Maxifier CEO: Online Streaming of Super Bowl a 'Key Turning Point' For Ad Industry

For the first time ever, the 2012 Super Bowl will be streamed online, giving advertisers and publishers alike an opportunity to measure the effectiveness of their ads. Let's face it—who doesn't look forward to the ads during the game? Super Bowl viewers and enthusiasts will be able to click on ads, giving campaign tracking companies like Maxifier the opportunity to gather extensive data on viewer patterns to help businesses develop improved advertising strategies for years to come.In addition to the Super Bowl's online streaming, mobile streaming will contribute to the data Maxifier is able to gather about advertising effectiveness. Maxifier will be able to detail how consumers value different types of large-brand ads on different formats. The Super Bowl's live streaming provides an opportunity to measure the impact of the ads. Publishing Business Today recently asked Jonathon Shaevitz, Maxifier's CEO, how the Super Bowl's live streaming will change the industry of advertising. PE: Will there be any difference in the ads running in real time compared to online?Jonathon Shaevitz: For the first time in its history, the Super Bowl will be streamed online. However this is not the first large sporting event to do so. We’ve already seen the US Open streamed live last year and later this year the Olympics will be streamed online as well. Demand and inventory are being handled differently for the online stream and television broadcast. The online version of the event will have a separate ad load. While many agencies may choose to purchase both online and television spots, they are exclusive. So if you’re watching online, you’re not guaranteed to see the same ads as your TV-favoring counterparts, and vice versa. PE: What mediums will stream the Super Bowl?Shaevitz: The Super Bowl is being streamed on NBC's website and Verizon's NFL Mobile application.PE: What does the online channel vs. the TV route bring for the marketer? Shaevitz: The key one is what has always been the strength of online advertising, that being the ability to gauge campaign effectiveness in real-time. By “campaign effectiveness” I mean delivering to the specific advertiser goals, whether this is click thru rates (CTR), eCPM, CPA or user engagement, among many others, in order to ensure that they have a quantifiable measure to determine campaign success. This is something that we very much support and our adMAX solution enables users to employ a wealth of metrics – both direct response and branding – to ensure they can measure their success in the most appropriate way to their business or their advertisers. PE: Is the streaming of the Super Bowl significant for online advertising?Shaevitz: This year’s Super Bowl is a key turning point, not only in terms of advertising during the game, but for the advertising industry as a whole. It signals a new trend in sports broadcasting, and the added implementation of online streaming will allow agencies and publishers to have greater insight than ever before into the effectiveness of their most visible, and expensive ads. Such insight will lead to the development of new ad products that take advantage of single one-off, high profile events, be it sporting events or major award shows. Going forward, simply offering a one dimensional flat advert online that seeks to do little more than get the brand out there (just mirroring the TV approach) is a wasted opportunity. You need to have a strategy that embraces the area in which the ad is published in order to derive optimum value for both advertiser and publisher. For example, the ability to run a survey during the game, generate immediate feedback and encourage commentary and interaction all helps drive valuable user engagement and deliver to branding metrics. These new types of data will be very valuable as the largest brands plan out their advertising strategies for the rest of the year. Finally, the fact there is mobile streaming this year also adds to the bevy of new data that publishers will have on their hands. It should be very interesting to see how publishers value different types of large-brand ads on different formats, and how that will affect inventory pricing going forward.PE: What do the new technologies mean for publishers?Shaevitz: One of the biggest issues facing publishers today is how to maximize the value of their total inventory. Many solutions focus on solving the issue around remnant monetization but I believe there is a need to take a holistic view and then make decisions around inventory to support the publisher’s business goals. This may be to focus more on increasing the yield on premium, re-evaluate what is sent to third parties to monetize, or even deciding against a policy of seeking to monetize everything and take a more restrictive approach. Our adMAX offering is a solution that can help publishers achieve this. Finally, real-time campaign effectiveness technology allows publishers to change ad placement whenever they want. I can envision that during the 2013 Super Bowl, publishers will have learnt a great deal from 2012 and change ads in the fourth quarter based on how similar ones did in the second! PE: What are some major publishers that use Maxifier to measure ad efficiency?Shaevitz: Maxifier’s clients include Forbes, The Guardian and Channel 4, among many others.

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Maxifier CEO: Online Streaming of Super Bowl a 'Key Turning Point' For Ad Industry

Danielle Devita

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Danielle Devita