Cable Ad Bureau Pulls Out Of EBay Ad Exchange
That was a short relationship ... In a blow for the nascent eBay Online Media Exchange, the Cabletelevision Advertising Bureau announced today that its members will not participate in further trials or usage of the exchange effective immediately. From the statement by Sean Cunningham, president and CEO of the CAB: “We appreciated the opportunity to test the system – throughout our review it became apparent that the Media Exchange was too narrow an application, had clear connectivity issues related to cable’s emerging end-to-end e-business platforms and lacked the provisions necessary for capturing critical strategic and idea-driven intelligence during a buy.” Equally daunting for proponents, Cunningham pointed to the lack of interest in the exchange by “major members of the agency community.” In other words, no critical mass without critical mass. (via WSJ)
The move comes less than a month after CAB members complained about being mentioned in publicity when its members hadn’t yet seen a trial and were then included.
Update: NYT: Cunningham told the Times: “We don’t believe that eBay is going to get this right.” he said seven national cable nets tested the exchange over the last month and decided it went too far in removing humans from the ad sales process.
Related:
—Cable Nets And Ebay Media Marketplace Committee Work To Patch Things Up
—Ebay Readies Online Ad Marketplace For March Launch
Posted In: Advertising, Media & Publishing, TV, Cable & Telecom
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Comments (2)
Apr 6, 2007 11:40 AM
The sooner ad agencies and media company ad sales departments realize that they have too much overhead to sell advertising on the web at a profit, the better off they will be in the long run. With only a handful of exceptions, web audiences are both too fragmented and too fickle for humans to sell. Furthermore, computers are simply vastly superior at matching the exactly the right ad ad the right time to the right consumer, improving ROI for the client and generating more income at less expense for the publisher.
If these guys ever want to make money from online ads (which is something they are certainly not doing now), they should embrace these technologies, and start reducing sales team headcounts.
Apr 10, 2007 3:30 AM
Our agency is developing an ad exchange system for our own clients to use. The idea is to streamline the process for certain types of products that may not need as much hands-on service to manage. For example, we have a client who requires banner ads and streaming video ads on sports sites.
We have suppliers who offer remnant and last minute available banner and pre-roll advertising on sports related sites. The dollars involved are such that to add another ‘layer’ in the transaction AND have people involved in the presenting, booking, billing, posting…doesn’t make financial sense.
The total value of each transaction is under $2,500. By automating the ordering, paying and processing of the transaction, we can look at a 5 - 7% transaction fee (not the traditional 15% or other consultation fee) and still look after the business for our clients.
The cable people will need to accept this system or create their own system. The market will create the need for an automated transaction based advertising selling system….and the market will do this with or without the Cable Ad Bureau.
Mitch Drew
President
BECK Agencies
http://www.beckbc.com
http://mitch-tv.blogspot.com