We Don’t Want to Hear – 7 Things Anymore!

Lasy week’s iMedia Summit – lots of smart people on both the buying and the selling side of the industry are here, exchanging ideas, having arguments, giving speeches… oh, and going golfing.

But one attendee gave a speech that I think is worth sharing with a bigger audience than was had at 7:30 in the A.M.

John Durham, COO of Interep and one of the top sales minds in the advertising industry, presented to an audience of 50 seasoned online media planning and buying folks, his version of George Carlin’s 7 forbidden words. Mr. Durham gave us HIS list of seven things he would like to never hear again while working in this business. I thought they were worth sharing with y’all, so here they are, with a brief review of what I took away from it.

1. “Test Buy”

As John put it, “school’s out, folks.” What is the purpose of doing a “test buy?” Are media planners and buyers still really trying to find out if the Internet works and is here to stay? I don’t go to a local TV station I’ve never run on before and tell them I’m doing a ‘test buy’ with them to see if people watch the programming run on that station. Online advertising, though young, has more than demonstrated that it functions. It may do different things for different advertisers, but I think the bulk of the industry has moved on from the research and development phase.

2. “Monetize”

I’m sick of this word, too. I mean, I understand what people are getting at when they use it, but come on. As any of you who have read my work for any length of time knows, I am as big a proponent as anyone for being creative with language. But this is fast joining the ranks of words or phrases like ‘synergy,’ ‘net net,’ and ‘out-of-the-box.’ The –ize ending is a suffix that suggests “to become or cause to be.” If you are in business, you always want to cause or have your product become money. It wouldn’t be much of a business, would it, if you didn’t. So, I guess, then, that when one uses this word, they want whatever it refers to, to become or cause to be ‘money.’ That would mean those dudes from “Swingers” are also “monetized.”

3. “Added Value”

Sure, we all want things to add value. But I think what Mr. Durham is talking about here is really the dig one makes for something for nothing. Hell, who doesn’t like something for nothing? Besides, any publisher or representative you are dealing with that is worth their salt provides added value – in their thinking, their service, and here or there, with some extras on the inventory. It is tough, however, to make much business if all you are doing is giving stuff away. “Free” is a terrible moneymaker last I checked.

4. “Hey, my budget is unlimited – do you do CPA?”

If any of you have ever met John Durham or have read his work, you know how he feels about CPA deals. What you may not know is that Interep/Winstar Interactive does not accept CPA deals. To Mr. Durham, they are evil and predatory. One of the ways I look at it is that CPA deals are like cutting the branch you are stuck on away from the trunk in order to get yourself out of the tree. I understand this position. As an agent for my client, however, it is my responsibility and my duty to try for CPA when asked, but I think it would be healthy for us to ask ourselves the question, just what kind of value do we put on advertising? If, as a buyer, you think one site’s audience is more attractive than another, do you then also think that audience is more valuable? If so, do you think that value extends beyond a solicitation for an impulse response?

5. “Back-end conversions/metrics” and “Traction”

I have to part ways with Mr. Durham here to some degree. If you are a direct response advertiser, these are the things you ONLY want to hear about, really. Your business lives and dies by conversions and an application of metrics. When talking about branding or awareness objectives, then I would agree, that back-end conversions and metrics matter much differently. But when it comes to data, we just can’t help ourselves: we track it because we can.

6. “CPA/Performance”

Mr. Durham wanted to be sure he made his point about CPA and his heartfelt disdain for it. Now, I think that CPA has its place in certain contexts, but not in nearly as many as we have seen it or where we have seen it. In transactional and commerce contexts or as part of a hybrid deal, I think CPA can play an important role. But there are few products and services that can accrue a “brand” by only doing CPA.

7. “302 re-direct”

For those of you who don’t know, the 302 re-direct is ad server speak. Very simply put, it is a way for an ad server to identify an ad request. This standard for identifying an ad or impression served has been what sites and agencies have agreed upon within the context of the debate between 3rd party ad server impression counts and site impression counts. I’m not sure why Mr. Durham takes issue with this phrase. But if I were to guess? General fatigue with the lengthy and circular debate that has been going on for at least a year with agencies and the IAB to issue a standard means of identifying a served impression so we can make reconciliation of invoicing more efficient and ameliorate some of the discrepancy issues that plague the industry.

By Jim Meskauskas
Courtesy of http://www.MediaPost.com