• by Joe Mandese , November 2, 2010

Seems like the pioneers of the ad network marketplace may have gotten the whole thing wrong. Advertisers and agencies apparently don't want to use ad networks to buy online display advertising cheaper. They would actually like to pay more for it.

Huh? That's right. That's what the agency panel at OMMA Ad Nets is saying.

"The conversation about CPMs is boring and beside the point," Initiative Senior Vice President-Director of Digital Ben Winkler suggested, adding, that if agencies really wanted to buy online display advertising cheaper, they'd simply place buys across CPA networks, and go home and "shower" at the end of the day.

By that, he meant that clicks aren't necessarily the best way to know if you're reaching the users you are supposed to be reaching. Which after all, is what all that media planning, and strategic planning, and consumer planning stuff is supposed to be about. It's about serving the right ad message to the right consumer at the right time.

In fact, Winkler went a step further and suggested that he and his clients would actually like to pay higher CPMs for online display advertising - with a caveat.

"At the end of the day, I actually want to pay more - 50% more for people who are worth three times the amount," he said.

Initiative's Winkler (before he showered)