AOP speaker interview: Jeremy Mason, Revenue Science
- Added:
- Jul 22, 2008
This month, AOP are hosting a forum on behavioural targeting. Netimperative caught up with one of the event’s speakers, Jeremy Mason, managing director, European Operations, Revenue Science to discuss the growth of behavioral targeting.
Q. Where has Behavioural Targeting come from come from and where is it going?
Behavioural Targeting started in the UK in 2001, but had a very hard time getting traction due to limitations in technology and the UK ad market slowdown in 2002. For example, segments were generally not bespoke, audiences exhibited size decay, there were no best practices, etc. But over the past few years we have seen more discipline on behavioural audience segment creation, agency/publisher collaboration, and overall understanding of the value proposition for all sides. And this has led to a generally good equilibrium between agencies and most key publishers. I think moving forward, more publishers will be doing advanced audience segmentation, there will be a greater adoption amongst key publishers, and agencies and clients will be pushing for expanded segment definition capabilities.
Q. Do you feel publishers are generally making the most of behavioural targeting?
Many publishers have embraced it to the full extent – exploring the data to find unique audiences, working with agencies to build advanced audience segments, sharing segments with other key publishers, extending audiences across inventory sources, etc. But many publishers are still toiling in the early stages of behavioural targeting, and if they are to succeed with consultative selling and agency/client relationships, they will need to embrace advanced behavioural targeting.
Q. What are the main barriers to entry for publishers when adopting behavioural targeting? Are the costs coming down?
Most publishers and agencies have felt that the costs have been very reasonable, but the real barrier is a clear understanding of the value it will provide to agencies and to the monetization of the site. Once that is understood, and dev resources are allocated, most publishers actively engage and offer this to their clients.
Q. What does the future hold for behavioural targeting?
There should be more audience segment sharing, more advanced segment definition, an introduction of predicative targeting on a broader scale, and more integration of offline database sources - as long as the consumer privacy is protected. Behavioural targeting has grown at a fast rate over the last few years, and the future should see the same level of innovation and adoption – if not more!
Jeremy will be speaking at the AOP Behavioural Targeting Forum on Wednesday 30th July 2008, for more information, click here.