CPX COO, Rob Rasko, talked to Josh Crandall, CEO & Co-Founder of Netpop, a new social advertising and insights platform, at the IAB Leadership Meeting. Crandall explained that the Netpop platform provides brands and publishers the opportunity to structure conversation with their audiences around mutual interest. He looks forward to working with companies who are defining how consumers are interacting with advertising, around products that mean something to them, and working with consumers to change how advertising works for them.

Responding to IAB Chairman, Dave Moore’s, keynote speech encouraging more aggressive advertising, Crandall emphasized the importance of respecting consumers with the data that is included in advertising. He also pointed out that it’s important for consumers to understand their responsibility to participate with advertising and provide their perspective on it. This  opportunity to engage in a dialogue with the consumer is, he says, something that was never possible in traditional media, and should definitely be embraced.

Welcome back to the CPX Interactive Blog! If you haven't already, you may want to subscribe to our RSS feed, and be sure to connect with CPX across the Web! Thanks for visiting!

CPX Interactive is a major supporter of the IAB Long Tail Alliance, and we strongly encourage becoming a part of this innovative group.  One of the many benefits of joining the Alliance is the wealth of webinars they offer. Three webinars will be offered in April. Read on to find out more about them, and click here to register:

April 1^st
Noon EST

Title: Audience Measurement and Monetization for Publishers – Beyond Email
Presented by Datran Media

Description: During this IAB webinar, Datran Media Chief Revenue Officer Sean O’Neal will present strategies and guidance for publishers seeking to best leverage email and other digital marketing technologies to drive strategic business growth. The webinar will first familiarize publishers with strategies focused around the inbox.  O’Neal will then discuss complementary channels to ensure publishers are maximizing both their investment and return. Attendees will walk away with knowledge, case based information and immediate actions they can take to advantage their business.

April 15^th
Noon EST

Title: DIY Web Banners: Easy Self Serve Banners to Monetize Your Inventory
Creatives on Tap Presented By Theorem

Description: Learn how to leverage innovations in self serve banner building technology that allows your advertisers to build interactive banners in less than 5 clicks. Monetize your inventory while keeping costs low and driving higher CPM’s.

April 29^th
Noon EST

Title: Marketing Your Site to Maximize Revenue
Presented by Burst Media

Description: The presentation will address items a publisher should do on their own and when working with third parties to truly market the value of their site.  We’ll review best practices for media kits and marketing collateral, how to position their audience to advertisers, what types of new creative executions are getting attention, and how site design can impact monetization.

Although many marketers have realized the importance of social media in their overall strategy, not all of them are integrating social media with the rest of their campaign. Certain features, like polls and product reviews, are the most commonly integrated, but others, like blogs and microblogging, are still run separately by a large percentage of marketers.

Earlier this month, we wrote about how social media is only one piece of the marketing puzzle. There are things that cannot be done through social media, just as there are things that are not as effective through traditional media channels. Integrating social media with your campaign allows all of the various elements to compliment and supplement one another. For example, we include we include our Twitter/Facebook/Blog links on printed materials for industry events, and as part of the contact section at the bottom of press releases.   We also asked all of our employees to include these links in their e-mail signatures. These things give our social media presence context.

By Samantha Karol
@cpxsam
Sr. Marketing Assistant

Rob Rasko, CPX’s COO & President, sat down with Jay Sears, EVP Strategic Products & Biz Dev at ContextWeb, at the IAB Leadership Meeting. Rasko and Sears discussed the concept of “coopetition,” and the growing importance of openness and inter-connectivity.  Sears believes real time decision making has played a major part in encouraging collaboration among industry players.  Attending events like the IAB Leadership Meeting helps people like Sears reconnect with partners and friends and see what’s going on in the industry.

This year, ContextWeb plans to open up the ASDAQ Exchange to more groups, including advertiser direct, agency, publishers as buyers, and small and middle market. They also want to do more with real time bidding, and continue to develop and implement their contextual technology, Sears said.

Rasko and Sears are both taking part in organizing an Ad Networks and Exchanges conference that will take place in New York in May.  They talked about one of the major points of discussion for that event: the future of the ad network. Sears believes that ad networks of the future will serve a variety of different purposes, and that the strongest will be willing and able to cater to the needs of different industry players.

Last month, we introduced you to a new video-based initiative called Online with CPX Interactive. Since then, we’ve been posting a lot of videos here on the blog, many of them of interviews conducted by our COO & President, Rob Rasko, at the IAB Leadership Meeting. Now, we also have a special Online with CPX playlist on our YouTube page. It features seven videos of CEO/Founder, Mike Seiman, discussing CPX’s new technology and current developments. Mike shares some great information, so be sure to check it out!

AdMeld’s CRO & Founder, Ben Barokas, spoke with CPX’s COO & President, Rob Rasko, about his company’s role in the industry, and his thoughts on the future of advertising.  The two company leaders met up at the Annual IAB Leadership Meeting in Carlsbad, CA. Barokas came from a very operational background, and has incrementally used that experience, along with technology, to solve the issues publishers face. He described what AdMeld offers as a layer of efficiency for the the publisher, in order to deal with their multiple channels, to bring in additional revenue streams, and to understand from multiple data perspectives how to price and transact on particular types of inventory.

AdMeld has begun moving towards DSPs and real time bidding, and Barokas feels that real time bidding will become very important in the future. He explained that it would allow marketers and publishers to jointly agree on which impressions are the most important ones and under which circumstances to transact, in a much more efficient manner. Currently, Barokas sees about 20% of revenue coming through real time bidding, and he expects to see that double over the next 12 months.

In the future, Barokas sees more aggressive advertising as the right way to go. He believes that providing rich media experiences that incorporate different mediums, and using data to find the right audience at the right time, is what is going to drive ROI for advertisers for the long term. AdMeld plans on helping networks like CPX, from both the technical side and the relationship side, so they can deliver rich media campaigns more easily.

Barokas and Rasko are both members of the Networks and Exchanges Committee Working Group, currently dealing with establishing industry guidelines.  Barokas feels that different marketers and agencies need a variety of solutions based on the challenges they are trying to address at any given time. He says that the value networks have in that equation is providing a high level of service, and using data to make it clear to the marketer how to get to the desired level of targeting more efficiently.

Next month, Sid Fein, CPX Interactive’s EVP of Technology, will be speaking at the 4th annual SugarCon. The conference brings together SugarCRM users, developers, partners, and experts from around the world. This year, it will take place April 12-14 at the Palace Hotel in San Fransisco, CA.

Sid will be speaking at the session called: Case Study: Using Sugar as a Transactional Platform, which takes place on Tuesday, April 13 from 4:00-4:40 pm in the Marina Room.

CPX is a major user of the SugarCRM system, and it has played an essential role in the development of our proprietary ad management platform, CPX adROIt.

“SugarCRM is a significant technology at CPX Interactive enabling our staff to increase the level of service and efficiency that we provide to our Advertisers and Publishers,” Sid said.

Break a leg, Sid!

According to President & CEO, Jarvis Coffin, it’s a busy place at BurstMedia these days, as people look to monetize greater portions of the Internet.  CPX Interactive’s COO & President, Rob Rasko sat down with Coffin at the IAB Leadership Meeting to talk about changes they expect to see in the industry in 2010. Coffin’s company is very comfortable with their longtime business model, principally representing long tail websites, and feels confident in their knowledge of the vast reaches of the Internet.

One of the hot button issues for 2010 is the concept of more intrusive advertising, as discussed in IAB Chairman, Dave Moore’s, keynote speech at the event. Coffin understands Moore’s message of thinking ambitiously and aggressively, but believes there is a middle ground. He stressed the importance of remembering that this is a consumer driven world, and therefore a common ground must be found in order for consumers to embrace the ad messages they see. Coffin also pointed out that it’s possible to be intrusive without being obnoxious, and he believes that the best way to stay on the right side of that line is by making creative a priority.  He sees targeting as an opportunity to be multidimensional, and put the message into context through strong creative.

Coffin and Rasko discussed the ad network race, in which Coffin feels the end user should be the winner. However, he thinks some work still needs to be done for that to be the case in the media business. Burst’s customers are publishers, and when Coffin takes a look at the value chain, he sees publishers getting less than what they deserve. This is something that needs to be corrected, and Coffin predicts publishers will take steps towards change, including starting to insist on fewer and fewer network relationships. Although the two leaders disagree on the value of exclusivity, they both see a marketplace with less ad network players as a positive in the future.

CPX COO & President, Rob Rasko, met up with GE’s Director of Global Strategy, Andy Markowitz, at the IAB Leadership Meeting to talk about changing the ecosystem, the idea of more aggressive advertising, innovative marketing techniques, and more.  Markowitz discussed the existing interest in digital within his group at GE, and that they will ultimately be charged with elevating practices and standards within the company. He plans to show people how to use technology to create more relevancy, both from a consumer standpoint, and a B2B standpoint.

Rasko and Markowitz discussed one of the major topics of conversation among IAB members: the growing tendency towards more aggressive, intrusive advertisements.  Markowitz is open to exploring new ways of doing things, and believes there should be tolerance for new formats, but he was also sure to point out that it’s not an all or nothing situation. In other words, an ad doesn’t have to either be totally aggressive or not at all. He stressed the importance of using creative wisely, as well as taking the opportunity to create better contextual relevancy.

In terms of innovative marketing techniques, Markowitz would like to see better idea generation. More specifically, he would love for marketers to come in to a meeting ready to lay out an idea for what they can do with one of his businesses right away, and the more relevant the idea, the better. He would also appreciate more of a focus on B2B in addition to B2C. Additionally, Markowitz sees data becoming increasingly more relevant and a bigger piece of the puzzle in the near future. Not only will it be helpful from the audience selection standpoint, but also in terms of the ability to mine data and understand the audience better.

CPX Interactive CEO & Co-Founder, Mike Seiman, explains how CPX optimizies a campaign: