In the article "The New Algorithm of Web Marketing," the New York Times discusses how automated bidding systems are changing the landscape on online marketing. Traditionally, media companies have sought to cultivate a certain audience in order to sell ads to brands and marketers trying to reach those audiences. As the article sites as one example: advertisers looking to sell pickup trucks to sports fans would buy super bowl ads in order to reach the maximum amount of potential customers. Or they could advertise on dedicated popular sports websites as a cheaper alternative.
The internet, and the massive amounts of consumer data it has made trackable and collectible, has begun a drastic transformation of this model. The online behavior of web users across multiple websites reveals more detailed information about the user than a visit to an individual site, and marketers can use automated bidding systems to serve cheaper ads to consumers at the optimal time on less mainstream sites. In other words, the long tail of online publishing allows marketers to serve ads through more efficient channels. Subsequently, traditional media publishers are struggling to continue charging a premium for their ad space, as advertising dollars have begun shifting towards automated bidding systems.
So, what does this mean for the premium publishers? What can they do to survive? AOL and Weather.com have adopted this new reality and are searching for ways to capitalize on automated bidding systems, while CNN.com has banned these bidding systems altogether in the hopes of maintaining its premium. As is typical in the media industry, many brands try to stop new technologies that threaten their business models (see "Music Industry"), but those that adopt these technologies most quickly are often the ones to succeed.
Full link: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/16/business/media/automated-bidding-systems-test-old-ways-of-selling-ads.html?_r=1&
No comments:
Post a Comment