Improve Digital is the leading Yield Management technology provider for premium publishers in Europe. Its Ad Network Optimization platform enables publishers to maximize revenue from remnant inventory. Improve Digital’s organization is set up to deliver increased revenues, control and quality to publishers. It works closely together with Ad Network partners to foresee in campaign goals and monetization objectives.

Business Development Manager Demand Partners (BDMDP) – Role description
As BDMDP you will be responsible for establishing and scaling ad network relationships in the Netherlands, Germany, Italy and Spain and potentially other countries. You will evangelize Improve Digital’s solutions for ad networks, determine the appropriate product and services fit, and build long-lasting relationships. You work closely together with the Strategic Partnership Managers at the supply side and report to the Manager Business Development.

Your office location is Amsterdam the Netherlands. Expected travelling is about 10% of time.

Responsibilities
•    Continuously prospect for new business in your territory and develop your revenue pipeline
•    Lead ad network sales efforts through all aspects of the sales cycle
•    Develop new and grow established ad network relationships
•    Understand your clients business and marketing objectives
•    Understand and match Improve Digital’s inventory with clients objectives
•    Be the thought leader on targeting and ad serving possibilities
•    Initiate technical integration of Demand Partners

What we offer
•    A dynamic and international working environment in a growing industry
•    The opportunity to work with the most advanced technology in online advertising
•    Competitive employment conditions

What we look for
•    Bachelor’s degree or higher
•    English and Dutch speaking. Additional langue preferred (Spanish/Italian/French/German)
•    Experience at Ad Network, Publisher or Media Agency is preferred
•    Deep knowledge of the internet business, the media pricing models and the technologies
•    Experience of 2-3 years with online advertising sales
•    Proven record of meeting or exceeding sales goals
•    Strong written and verbal communication skills
•    Strong presentation and negotiation skills
•    Ability to take charge and deliver results with minimal supervision
•    Ability and desire to quickly learn new technologies
•    High energy, self motivated and passionate about working in a fast paced start up environment

Do you feel like you could be part of our international team of outstanding professionals?
Send your resume and motivation to: resume@improvedigital.com

Native English, French or German

As strategic partnership manager you are responsible for the day-to-day management of our publisher clients and ad network partners. Your responsibilities include managing the publisher, account setup, ad network applications, analyse and interpret data and reporting that will yield competitive insights for our clients and partners, advice them on how to improve results and execute on that. You will work closely with clients to understand their goals and deliver on their online ad inventory performance. Experience in online advertising on the publisher or ad network side is preferred.

Qualifications

• At least a Bachelor’s degree
• Experience dealing with customers and very customer-service oriented attitude is crucial
• Native English, German or French, additional language is a pre
• Should be very confident with excel and have good analytical skills
• Experience of 1-2 years with online advertising
• Deep knowledge of the internet business, the media pricing models and the technologies
• Attention to detail
• Self-starter – ability to see a need and fulfill it without being asked to do so
• Eager to learn and contribute to the growth of a company
• Excellent knowledge of MS Office, particularly Excel

What we offer

•  A dynamic and international working environment in a growing industry
•  The opportunity to work with the most advanced technology in online advertising
•  Competitive employment conditions

Do you feel like you could be part of our international team of outstanding professionals?
Send your resume and motivation to: resume@improvedigital.com

The Improve Digital report was carried out at a recent AOP event with over forty UK premium publishers. Over 51% of respondents thought that RTB could help increase the pricing for unsold ad inventory. It’s a slim majority granted, but that number is impressive given some of the misguided coverage of late in the space. Despite all the misinformation in the industry, publishers
remain a practical lot, and are likely to try RTB to see if it actually works. If it does work then they will pile into it. I have no doubt about that.

Another key finding from the report is that 80% of publishers surveyed expect the number of mobile ad networks to increase considerably over the coming three years. This thinking is motivated by the explosive growth of content creation in the space and the subsequent ad inventory that is now available to buy. You can see why the yield optimisers are moving aggressively into mobile. The market is beginning to mature. With Google offering DFP for mobile (and possibly DFA?), you’d expect the media spend to flow into this marketing channel and the number of ad nets to arrive en masse. And who will the publishers turn to manage these multiples of new ad networks? You guessed it: the yield optimisers.

See original post from ExchangeWire>>

David Smith, has spent his career in management consulting, venture-funded technology companies, and media advisory services.  Dave was instrumental in the successful exit of two start-ups, most recently with the advertising yield management technology firm Rapt (acquired by Microsoft, April 2008).  With Rapt, and later with Microsoft Advertising, he built industry-leading publisher solutions sales and services teams. Dave will bring tremendous sales, sales strategy and sales management experience to Improve Digital.
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Ben Crain is a well-known industry expert on inventory, pricing, and yield management in digital media who brings vast knowledge, experience and insight to Improve Digital. Most recently, he has been focused on the technology side of the equation, with Rapt (acquired by Microsoft, April 2008) and later with Microsoft Advertising.  Turning his skills as a practitioner on their head, he was central to the development and deployment of Rapt’s standard-setting suite of advertising yield solutions.

“We are excited to have both Ben and Dave on our Board and believe the addition of these 2 prominent industry veterans will prove valuable as we continue expansion of our business and bring innovative revenue optimisation solutions to the market.” said Joëlle Frijters, Improve Digital’s Chief Executive Officer.

The Improve Digital advisory board is a strong, balanced blend of skills and experience. The board provides guidance and insight in core areas important to Improve Digital.

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Organised and supported by:

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Online display advertising has seen a dramatic evolution in recent times – With the rise of ad networks, exchanges and optimisers, to sit beside sales houses and in-house teams, the current online advertising landscape is far more sophisticated than ever before. It also offers publishers much greater choice.

There are new ways for publishers to trade and new ways to generate additional revenue and cost savings.  But with greater complexity, comes increased challenges such as controlling the quality of campaigns, creatives and ultimately protecting the brand.

So how can publishers take full advantage of what the market has to offer while overcoming the challenges of increasing automation, and commoditisation?  And what further opportunities will the new decade bring?

This forum brings together industry experts to examine the current state of online trading and to look in-depth, through cross-industry panels, at two key issues impacting on publishers:  the changing dynamics of buying and selling media; and the role of audience data in generating publisher revenue.

AGENDA:

2.00 pm      Registration
2.30 pm      Chair’s Introduction and Overview
2.40 pm      Trends in display advertising, Matt O’Neil, President Admonsters Europe

3.00 pm      The changing dynamics of buying and selling media
                          Dave Katz, Head of Trading
                          Topics:
                          * Agency networks – what they are and what they are doing
                          * How publishers can benefit from real bidding buying platforms
                          * Publisher networks – where they fit in

3.20 pm      Panel Debate
                         * Mark Mannino, VP of Supply and Data, MediaMath
                         * Nick Burcher, Head of VNC UK & Products / Partnerships EMEA, Vivaki
                         * Tom Bowman, VP Global Ad Strategy & Operations, BBC Worldwide
                         * Ciaran O’Kane, Editor, ExchangeWire.com

3.50 pm      Coffee Break

4.10 pm       The role of audience data in generating display revenues for publishers,
                          Donald Hamilton,  Partner Precedio and former MD Wunderloop &
                          Kimon Zorbas, VP of IAB Europe
                          * The role of audience data in current and future revenues
                          * Why 3^rd party data is so important
                          * Who owns the data – Digital Agencies, Media Corps and Digital Giants
                          * The legal aspect – UK versus Europe

4.30pm       Panel Debate
                          Panelists:
                          * Kimon Zorbas, VP of IAB Europe,
                          * Steve Dorey, Head of Business Development, Criteo,
                          * Stuart Coleman, MD, Audience Science
                          * Abeed JanMohamed, Head of Agency Sales ESPN Digital Media

5.00pm       Wrap Up

5.10pm        Drinks

Book your tickets at AOP here and join us

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Pubmatic has offered RTB capabilities to publishers and ad networks in the US since early 2009. It is currently rolling out Version 3.0 of the product, which will also be available in the UK and Europe via Improve Digital during the first quarter of 2010. The technology enables online advertisers to reach the right user, in the right place, at the right time, with initial results showing an increase of up to 135 percent on click-throughs and 150 percent improvement in conversion rates. This adds significant value to the publisher’s offering.

‘Understanding Real-Time Bidding (RTB) From the Publisher Perspective’ explains how publishers can channel the potential of RTB through better-performing campaigns, which have a positive impact on all parties involved:

• Publishers adopting RTB make their advertising space more valuable and can therefore charge more for impressions (advertisers that have better performing campaigns can pay more to target the right users)
• Advertisers see increased ROI
• Users see adverts that are targeted at them and their specific interests, so their online experience is better because it is more relevant

The move is in response to the rapid growth of the mobile advertising market.  Among the key findings of the IAB UK’s mobile ad spend figures published in 2009:  £28.6 million was spent on mobile in 2008, a figure almost double the previous year.  Looking ahead, recent study by GroupM forecasts that mobile advertising spend will increase 19 percent to $3,3 billion in 2010.

The combination of mobile and online offering further strengthens Improve Digital’s footprint with premium publishers in The UK and Europe.

Publisher benefits include:

• Ad network representation: The platform connects to the optimal mix of mobile ad networks according to publishers’ content, audience, and brand safety requirements
• Real-time decision making:  The platform decides in real-time which mobile ad network can best monetise each impression and select the highest paying ad network every time
• Brand control:  The same comprehensive brand control capabilities that protect Improve Digital’s web publishers from unwanted ads, channel conflict, and ad latency issues will also extend to the mobile platform
• Audience insight:  Mobile-specific data points such as device, user location, and user demographics are considered as part of the ad network and exchange selection process to maximise publisher revenue
• One consolidated management dashboard (web and mobile):  Publishers will be able to manage and review comprehensive reporting and analytics from one consolidated dashboard that tracks both their Web based ad sales and mobile ad sales

PubMatic worked with digital media consultant Bennett Zucker to conduct a series of interviews with online advertising executives. The report was unveiled at PubMatic’s Ad Revenue 2009 conference to help premium online publishers better navigate the segments and companies within the 2nd Channel ecosystem as objectively as possible.

The 2nd Channel Ecosystem is comprised of nine primary segments that are driving up the value of premium online publisher ad inventory:

• Media Buying Platforms: Also referred to as “buy side optimisation platforms,” this new segment within online display advertising works directly with ad agencies to improve efficiencies of working with ad networks and ad exchanges, including more precise audience targeting and improved campaign analytics.

• Dynamic Ad Creative Technologies: The companies in this segment have technology that changes an advertiser’s message to change depending on the user that is viewing it, allowing the messaging to be more personalized, and therefore improving campaign performance.

• Data Exchanges & Platforms: Marketplaces designed specifically to buy and sell data allow advertisers to buy specific audiences and publishers to earn revenue from data sales in this marketplace.

• Ad Networks & Targeting Platforms: Ad networks sell inventory that a publisher cannot sell themselves largely due to an excess of advertising inventory. There are several types of ad networks including vertical, behavioral, contextual, rich media, video, and more.

• Ad Exchanges: Ad exchanges offer publishers the ability to turn tough-to-monetize ad impressions into revenue by bringing market liquidity in the form of demand equal to the abundance of supply.

• Ad Servers: While not a new segment, ad servers are mission critical for publishers. Virtually every ad served is a result of multiple ad servers that work together in order to deliver and track ads in milliseconds.

• Ad Revenue Optimizers: Sometimes called ad network optimizers, this segment allows publishers to work with a large number of ad networks at one time. The segment also works with premium publishers to increase ad revenue leveraging various technologies, while also helping to protect the publisher’s brand by keeping unwanted advertisements off of their sites.

• Site Inventory & Sales Management Tools: Companies in this segment are often used to help online publishers package, price, and sell their inventory based on a number of complex variables including price forecasting and yield management.

• Measurement & Analytics: This segment is comprised of several smaller sub-segments including companies that check ad effectiveness through surveys, companies that verify campaigns to ensure the reporting is as accurate as possible, and analytical companies that help publishers to plan for future campaigns.

Download the full report at: http://tinyurl.com/yk52kb9

Download an extract of the report at: http://tinyurl.com/ykqaau3

Without an automated dynamic default technology in place, the only choice is to crate a static chain of networks in which each network has a certain order. This order stays the same for the whole month, week or day. Changing the order each day is an enormous amount of work. Ad network pricing changes constantly, therefore adjusting static daisy chains weekly, or even daily, isn’t enough to maximize yield.

Improve Digital’s Dynamic Default Optimisation©
Improve Digital solved the above problem with its Dynamic Default Optimisation©. Improve Digital implements dynamic default tags across multiple ad networks in realtime. Thing such as default characteristics, pricing trends, volume, frequencies of each network are monitored and measured in real-time in order to define the right ‘mix of networks’ in real time (caroussel versus waterfall).

Dynamic Default Optimization updates the daisy chain in real time, for every impression, which ensures that the impression goes to the highest paying ad network at every moment of the day.

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Publisher benefits
The publisher benefits are significant and immediate.

1. Increased revenues – Our data shows that publishers experience noticeable revenue lifts because of the increased value of their inventory on top of the average lift of the ad network optimiser itself.
2. Better user experience – users get more relevant ads. Publishers also get transparency on the ad network that is serving the ad.
3. Exposure to more budgets – as more and more utilisation of RTB.

Publishers can always opt-out
Publishers always decide what is running on their inventory and how. We’re here to help premium publishers, and they are under no obligation to participate in campaigns, if they don’t feel it is right for them at that moment..

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