This is a special time for Eyeblaster. Eyeblaster is unveiling MediaMind – the next generation campaign management platform. Usually we avoid writing about our products and services – we prefer to focus on strategic issues facing our clients. But I am writing about MediaMind because MediaMind is actually all about our clients. It is the first platform to be developed from the ground up for agencies, based on the wishes, ideas, and imagination of hundreds of agency insiders. MediaMind is the consummation of years of planning and development, millions of dollars in R&D investment and thousands of hours of user interviews.

This is also a special time because we are celebrating Eyeblaster’s 10^th birthday.

Over the course of this past decade, we have introduced many new products to the market, from rich media innovations to general campaign management tools. Over the past ten years we have learned a lot from our clients. Something very important that we learned was that while they appreciate the advanced creative-production, campaign-optimization and analytics solutions we provide, the reality of their everyday lives makes it extremely difficult for them to invest in analysis, strategy and innovation. We realized there was an enormous operational problem at the core of our clients’ business. The next logical step was inevitable – we realized that the ones responsible for this problem were above all technology vendors, ourselves included.

As we gathered, like we do every year, to discuss our development plans – our roadmap – it was clear to all of us that something had to be done to help our clients break free from their predicament. This is how MediaMind was born. In my recent blog entry titled “Doctor, I Have a Problem” I broke down the problem into three areas: dysfunctional campaign processes, analytic complexities and inflexible technology.

We built MediaMind on three main pillars in order to address these three problems head-on. We hope to eliminate the dysfunctional processes by introducing hundreds of innovative features, small and large, which add up to Streamlined Ad Serving. In order to avoid analytic complexities we invested in many tools that are focused on providing Actionable Analytics. In order to allow the flexibility so badly needed to create best-of-breed solutions we are committed to an Open Platform strategy. There’s much more to say about the three pillars of MediaMind, I plan to write about them soon.  You are also invited to read about MediaMind on Eyeblaster’s corporate website.

Indeed, MediaMind introduces many valuable solutions for our clients. But more important than the specific solutions are the client relationships that made them possible. MediaMind does not solve all problems; we know there’s much more work to do. As MediaMind is rolled out to our clients worldwide over the next few months, it is truly a time to celebrate. But even after the initial celebrations cease, we will continue to embrace the relationships behind MediaMind. We will continue to uphold our commitment to improving the lives of our clients and partners and help them achieve their grandest goals. Surely, if we manage that, we have many more special days ahead of us.

 Eldad Persky | Director, Product Planning & Business Development

About two years ago I was visiting a media agency to discuss some ideas for a new product.  After the meeting, one of the traffickers, let’s call her Abby, pulled me aside and asked to show me a huge Excel file she had to produce in order to traffic a campaign on one of the major campaign management platforms. She spent hours working on that file, compiling hundreds of small insignificant details. The end result allowed her to get her campaign live but did nothing beyond that to improve the results of her campaign. This was just one of the many frustrating aspects of Abby’s job, she said.

Something about this short conversation was surprising to me. It wasn’t the content – I already knew coming in how unfriendly and unforgiving some campaign management platforms were. It was actually the tone and intensity of this conversation that grabbed my attention.

Abby knew there was nothing I could have done to help her.  The agency she was working for was forced to continue to use that specific platform due to some existing client relationships. Nonetheless, Abby was eager to illustrate to me the senseless way she had been spending her days. As I was watching her get taken-over by her story,  it occurred to me that she just needed someone to talk to- someone to acknowledge her pain. It’s like when you go to see the doctor. Three minutes in to the visit he or she already knows what’s wrong with you. Yet, you spend the next twenty minutes just describing how much it hurts…

In the years that have passed since meeting Abby I have heard her frustration and pain echoed by traffickers, planners, designers, developers and media & creative directors. While the digital space has matured and grown more complicated, the supporting technology has by and large stagnated. Abby and her friends have been left hanging, struggling to get through their campaigns – one Excel at a time…

I believe that as a first step, all of us in this industry have to admit we have a problem. In fact, based on my observations, we actually have (at least) three problems:

First, we have dysfunctional campaign processes. There is not one aspect of the campaign management process that lives up to the promise of efficiency and automation worthy of this digital age. Traffickers like Abby are spending days trying to push media plans into awkward and unforgiving platforms, refreshing browsers to find live ad screen grabs one by one, endlessly exchanging tags with publishers while struggling to avoid looming catastrophes.

Second, we are facing immense analytic complexities. If you make it through the sisyphic effort of consolidating numerous separate data sources, you’re likely to end up with a vast collection of data that actually leaves you less intelligent. Cross channel analysis is often impossible – search and display are managed in silos while true path to conversion is often ignored.

Third, we are struggling with inflexible technology. Our universe includes numerous tools, platforms and databases that refuse to talk with each other. Trying to get the ad server to synch up with the billing platform is almost impossible. Integrating web analytics with campaign engagement and conversion data is excruciating. Selecting the right bid management solution for our “best of breed” platform remains a fantasy as we’re locked into inferior tools cross-sold to us by our legacy vendors.

Admitting we have a problem is the first step towards a solution. The second step is to define clearly what we are looking for. After spending the last two years listening to Abby and many of her friends – the true unsung heroes of this industry – I think their message is loud and clear. They are saying – DIGITAL SHOULD BE SIMPLE.

Eldad Persky | Director, Product Planning & Business Development

As a product guy every now and then I come up with an idea for a new cool product or service that is bound to change the industry forever. Over the years I learned (the hard way) that before I ask anyone to invest millions of dollars in my ideas I better run them by a few clients – give them an opportunity to put me back in touch with reality before I embarrass myself.

The other day I had one of these ideas – a service that would provide a new layer of information on how campaigns are performing against expectations. I was all excited about it; certain it would grant me the recognition and gratitude so long overdue… Alas, instead of fireworks my idea was received with a cold shower. It’s not that agency planners, traffickers and designers don’t appreciate advanced analytical tools; it’s not that they don’t want to optimize their spending across channels or tailor their message to individual users – it’s just that in today’s reality they consider themselves lucky to be able to get a basic campaign live on time. It turned out that after going all the way to hell and back trying to manage their campaigns, my clients had little time and energy left for anything else. Sadly, those other things they never get around to are actually the ones they would really like to be spending their time on…

I couldn’t help but wonder, why is it that so much attention is being directed in industry publications and events to the newest, cutting edge marketing developments that very few of us will get a chance to try out anytime soon while the core of our business is suffering from inadequate tools, antiquated processes and dysfunctional communications? True, some of the operational challenges I’m talking about are the subject of IAB or AAAA initiatives, but shouldn’t we be doing more to address these key challenges? 

One of the roots of the problem, if I may be presumptuous, is that technology tools have been allowed to plateau when it comes to innovation to solve operational challenges.  It is common in young industries that clients are forced to accept suboptimal tools due to the limited availability of relevant solutions. This industry, however, is no longer so young and agencies should not have to compromise anymore.

It is our duty to reject the existing status quo and innovate to introduce new tools and solutions that would take away some of the pain inflicting our clients. Only then will our clients be free to direct their efforts towards the more strategic, advanced objectives, leveraging our cool new products and services. Maybe then I will finally be able to find my industry changing idea (hmm… actually maybe I’m on to something here…)

Eldad Persky, Director of Product Planning

If I had a dollar for every time I heard someone in our industry explain that what’s needed in order to avoid problems in the creative process between agencies and publishers is an updated creative specs database, I would be able to make a handsome media buy for a campaign to promote such a database. But if I did, I am not sure my money would be well spent…

It’s not that we don’t need a regularly updated, standardized creative specs database – we do. We need it so creative designers and developers can build their ads to specs or according to a lowest common denominator across publishers and avoid trouble down the road. Actually, we do have some spec databases that can be helpful. The IAB introduced its creative specs database last year; Eyeblaster has recently revamped its spec search tool and updates it regularly.  While it is true that availability of specs is important, it is not the whole story.

If I had another dollar for every time I saw creative shops submit ads to publishers despite clearly knowing they are not up to specs, I would be able to “accessorize” the ads on my campaign to the extent that no publisher would ever run them…  Why do creative shops do that? Well, some folks are plain lazy – they figure they can throw the ads out there and see what happens. But there’s another reason – one no one likes to talk about, and that is – the theory of general relativity applies not only to time travel but also to publisher specs.

In reality, often there are no valid creative specs – each agency negotiates its own version of the specs with publishers, many times per client and sometimes even per campaign. Technology may have developed over the last millennia but good old-fashioned haggling remains unchanged. Publishers understand they have to demonstrate flexibility to attract and retain the big fish. The agency that sits on top of the Toyota budget can get away with much more than the one that represents “Joe’s Jersey City Repair Shop”. Many creative agencies maintain their own records of “what we can get away with” creative specs and thus have limited use for the official, equal for all, databases.

Who knows, maybe one day we’ll see publishers and agencies negotiate creative specs through an online automated exchange… In the meantime, I will hang on to all my virtual dollars.

Eldad Persky, Director of Product Planning