CPX COO, Rob Rasko, Discusses Industry Changes With Burst Media CEO, Jarvis Coffin

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.

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