• by Meir Zohar , June 10, 2010

With college graduation season in full swing, a lot of new grads are thinking of their first jobs. For those young, bright minds interested in breaking into the world of advertising, I'd like to suggest the following prospective position -- Data Planner.

Since the days of "Mad Men", the media planner role has been the entry point into the advertising world for ambitious marketing minds. Today, I'd recommend this year's graduating class to consider the position of Data Planner. Though the specific job description will vary between organizations depending if it's an agency, publisher, ad network, ad exchange, or a Demand or Sales Side Platform, the position would roughly entail the analysis and planning of data usage and implementation in order to optimize ad campaign performance. Think of it as a mechanic whose role is to fine-tune the media delivery engine.

What started me thinking about the Data Planner's position is a belief that in the online world, data is now the new media, and that publishers, advertisers and the rest of the players in the online advertising eco-system need to recognize this and treat data the way they treat its handling with the same care as media.

Today, leading publishers sell their premium media directly through their own sales force, and then work with networks and exchanges to sell the rest. Well why isn't data treated the same way? Publishers, who are sitting on a treasure trove of data culled via reader opt-ins, can monetize their premium data directly by creating a private data marketplace administered through their internal sales team. This is high quality, privacy-safe data, which advertisers and agencies will be very interested in accessing, to optimize their campaign performance.

The data which isn't sold directly via the marketplace can then be sold via a targeting exchange, enabling the publisher to increase ad revenue in a privacy-friendly manner. The questions regarding channel conflict, brand degradation and transparency are therefore attacked head-on. I believe this will not just slice the data (and media) pie into different slices, but will make the pie bigger altogether as bigger brands feel more comfortable controlling their own data destiny.

The treatment of data as the new media isn't limited to publishers. Advertisers and agencies will also benefit from better optimization of transparent publisher data, and by being more open to the two-tiered structure for data usage described above, in the same way in which they now purchase online media - directly from inside sales reps and from ad networks and exchanges.

By creating standardized data usage and acquisition practices, and by upholding user privacy, we can all build a thriving data currency which will drive great value to the entire online advertising eco-system.

And this starts by treating data as media.

So, all of you marketing grads, after you have downed the last bottle of celebratory bubbly, head directly to the nearest agency looking for a Data Planner. You will be embarking on the advertising career track of the future!