Ari Rosenberg

Articles by Ari All articles by Ari

• Sending Out An SOS in Publishers Daily on 11/02/2017
  

  When Sting's "Desert Rose," featuring the singer Cheb Mami, started to play on my Pandora station, I tapped the "thumbs up" icon on the bottom of my screen. My "thumbs up" told Pandora that I would love more songs just like "Desert Rose." Now my Pandora station keeps playing Sting songs. But I don't really like Sting. I only like this song. There was just no way for Pandora to infer what my intentions were behind my captured behavior. All it could do was record "the click" and then put me in a bucket of Sting fans. Digital ad targeting works much the same way, placing consumers into targeting buckets. This assumes however, that people in the same bucket are totally similar. But until there are 323.1 million buckets advertisers can choose from, targeting people will always miss the mark, badly.

• When Not Advertising Works Better Than Advertising in Publishing Insider on 06/01/2017
  

  Bill O'Reilly would be on television this evening if Mercedes-Benz and other advertisers had not pulled their ads from running during his show. These advertisers muscled O'Reilly off the air because it became factually apparent he grossly mistreated women in the workplace. These advertisers didn't want their brands connected to that behavior.

• Programmatic Is Failing Forward in Publishing Insider on 05/10/2017
  

  Here are three reasons programmatic is failing:

• The Brand-Safety Paradox in Publishing Insider on 04/20/2017
  

  Ad technology makes it possible for advertisers to reach specific target audiences on Web pages that can hurt an advertisers' own brand. So now "brand safety" is the latest battle cry from our industry, but who is at war? On one side, you have premium publishers and premium advertisers. They have more to gain when content quality and brand safety are the prevailing factors in determining where to run an ad. On the other side sits Facebook, Google and the portals, platforms and exchanges whose success is driven by ad tech. These entities win more ad dollars when audience targeting is a bigger determining factor than content quality and brand safety.

• Sitting Next To Objectionable Content in Publishing Insider on 03/30/2017
  

  We work remotely at my company. I personally bounce between my apartment, my gym, and coffee shops in the neighborhood when I am not meeting with clients. When it comes to coffee shops, Starbucks is the go-to because the Internet connection there is far superior to other coffee places.' The problem is that the Starbucks locales in New York City have become homeless shelters. Their managers can't stop drug-addicted vagrants from taking refuge at tables right next to paying customers. Despite these surroundings, for the price of a cup of coffee you have a place to work with a great Internet connection. You just have to accept sitting near objectionable content.

• May I Speak Freely -- And Directly? in Publishing Insider on 03/09/2017
  

  My discomfort with programmatic is driven by its similarities with the business model of legacy ad networks. The former was built on the premise of mistruths and arbitraging. By definition, arbitraging means someone is overpaying, someone else is underpaid, and the guy in the middle is overselling. Ad networks did this by using premium publisher logos to sell ad buys and then used garbage inventory from inferior Web sites to fulfill them.

• Managing Direct Sales In A Programmatic World in Publishing Insider on 02/16/2017
  

  It's no longer feasible to be a premium online publisher without a programmatic offering. The mistake, however, is an over-reliance on private marketplace or open exchange revenue to be successful. Direct-ad deals sold are your "Tom Brady" -- they march you toward your quarterly goal line. Programmatic is your kicker.

• Programmatic Is Problematic, Even When It Works in Publishing Insider on 02/10/2017
  

  The problems with programmatic are well-covered and greatly ignored. Reported growth in spending continues to fan the frenzy, while sweeping significant problems under the rug.

• An Axios Of Hope in Publishing Insider on 01/26/2017
  

  Now is the time for publishers to figure out what they need to stop doing. There is structural damage that needs to be fixed if this business wants to remain standing. Publishers need to rebuild their entire sites from the ground up. If the idea of starting from scratch sounds impossible, or you wouldn't know where to start, there is a new publishing ray of hope to follow: Axios.com.

• New Year, Same IAB (Interactive Advertising Bull) in Publishing Insider on 01/05/2017
  

  It's a new year, and the Interactive Advertising Bureau is churning out the same old BS: "Digital Ad Market Soars 20% in Q3, Approaches $18 Billion"

Comments by Ari All comments by Ari

• Why I'm Rubbing, Not Wringing, My Hands Over The Demise Of Cookies by Joe Mandese (RTBlog on 07/12/2021)
  

  When ads are served based on data targeting audience behavior, and hence disconnected to the content in which the ads appear, the audience FEELS TARGETED and I never understood why any advertiser of quality would want to make their consumer feel that way.  When ads are matched to the content, for example, a Mercedes Ad featuring Roger Federer running on  Tennis.com, the audience feels UNDERSTOOD, and isn't that a better feeling to create when you are trying to make a good impression?

• 5 Hard Truths For CEOs When Entering The Digital Ad Business by Andrew Budkofsky (Publishers Daily on 07/28/2020)
  

  So glad I caught this column -- the second you start reading it you realize it was written by someone in the the business of selling ads not someone commenting on the industry from 40,000 feet.  Great stuff all 100% on point. 

• Why Programmatic Advertising Won't Work On TV by Dave Morgan (Media Insider on 02/27/2020)
  

  Glad I caught this post Dave.  You are of course 100% correct.  The key difference between online advertising and any other media that has become more "digital" is that online advertising transacts on ad impressions which created an instananeous and permanent state of over supply for publishers to manage -- so "programmatic" was like a vacuum sucking up all of these unsold impressions -- TV, Billboards, Radio, Print even if presented in a digitized format sells based on audience reached so limited supply removes the need for programmatic vacuums. 

• 1st-Party Data Is Overrated, Misunderstood by Ted McConnell (Media Insider on 07/11/2019)
  

  Ted, you are so gifted at taking this over hyped subset of advertising that everyone else wants to make sound more complex, and making it completely understandable by a third grader.  So glad I caught this piece.

• Majority Of U.S. News Sites Have Trackers Sending Data To Russia by Laurie Sullivan (Data & Programmatic Insider on 07/01/2019)
  

  It's ok because the consumer see's more relevant ads and that's what they want right?  Every day people  who just want to read some content love being tracked, they love having their data taken without their consent, all because they love Internet ads that target their behavior -- everyone loves to feel targeted, right?  Yeah this is all working so well.Internet Advertising needs a mulligan so badly and the IAB should be placed in a time out.

• Deconstructing The Google/Facebook Duopoly by Gord Hotchkiss (Media Insider on 08/21/2018)
  

  Gord so glad I caught this column -- what a great and unique way to breakdown the Duoploly.  Their are more layers to this onion of course but it starts as you point out with how we as humans interact with these web sites (which is what they are).  I broke my FB addiction five years ago and never looked back and I think there are many who will do that or are doing that now -- FB made me depressed.  Google is a different story -- they are "used" by people in everyday life and that habit will be much tougher to break because there are no real alternatives unless we start using physical maps again :) -- one thing I believe that gets overlooked when it comes to Google is how ruthless they are/have been as a business -- they take content they don't produce and then sell ads against those adjacencies.  The publisher who produces "the corn" loses to the guy giving directions on where to find the best corn.  It's an amazing legal injustice to publishers.   Google didn't figure out this business model they just schooled those who got there first (Alta Vista, Goto, Ask Jeeves) with a better way to crawl and report results and then stole Overture's business model (and paid a settlement for that theft of intellectial property).  To become a duopoly you have to stop caring about the well being of human beings, and then pretend you do.   

• Cambridge Analytica Mess Will Deepen Moats Around Walled Gardens Of Digital World by Dave Morgan (Media Insider on 03/29/2018)
  

  Dave, this problem started from day one during dot com 1.0 when web publsihers started capturing user email addresses during "co registration" and they made this "opt out" for the user instead of "opt in" -- we as an industry helped ourselves to user data this way because it was the quickest way to inflate the numbers and collect our $1 per email back in the day -- it set us on this course -- then beahvioral targeting came along (as you know) and even that data was collected without user consent -- had we just demonstrated common sense and decency we would have collected less data but by making it "opt in" for the consumer the data would have been a thousand times more valuable and we would not be where we are today

• A Brief History Of Internet Display Advertising -- And The People Who Hate It by George Simpson (Digital News Daily on 12/07/2017)
  

  Hi George -- been a big fan of your writing forever -- still am -- but I read Jonathan's blog post and it was the single best piece of writing I have ever digested on the evolution of this industry and the many issues that remain unresolved -- he is also one of the nicest and smartest guys I have had the pleasure of meeting.  He has no "claim to fame" he built a really smart company from scratch -- you should have included a link back to his post so your readers who want to invest a little more time on the subject can be rewarded.  Have a nice weekend.  

• Transparency, Trust, Profits: When Publishers Take Control Of Their Revenue by Todd Garland (Marketing Daily on 06/27/2017)
  

  Where's the BRAVO button brother?

• Proposed Privacy Bill Would Wipe Out Billions In Ad Revenue, NetChoice Says by Wendy Davis (Digital News Daily on 06/06/2017)
  

  Giving consumer explicit rights to CHOOSE to give up access to their data versus wasting THEIR time trying to unsuccessfully opt out is the best thing that can happen to the digital ad industry.  Lost revenue off of stolen data is a terrible argument against this move/bill -- consumers will opt in if they are rewarded with value in doing so -- it places that responsibility on us and we will then figure out how to deliver that value so opt in occurs -- right now we are making a living off selling stolen goods.

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