Pardon my reference to Jimi Hendrix, but I think the lyric is an appropriate way to get things off at OMMA Ad Nets today. That's because I'm listening to Rubicon Project founder Frank Addante framing
some important issues and trends in the online advertising marketplace, and Hendrix came to mind. That's because Addante is saying the underlying reality of the advertising marketpalce has shifted
from one in which advertisers and agencies placed ads in content, to one in which they are placing ads to reach audiences. Granted, that's the way Madison Avenue always planned its media strategies,
but when it came to buying, Addante said they used "content as a proxy for audience."
But the emergence of online advertising networks, and more powerful, and automated targeting technology,
has finally enabled the ad industry to shift from content -- and even keyword terms in search advertising -- as a proxy for audiences. On that last point, Addante estiamtes that about 30% of online
search advertisers are using keywords as a proxy for audience. The other 70%, he says, is up for grabs.
These are significant changes for a number of reasons, and I don't think that most media
content publishers fully grasp the significance of what's going on here: That advertisers are decoupling their audiences from their content. Yes, its the content that attracts the audiences, but
that's becoming incidental from the advertiser and agency's point of view. More importantly, it's becoming incidental to the altorithmic point of view. And that's big.
Another interresting
disclosure by Addante is that while Ruricon's initial applications are bringing order and ease-of-use for publishers and advertising networks, and the advertisers and agencies that use them, it's
"mission," is to "automate the buying and selling of online advertising."
So is Rubicon the new Google? Time will tell, but Addante sure makes a pretty good arguement for becoming
that.
