Targeting with display advertising? Things are good -- but could be better. MIke Rich, vp of media for comScore, says in looking at 2400 campaigns, only 42% are hitting their primary target -- say 18-34. Targeting efficiency? Campaigns are doing 14% better than just a run-of-schedule or run-of-site media plan. What's the key to improvement? "Remove worthless clutter."   

Mike Rich, vp of media for comScore, says there are 400 billion advertising online impressions a month -- and growing by 15%. That's not good. By way of comparison, if you look at traditional TV --  45 minutes of content and 15 minutes of commercials per hour -- at this 15% rate in 10 years you'd have nothing but TV commercials. This trend isn't good for display advertising. "This is not a sustainable track. We have to find a way to constrain this. We have to find scarcity."  

How does the online ad industry reduce the number of ad inventory? Mike Rich, VP Media, comScore, taking the stage at OMMA Premium Display in Los Angeles defines "scarcity," tell us how to get there, and what publishers need to do. He's walking through two key themes - how to motivate the industry to support fewer display ads. If someone doesn't view the ad the ad is worthless. And ways brands can demonstrate the value of the ads served.

Premium display and click through rates aren't a match. Tamara Bousquet, executive vp and media director of MEA Digital, says that's the rub: How can you call stuff "premium" when people are still talking about click-through rates? Patricia Galea, senior vp of digital for Edelman says: "It's about getting mini-Super Bowl buy. Click-throughs are gravy." Concerning click-throughs: "It's a silly metric," says Adam Kasper, executive vp at Havas Digital.

Some clients are still talking about click-through rates, even though these are now widely dismissed as measures of online success...

I've probably written that headline several dozen times over the last couple years, but...

The analytics start before the campaign, according to Adam Kasper, EVP at Havas Digital, speaking at the OMMA Premium Display LA conference, but the metrics behind premium advertising is "squishier." That's the challenge. There's always a proxy for premium digital, rarely a fixed measurement. "That's the flaw with premium advertising" he said. "The programmatic type of buying is measurable and rolls into a return on investment" or measurement that procurement execs or chief financial officers look for to quantify investments.

How do you make sure that an ad is entertaining, engaging, and relevant -- in a word, "premium" -- while still executing on the brand's goals? Tamara Bousquet, EVP, media director for MEA Digital, posed the question to the panel discussing "What Is Premium Now?" at OMMA Premium Display.

MediaPost columnist Barbara Lippert just posed her opening question to OMMA (Premium) Display opening keynote conversation subject Eric Weisberg by recalling the golden age of Madison Avenue when DDB Founder Bill Bernbach first began pairing copywriters with art directors to create advertising for the new electronic medium of television. Nowadays, that team-up seems quaint, Lippert noted, as agencies team other "creative" specialists to come up with big ideas, especially "creative people and technologists."

OMMA (Premium) Display programming chair Steve Smith says the word "premium" is becoming overwrought, and maybe even diluted by the number of ways (and the number of people) who are throwing it around these days.