• by Joe Mandese , March 5, 2008

The frustration that drove Starcom MediaVest Group to seek out a new partner to develop a data processing system capable of managing digital media buys might seem ironic to some outside observers--given that online media seems inherently suited for electronic data processing. While great strides have been made in managing data from an online publisher's point of view, the steps associated with inputting and managing online buys have remained a largely manual process.

This was underscored two years ago, when the American Association of Advertising Agencies hosted a summit to update the industry on the progress of so-called "eBiz for Media" initiatives. The event, which featured representatives of the advertising trade bureaus representing each of the major media, revealed that the one least capable of transacting online was, well, online.

"From an eBiz standpoint, we're just not ready to tackle these things," Jeremy Fain, then director of industry products for the Interactive Advertising Bureau, told various industry executives in attendance.

Despite being pushed by the ad community, the Internet had yet to develop any of the crucial business rules or programming schemas for buying and selling online that Madison Avenue had been asking for.

A status report compiled by the AAAA, and listing nine essential steps necessary for eBiz, showed the Internet had achieved only one: the creation of "global definitions" and "headers" necessary for transacting business electronically.

That put the Internet on par with out-of-home, radio, and network TV as the least progressive eBiz trading partners.

Even the most analog of all media--magazines and newspapers--had made greater eBiz strides than the Internet, and were capable of at least taking orders electronically.

Greg Smith, global systems director at Universal McCann and co-chair of the AAAA's media technology committee, said such paper processing and human input drives up buying costs and also creates greater margins of error in media buys.

"Why am I paying for this? Why do you have people re-keying in invoices?" Smith said, echoing the complaints from marketers, who themselves are under pressure from corporate management to weed out extraneous vendor costs.

During the summit, the IAB's Fain also disclosed that online media buys have the highest "discrepancy" rates, with as much as 70% of online advertising buys varying from their original order specifications.