Silicon Alley 100 List October 31, 2008
Posted by Bill in Online Advertising, online marketing, traditional advertising.add a comment
“As we approach the end of another year, we’re once again pleased to present the Silicon Alley 100, our annual list of the entrepreneurs, investors, executives, and technologists who are making waves in the New York digital business community.
Last year’s No. 1, Mayor Mike Bloomberg, has had his jersey retired (but we commend him for once again blazing entrepreneurial trails by doing away with annoying two-term rules). Union Square Ventures’ partner Fred Wilson, who hates lists like this, has deservedly taken his place.
Congratulations to this year’s winners and a hat tip to the impressive cadre of other folks we didn’t have room to recognize. As always, a huge thanks to our readers, whose votes and voices helped shape our second annual SA 100, and to our advertisers and sponsors, without whom we wouldn’t exist.”
Yahoo Acquires Right Media April 30, 2007
Posted by Bill in Auction-based media, Google, Online Advertising, Right Media, Yahoo Search Marketing, exchanges, online marketing.2 comments
Fun days here at Right Media… I have been incredibly impressed with Yahoo!s strategic vision and commitment to the exchange model through the process. I think this will be a great marriage. More importantly, it makes the competition with GoogleClick that much more exciting!
Official Press Release: Yahoo! Announces Agreement to Acquire Right Media, Largest Emerging Online Advertising Exchange
New York Times: Yahoo to Buy Ad Company in Bid to Compete With Google
Some excerpts from the above New York Times article, by MIGUEL HELFT:
- “The acquisition, to us, is a key step toward executing our long-term vision to build the leading advertising and publisher ecosystem both on and off the Yahoo network,” Terry S. Semel, Yahoo’s chief executive, said in an interview. The deal is to be announced today and is expected to close in three months.
- Right Media, a four-year-old company, runs an exchange in which advertisers and publishers buy and sell online ad placements in real time through an auction system. DoubleClick, which specializes in serving ads on Web sites, announced recently that it would develop a similar type of exchange. Online publishers are increasingly turning to exchanges like these to sell ad space on their sites.
- “What we look forward to do as an owner is put more inventory into that pot to help create a more vibrant exchange and create better pricing for everyone,” Mr. Semel said.
- Yahoo said that after the acquisition it would increase its participation in the exchange as both a buyer and seller of ads. The company said it planned eventually to sell all the nonpremium ad space on Yahoo through the exchange, a move executives said would enhance revenue.
- Google and Yahoo each dominate one segment of the online advertising market. Google is best at selling text ads that appear alongside search results and on other Web sites. Yahoo, which has lagged Google in search, is a leader in selling graphical ads, mostly on its own sites.
- By buying Right Media, analysts have said, Yahoo would accelerate its own efforts to sell and broker ads on other sites. Those efforts began taking shape recently, after Yahoo reached agreements to sell ads on eBay and on some 264 newspaper Web sites.
(Note: For the math impaired, $680 million for the remaining 80% that Yahoo! didn’t yet own is equal to an $850 million in total valuation…)
The Eagle Has Landed… on a Mission… March 12, 2007
Posted by Bill in Auction-based media, Online Auction Tips, Search Marketing, exchanges, online marketing.2 comments
| http://publications.mediapost.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=Articles.showArticleHomePage&art_aid=56890
Ex Did-It Chief Bill Wise Lands At Remix Media Ad Network |
| FORMER DID-IT CEO BILL WISE, who left the search engine marketing firm last month citing a disagreement about the direction of the company, starts today as president of Remix Media, a division of auction-based ad network Right Media, OnlineMediaDaily has learned.
Right Media made headlines in October when Yahoo bought a 20% stake in the firm for $45 million. In December, the company created the new brand Remix Media for its ad network, which allows advertisers to bid on display ad impressions from specific sites. Wise will oversee the growth of Remix, having experience with both auction-based media from his role at Did-It, as well as ad network management from his experience as general manager of DoubleClick Media. “It’s really kind of bridging the ad network business and the concept of an exchange with search marketing and everything else,” he said. Currently, Remix represents mostly lower-cost inventory, but part of Wise’s job will entail attracting both big-spending advertisers and more premium inventory, he said. “They’re now serving two billion impressions a day. They’ve gotten large very quickly. Right now, they’re representing a lot of remnant space,” he said. “But clearly, the strategy is how to go upstream, and that’s going to be a large part of my role.” Wise said the company aims to help marketers manage entire campaigns on an auction-based level. “More and more marketers and agencies need to embrace the concept of auction-based media, and Right Media has the online advertising piece figured out,” he said. “Remix Media, and we’re really establishing that as another brand, can really help marketers manage their inventory holistically.” |
The Cat is Out of the Bag… February 19, 2007
Posted by Bill in Press Mentions, Search Marketing, online marketing.6 comments
The below article appeared in MediaPost’s Online Media Daily today. While words in these articles can be twisted and interpreted many different ways, in the end I have a lot of respect for Did-it as a business, I am confident in their future prospects, and the employees over there are great and remain close to my heart. I am proud of what we were able to accomplish while I was CEO, and I will continue to cheer for them from the sidelines.
| Did-It CEO Resigns |
| BILL WISE, CEO OF SEARCH engine marketing firm Did-It, has resigned following a disagreement about the direction of the company.
Wise, who has worked with Did-It since January 2005 after being hired away from Ask Jeeves’ sales department, said his departure stemmed from a fundamental disagreement about the direction of the company. “I wanted to take the company in one direction. As CEO, and as a guy who really, really helped scale and create the brand that it has in the marketplace, that’s what I wanted to do,” said Wise, whose last day of work was Feb. 7. “We parted amicably.” Kevin Lee, the company’s executive chairman, who held the CEO spot before Wise, agreed the exit stemmed from a difference of opinion about long-term strategy. “We talked about the direction of the company, and decided that where we want to take the company is not the best fit, so he’s going to be moving on to other endeavors,” Lee said. “It’s just really a matter of prioritization of different things.” Did-It co-founder Dave Pasternack will take over most of Wise’s duties until a new CEO is hired. |
Yahoo Talks More About Panama January 29, 2007
Posted by Bill in Search Marketing, Yahoo Search Marketing, online marketing.add a comment
LAST WEEK’S WALL STREET Journal ran a piece on how Yahoo advertisers are faring as they migrate to the new Panama ad platform. I wanted to give Yahoo the opportunity to talk about the migration in its own words. What follows is my interview with Yahoo’s Senior Vice President of Advertiser Products and Platform, Steve Mitgang.
How do you think Panama will impact the Yahoo advertiser and searcher customer experience?
The focus of our old system was pay for placement. After you met the basics for editorial relevance, you’d be in the top spot if you paid enough money. That didn’t always lead to the most relevant search listings.
With Panama, the heart of the system is about making the most relevant connection between searchers and advertisers. We’re rewarding ads based on relevancy factors, like click-through rate. All things being equal, better ads get better click-through rates; so we’re incentivizing advertisers to focus on the quality of the ad message, and not simply on the bid price.
Meanwhile, our old system didn’t allow for enough testing. But in our new system, advertisers give us multiple creatives, which we rotate to see which has the most impact. So we have more quality ads to choose from, and ultimately more relevant listings for our searchers.
Everyone wins. Searchers see more relevant ads. As searchers see relevant ads, advertisers get more click traffic. Publishers on our content network get more clicks as well. And Yahoo gets greater revenue through our advertisers’ success.
How do you think the Panama migration is going?
I’d say it’s going extremely well. We’re well ahead of schedule on migrations, with tens of thousands of advertisers using the new system today. And call center volume is below expected, which means that people are pleased.
Of course, every company has customers with concerns, whether you’re talking about Apple, Nike, Microsoft — or yes, even Yahoo. When concerns come up, the most important things for us is to let the customer know how we can help, or that solutions are coming that will satisfy their needs.
One common challenge we’ve faced is the customers with very specific needs — customers with unique set-ups that really depart from the norm. Our No. 1 goal is to help them with whatever issue they have as the migration proceeds.
What has Yahoo done to educate advertisers about the migration?
We set out months and months ago to create the best migration possible for our advertisers. We talked to advertisers of all shapes and sizes — both to educate them, and to understand how to best educate them further as the migration progressed. We have provided every type of communication — brochures, e-mails, tutorials, letters, live seminars, webinars, and we placed our customer service numbers prominently.
Everything has been built from the customer perspective, and we’re working to make sure we get in front of advertisers so they know what’s coming, how to deal with change, and how to get help if they need help.
What do you think could have been done better to prepare advertisers for Panama, or to help them along the way as the migration proceeds?
The only thing we could have used is more time. A few days or a few weeks later gives you more cycles [of preparation], and would give you another opportunity to catch that bug or to prepare just a bit more — not just preparing the application, but readying the customer service side as well.
But all in all, we’ve done very, very well for an extremely complicated and complex job. And you can see that success in our low call volume to our help centers.
How far do you think Panama will go in helping Yahoo with its corporate challenges?
Like I said earlier, by giving the searcher a better experience, we’re also helping Yahoo’s bottom line. Panama will help everyone monetize better — the advertisers, the publishers, and Yahoo.
Beyond that, this is a platform we can iterate on. Our old platform was from 1998, and was built by a startup. It ended up becoming very popular, but it wasn’t designed to be what it eventually became. Panama is built with the future in mind: it isn’t just for 2007 — it’s for how digital marketing will evolve in the future. We’ve made it so it can be upgraded very fast, which means any new additions can be rolled out quickly, to better help all of Yahoo’s digital advertisers.
So Panama won’t just be for search ads?
We designed Panama not only around text and search listings, but around all kinds of digital advertising — including rich media, mobile, etc. We made it an ad platform, not just search platform.
Will there be offline ads through Panama as well?
I suppose that in theory, Panama’s ad configuration model could work for any type of ad. But for now, our goal is to be the first buy for advertisers in the digital world.
