Fox Interactive Media (FIM) has tapped New York-based Operative for the integration and management of ad inventory across its portfolio of properties--including MySpace, AmericanIdol.com and IGN
Entertainment. The move comes on the heels of multiple, enterprise-level media outlets (including Reuters, Dow Jones and iVillage) that have also signed deals with the digital advertising tech and
services firm.
With the OperativeDashboard platform, FIM's sales organization can take inventory from multiple sites and package it for cross-channel buys, and perform quality
assessments of ad performance, as well as back-end revenue recognition and reconciliation.
The application integrates directly with ad servers and programs like Salesforce.com, and Operative will
also provide consulting services for FIM's sales, finance and operations teams.
Global consulting firm Accenture initiated the relationship between FIM and Operative in March, noting that the
media giant needed a better-integrated sales platform to maximize the earnings potential of such a large interactive group. "Currently, about 450 users across 10 job functions within Fox Interactive
Media use our system," said R. Michael Leo, Operative's CEO.
According to Leo, much of the automation and tech in online advertising has been focused on the front end, in areas like targeting,
rich media and ad serving.
"Media companies still have a tremendous amount of fragmenting on the other end of their solutions," said Leo. "On average, it takes 16 different systems to get an ad
package built, sold and placed. So here we have an industry that's incredibly technically literate, yet relatively in the stone age when it comes to operations."
Leo added that Operative's own
forward-thinking plans involved creating platforms that would bring together data systems from across on- and offline channels.
"Agencies are buying engagement," said Leo. "Not print or TV, or
online--they're putting together plans that are delivery mechanism agnostic. They can't scale an enterprise-level business on Post-It notes or even in Excel."