a lot like venture capital investing. In my
experience, if you sign ten deals, five will fail outright, three will
contribute de minimus returns but add strategic value, and two will pop and
become true revenue contributors. That means you need to treat each deal signing
as a qualifying stage and keep the pressure on post deal. A signed agreement is
50%. Live integration is 70%. Revenue event is 90%. Revenue over whatever line
you designate meaningful ($10K, $100K, $1M, $10M) – that’s when the deal is a
success.
Make sure you have
the right sponsor – on both sides.
You may have closed the deal with your biz dev counterpart,
but is there buy-in at the highest level of the company? Deal-signing authority
counts less than the ability to put budget and resources behind post-deal
initiatives. Be wary of the “churn-and-burn” dealmaker who is incentivized by
metrics that don’t equal success for his partners. Conversely, if you know a
deal requires development resources on your own side, be sure you’ve briefed
the proper execs internally and secured buy-in and commitments up front.
Meet in person and
develop relationships.
We hear time and again how much relationships matter in sales.
But for all that, sales contracts generally yield measurable returns for the
buyer on day one. Sure, sales relationships help garner repeat business, and
mitigate trouble in tougher times, but in business development partnerships,
the relationship is beyond critical. The person across the table from you can
make or break your success well after the deal is done. You need an advocate
who will spend political capital on your cause internally. And unless you’re
giving away the farm, this won’t happen without a personal stake. You don’t need
to wine and dine, but a simple coffee, lunch, or shared experience goes miles –
especially if your competition is too busy raising capital or worrying about
their TechCrunch status to travel to nurture partners.
Don’t over-commit.
Biz dev unto others as you would have them biz dev unto you:
If a certain initiative anticipated within the terms of a partnership is likely
to meet with significant internal resistance, be clear about this up front,
work to resolve it prior to the deal, and if you cannot, consider passing on
the deal entirely. Your credibility is paramount in this small world, and if
you gain a reputation as a person who can talk the talk but can’t make the
revenue rubber meet the client road, you’ll see more of the same in return.
Reward your most
committed, proactive partners.
There’s a tendency to want to use perks and spiffs to gain
new business and climb the food chain. But if you’re moderating a panel, or
putting together a dinner, don’t just shoot for the biggest names you can.
Think of the people who have followed the guidelines above and helped you
succeed. Give them first shot at the reward. They won’t forget it and you won’t
regret it.
Even if it means one less name for the press release.
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