AdExchanger.com Predictions for 2011: Agencies – Part I

AdExchanger.com 2011 Predictions: Agency AdExchanger.com reached out to the agency community for their predictions about the digital advertising ecosystem in 2011. This is part one of predictions from the agency world.

Click a name below to begin, or scroll:

Tim Hanlon, CEO/Managing Director, Velociter, Mediabrands

My sense is that 2011 will become the “Year of the Inevitable” – where consumers and regulators alike will finally make tangible strides in re-defining the limits of data management, consumer privacy, and the unintended consequences of always-on/real-time social media. It will be messy, but a re-set in this space is overdue.

Tom Hespos, Chairman, President, Underscore Marketing

The transactional media space will face several serious threats. Data privacy and price transparency issues will team up to sour major advertisers on the notion of buying media with networks and exchanges. A top 50 advertiser will get headlines in the trades after spurning the networks and exchanges entirely.
US Governmental regulation may not come in 2011, but it will loom large enough to create a business climate where online advertising players are separated into “white hat” operations and “everything else.” Smart digital companies will create contingency plans for scenarios where governmental regulation kills third-party cookies. Or worse.
Consolidation will continue, but in a haphazard way that keeps everybody scratching their heads. Publishers will acquire agencies. Agencies will acquire technology companies. Advertisers will acquire ad networks. It won’t make sense until everyone takes a step back and looks at the big picture – It will all be about acquiring smart digital talent.

Vik Kathuria, Managing Partner, Mediacom Interaction – Digital Investment Group, WPP Group

Audience-based Buying: The premise of the Exchange is to give agencies access to large pools of liquidity with a public auctioning system, with full transparency to ensure efficient pricing and tracking. Ad exchange platforms and their attendant real-time bidding (“RTB”) capabilities will be an important factor in delivering an efficient and liquid “marketplace” for buying and selling data-driven audiences, offering enhanced scale, behavioral targeting, audience segmentation and improved transparency. This will aid in driving down overall cpm’s for advertisers for part of their media bought thru audience based buying vs. the traditional content / site based digital buying.

Amanda Richman, EVP, Managing Director, Digital, MediaVest USA, Publicis

In the past two years, data has powered new buying approaches. In 2011, our ability to drive conversation, intent, and purchase will require equal attention to the message and the media. With data’s role expanding from informing the ‘where’ to ‘what’, dynamic creative optimization will be applied as brand-builders seek real-time messages for real-time delivery. Data visualization will become a new form of content while functionality and mobility will have a lead role in more creative conversations. In the deluge of data in 2011, simplicity is key to focus on the data that matters, and the media and message that drive measurable actions, not just attention.

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