The ONE Trend That Will Drive the Future of Advertising

Last week we made a big decision at AdBean – we decided to change our name to Advanse. A name change can be a superficial thing, but we thought it was necessary as we looked at the future of advertising and marketing. We made the change because of the shifting needs and opportunities in the banner advertising space. AdBean was about helping advertisers build and distribute ads more easily and efficiently. And this was fine value proposition, but it was not big enough.

We see that almost all ads will end up in a digital form.  This change is why Google and others think display advertising will be a $200 billion market. (Right now it is about $20B – a lot of growth ahead).  So we think the market needs more than just advertiser solutions but complete business solutions. What led us into Advanse – and digital marketing automation – was basically that the advertising world was going to get turned on its head over the next 5 years. It can be summed up in one trend:

Static “banner” ads will become dynamic “digital” ads that can be automated.

AUTOMATION IS A TREND THAT WILL CONTINUE

Dynamic Creative is the last mile so to speak when it comes to automating digital advertising. Automation is a trend that started with Ad Networks. They were originally formed as an administrative time saver by aggregating large numbers of publishers so as to make the media buying process more efficient. The Ad Networks also allowed publishers to monetize the unsold inventory that their own direct sales teams could not sell.

This new player in the value chain started of the disruption that we continue to see today. Technology advancement in targeting meant the Ad Network could disconnect the audience from the content. You didn't have to advertise on a particular publisher, like Parenting.com, to reach your audience, say Moms.  The advertisers new ability to reach specific audiences without regard to the web sites used caused publishers to lose control of the process.

This new audience targeting capability lead the industry into the next phase of automation – Real Time Bidding. RTB allows an advertiser to bid on an impression (audience) and have it filled by whatever publisher at the lowest price. With RTB, advertisers bid for actual ad units real time as the supply is created.  The traditional media buy, with its direct sales overhead and snail speed RFP process, is no match for RTB's market clearing efficiency. 

Dynamic Creative will then combine the information and data of RTB’s with an advertiser’s business data (products, prices, etc) to generate the right message at the right time. The systems will keep track of everything – and self-optimize to keep getting maximum performance. All this happens with much less human involvement that is required today to optimize.

WHAT IT MEANS IN THE MARKET

The exploding supply of digital ad inventory is probably the fastest growing thing on the planet. As the world goes digital – banner advertising in current form will be impossible to sustain. It will have to move from a 1.0 static form to a 2.0 true digital form. Digital advertising is expanding to include mobile, tablets, laptops, and out of home networks - you know – like in the elevator, the grocery store, the mail, the restroom – (sad). You find it in audio (Pandora) and IP TV – Fios and Uverse serving localized banner ads at the bottom of TV menu controls. Not to mention that the web continues to grow as well with more inventory available.

Managing performance and making decisions about budgets and audience targeting will be very difficult for advertisers unless they leverage technology to test the infinite combinations available to find the best winning formula. It sounds like this is an advertiser problem, but it can become a publisher problem, it they cannot help their advertisers solve it. The only way that advertisers and publishers will be able to manage their programs in the future with all this data and choice available – will be through automation.

Your Advanse Invitation to TechWeek

Advanse Sponsors TechWeek TechWeek turns Chicago into a 7-day Startup and Technology Festival July 22nd - 29th   Advanse has signed on to sponsor TechWeek Chicago – the largest technology conference in the Midwest. There will be over 200 speakers with Advanse CEO Steve Krol speaking on a panel about the future of the Ad Network Ecosystem.   We have provided a link below to get your discount on trade show passes. Advanse will also have a booth at the Expo – so please stop by and say hello.   About TechWeek   We invite you to join us at the first annual TechWeek Conference & Expo, July 22-25, in Chicago. TechWeek is the largest technology and innovation conference in the Midwest, organizing representatives from over 500 web, mobile, and tech companies from Chicago, the Midwest, and the rest of the country. TechWeek lets you connect with over 2000 tech entrepreneurs, visionaries, business managers, investors, and community leaders including keynotes and speakers as Craig Newmark, founder of Craigslist, Aneesh Chopra, CTO of the United States, and Jason Fried, founder of 37Signals.   Come meet over 200 speakers and exhibitors from Google, Yelp, Redbox, GrubHub, Orbitz, comScore, Viewpoints, OKCupid, crowdSPRING, oDesk, Elance and more!   Get 15% off your conference pass with the code “ tw11partner_vip” What do TechWeek Conference & Expo Pass holders get?   TechWeek Conference & Expo is a 4-day conference and exhibitor area including speakers from such companies as Google, Yelp, Ortbiz, SecondMarket, Redbox, Salesforce, oDesk, Elance, Meebo, and PBWorks.  Get 15% off of your conference pass here!   midVenturesLAUNCH is the startup competition on July 25th, the last day of the TechWeek Conference. 35 early-stage tech startups exhibit and compete for over $100,000 in prizes. Get more information and apply here.   TechWeek Projects gives web developers, designers, and entrepreneurs an opportunity to work on tech projects at the TechWeek headquarters “Hacker Lounge” in association with over 5 TechWeek Projects hackathons and partners including Apps for Metro Chicago, Spark Chicago, Twilio, RapLeaf, Uservoice, and App House.   TechWeek Events include dozens of independent events occurring all around the city of Chicago, giving you an opportunity to mix with the tech, business, and media people who are building the next Google or Groupon.   About Advanse Advanse is the provider of turnkey Digital Marketing Automation (DMA) solutions for performance-driven companies. DMA solutions from Advanse deliver incredible simplicity and tremendous performance benefits. By replacing static, handmade banner ads with fully automated dynamic banner applications called Advanse Ads, our technology can generate real eye-popping ROI and recurring revenue. DMA is a faster, smarter and more efficient technology that leaves today’s slower, manual advertising processes in the dust. For more information: www.AdvanseNow.com   Know now. Act now. Advanse now.

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5 Good Articles on Latest Digital Trends

I thought I would send along 5 interesting articles that I read this week. They cover the important topics that we talk about every day at Advanse – marketing, measurement, and the social media landscape. Enjoy.

10 Marketing Lessons For Early-Stage Tech Startups

Marketing lessons learned for tech entrepreneurs by Mark Suster, an entrepreneur turned VC. I have learned many of these lessons - my favorite quote

“I have adopted the motto “good judgment comes from experience, but experience comes from bad judgment.“ We need to learn from doing, by trial-and-error.”

The Myth of Digital Measurement

Doug Weaver takes a contrarian view about digital measurement and suggests we look at measurement with a soft focus and incorporate many data points and trends in our evaluation of performance. I like Fact#5

“Fact Five:  The Future of Measurement is Soft.   We need to radically alter our thinking about measurement in the world of digital marketing.  I think the real value lies in a model that’s both impressionistic and analytical; that draws in many data points and trends to help understand what just happened and what’s likely to make more of it happen in the future.”

Google+: Populated by People, Operated by Android

Last week saw the announcement of Google+ and many questions about what it was and was not.  I like this view of Google’s opportunity  – it will be interesting to watch.

“First, Google is making no secret that they see mobile as the most compelling future trend, and we would expect that they will push Google+ through Android and Chrome hard.  They have a strong lead in this area over everyone.  And the mobile centric nature of Google’s apps may provide the opportunity for Google+ to displace Twitter as the mobile alternative to short text conversations through the Huddle product.  There appears to be no character limit!”

The Seven Performance Metrics that Matter Most

With all the rapid change in digital advertising, keeping the myriad of measurement data points straight can be onerous.  But here are the seven that matter – and they are good ones.

“Digital Impact makes a bold proposal: There are only seven metrics that are critical for performance measurement across digital channels. While countless other metrics are available to marketers, these seven are the ones that marketers should seek to master…..”

National Advertisers Attracted to Local Trends

Research finds that larger national brands are getting into local targeting through daily deal sites and mobile check-ins. Could not agree more with this quote – having dynamic creative makes this a lot easier.

“There’s a significant amount of growth still available in the local ad market,” Chris Tolles, CEO of Topix, told eMarketer. “With national agencies showing this uptick in hyperlocal ads, advertisers of all sizes are seeing the value of local.”