• by Joe Mandese  @mp_joemandese, November 7, 2011

The only thing expanding quicker than the number of players in the overly complex online display ad technology space, is the number of players attempting to simplify it. Ben Fox, executive vice president of Magnify Platform Services is the second presenter at OMMA Display today that is trying to simplify Terrence Kawaja’s LUMAscapes chart.

If you’ve been following these posts, you know that Forrester’s Joanna O’Connell already presented her version, and then quickly pointed it was still “a mess.” Now Magnify’s Fox is doing a pretty good job, but it’s still kind of messy.

One way to put the ridiculous torrent of new suppliers coming into the market, is to simply take the top 10 players in each silo, which Fox notes represent 72% of the revenues.

“This is probably a good place to begin,” Fox said, nonetheless showing a chart that made my eyes strain.

That said, Fox thinks the market can be simplified even more by looking simply at its most dominant players – the so-called “platform” players like Google, Facebook, etc. – that each promise to simplify it by taking control of the whole ecosystem. In Google’s case, Fox said, the playbook is simple, and that they obviously are trying to take their expertise in managing search advertising to display The play isn’t so clear for others, including Facebook, but the intent is clearly the same.

But a surprise platform could emerge, said Fox, suggesting that consumers themselves might emerge as their own ad technology platform. As they become more cognizant of the value of their own data, and more sophisticated in their use of technology to manage it, consumers could become the ultimate gatekeeper for online display technology.

“Users are a factor,” Fox said.