Since its enactment by the EU Council on the 26th of October 2009, the European Telecommunication Directive on cookies has increasingly drawn concern from a number analysts and critics; speculating the impacts it will have on the online industry after implementation into national law of member states. In November 2009, the National Regulatory Frame Work was accepted by the EU, and it calls for the review of a number of directives that need changes for the purpose of: Better Consumer Protection and Internal promotion of the EU market. Measures in the directive according to Art 66 states that: The storage of information on a user’s computer and access to stored information on that computer is only allowed if the user have been provided with clear and comprehensive information and has given his/her consent. Permission for the storage of and access to information on a user’s pc can be done through browser settings; and the interpretation of this directive is at the discretion of the member states. Thirteen EU member state including France signed a declaration stating that the browser settings for the purpose of permission should be enough. The Netherlands failed to sign this declaration.

The Dutch Dilemma

To give a clearer insight of what is about to happen, we will use The Netherlands for our analysis. On the 15th of April, 2010, the consultation version of this new directive was published by the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs and it is expected to have been implemented into Dutch law by the 25th of May 2011. According to the Dutch consultation version of the new directive, the existing Opt-out law on cookie will be replaced by an Opt-in law. It says: “Cookies can only be stored on a computer, or accessed from that computer, if a user has explicitly given his or her consent after having been provided with clear and comprehensive information” Even though the EU directive makes provision for the browser settings option, the Dutch law makers however adopted a stronger interpretation of this directive; different from the other member states. This of course was met with very strong remarks from the Interactive Advertising Bureau in the Netherlands. In a white paper released by the IAB, Marco Derksen, Head of IAB NL said “a change in the existing Opt-out law is unwise”. This change is an aggravation of the European directive that allows for an Opt-out law. He further stressed that an Opt-in law will lead to deterioration in internet user experience, and the economic interest of the industry will be severely damaged by this new law. “The IAB is open for every regulation that contributes to more transparency on the use of cookie as long as it’s practically implementable; and in which the long-term interest of users as well as the industry are accounted for, he continued”. The 4 leading organizations: The Dutch Dialogue Marketing Association (DDMA), Dutch Publishers Association (NUV), The Confederation of Netherlands Industry and Employers (VNO-NCW), together with the IAB and other concerned representatives have vehemently criticized these proposed changes by the Dutch law makers. They drafted a proposed alternative that was sent to the law makers. Whether further adjustments will be made based on the alternatives the industry placed forward is still unknown. However, the industry eagerly awaits their response.

Access to view a website will be denied if a user fails to give his / her permission for cookie storage.

Its implications

The change of the existing Opt-out law to Opt-in and the use of the phrase Prior Informed Consent, the Dutch law makers have made the yet to be implemented EU directive even stricter, making it even harder to be integrated in the existing online business models.
Is the new regulation in the interest of internet users?
In the proposed Opt-in law, whenever a user visits a website that makes use of cookies, he or she will be confronted with tens of windows from website owners and third parties requesting his/her consent to store and access earlier placed cookies on the user’s computer. On average, a new site stores 10 cookies. Let’s assume a user visits 10 websites during a surfing session, multiply that by 10 = 100 clicks (Permission to store cookies). This will irritate users and consequently render this proposed regulation useless as they will automatically click away without reading.
An implementation of the Opt-in Law will severely damage the Dutch online industry; placing the Netherlands behind other European States in innovation, competition, and developments.

Possible Alternatives

Keeping the current Opt-out law in which, website operators and third parties may store and access cookies on a user’s computer except in the case where the user does not allow that. Most of the existing internet browsers offer users the possibility to reject cookies or customized cookie placement on their computer for both first and third party cookies based on their preferences without the need for any further intricate regulation.
Another simplified possibility will be an Opt-in law through a user’s internet browser. In this case, cookies may only be placed or access from a user’s computer if he/she has explicitly given permission for that. Such permission should occur once, and the granted permission should cover all other websites that uses cookies.
However, the Dutch proposal for the new Opt-in regulation in which prior informed consent is explicitly required from the user will only hinder internet usage as users will continuously have to grant permission to website operators and third parties during each surfing session for the placement of cookies before content on the operator’s websites can be viewed. This procedure will be repeated over and over; which will only annoy the user as a large percentage of his or her time spent online will be used in repeating these un-thoughtful procedures.

Conclusion

By taking into account the personal preferences of users, internet cookies contribute largely in optimizing user experience. Therefore, an implementation of an Opt-in law with prior consent before cookies can be placed on a user’s computer, have far-reaching consequences and will ravage web surfing. This backward regulation is a big threat to the entire European online advertising industry. It will lead to unfair competition due to differences in interpretation by member states, and the sole purpose of behavioral targeting, which in its entirety largely promotes user experience will be hindered, as a result.
DQ&A is fully aware of these issues and developments. Together with partners and the IAB, we are closely monitoring every step as we seek alternatives that will eventually sustain the interest of both our clients and users.Updates regarding the decision of the lawmakers will be published on our blog. Stay tuned!

What changes to the current Opt-out law will be mutually beneficial for users in the Netherlands and the EU as a whole? Take into consideration the long-term impacts that any change to the current opt-out law will have on online business models.

Heleen Dura-van Oord, Founder of DQ&A, mentioned that the current shareholders selected van Boekel based on his history as a visionary online entrepreneur, “Rick is not only one of the industry leaders, he is also well known for his leadership skills and ambitions, as well for his in-depth understanding of the digital industry and his great international network”. “He has proven top level execution skills and driven shareholder value during his career, founding successful companies like Bol.com and leading organizations in an international level,” continued Dura-van Oord.

Van Boekel will take duties at DQ&A on July 1. He succeeds Peter van Wingerden who held leadership of the company for the past 3 years.

• The launch of the long anticipated iPad spawns discussion on the web and across the online advertising industry by critics and analysts, especially due to its lack of support for flash
• How will the online advertising industry handle Apple’s lack of flash support in the iPad and iPhone.
• The launch of the iPad and iAD signals Apple’s effort to further revolutionize mobile devices and mobile advertising
• No flash support = wasted impressions. Not a welcoming situation for advertisers and publishers
• Thoughts and summary from the Online Tuesday #7 – Mobile.
• DQ&A is announcing its first innovative step in overcoming the flash issue. This solution will cater for both flash and non-flash supported devices.

With the successful launch of its highly hyped product, the iPad, Apple has set another step forward in revolutionizing mobile web devices. The iPad may not be the first of its kind to have been launched on the market but the buzz and hyped it came with stormed the industry; something we haven’t seen since the introduction of the iPhone. Its launch in the US was a huge success, with 300.000 iPads sold on the first day and one million iPad apps downloaded within 24 hours. In a recent press release, May 3, 2010, Apple reported to have sold 1million iPads in just 28 days since its release, that is “half of the 74 days it took to achieve this milestone with iPhone”, says Steve Jobs.

According to some critics, the anticipated product turned out to be another over hyped product, and they believe Apple’s decision not to use flash was “business minded” rather than a technological motivated one.

Nevertheless, for Apple lovers and others that embraces every new mobile device and the role of cutting-edge technologies in the digital advertising industry, it was the end of – a less developed mobile web platform era, and the beginning of a new age that is set to completely digitalize every consumable media, including newspapers, magazine, and books. Alongside the new in-app mobile advertising platform dubbed “iAD”, which according to Apple will enable advertisers to provide better “engaging and emotive” experience to users. When voicing out his dislike, Job says “Apple’s intentions is to change the quality of advertising currently been served on mobile devices such as iPhone”. The full colour display, apps, and large screen size apple believes will enhance web experience and take mobile advertising to another level.

In spite of the enormous attention and hype leading to its launching date, the revelation of this new product ignited huge responses on the web. Even though CEO Steve Jobs claimed the iPad is better than the note book, it’s certainly not a replacement for our smart phones and note books. Regardless of its amazing specs including a full colour display, longer battery life, size, weight, apps, and price, which apple believe will enhance web users experience, the lack of flash support is somehow disappointing, it’s the most outstanding drawback which has drawn concern from many in the online advertising industry. Furthermore, Apple’s standard browser, Safari, does not accept third-party cookies. However, this is not a major issue as users can manually change the settings in the configuration, which most will probably not do. As a result, ad features based on cookie (frequency capping, sequential ads, behavioral targeting), will not work on their iPads.

With regard to the increasing amount of iPad and iPhone users, the issue about the lack of support for flash signals the need for an immediate solution for online display/mobile advertising in these devices.

Meanwhile, other options have to be created in order to provide a better solution that will improve the efficiency of display advertising on all devices including Apples iPad an iPhone. In an effort to combat this problem and prevent impressions been wasted as a result of the flash deficiency in the iPad and iPhone, companies like DQ&A have come up with an innovative solution in which a unique banner will be served to target a website visitor based on the user’s device. After the implementation of the created codes, series of tests were made with the iPad and the ads look great on the device. This simplified solution which caters for both flash and non flash supported devices will prevent the lost of interactivity in display advertising which occurs when a website visitor uses a non-flash supported device to access a webpage. The non-flash supported device user will see a blank banner instead of the original ad paid for, which is certainly against the wish of every advertiser; to pay for an invalid impression.

For advertisers, this simplified solution will ensure that their banner ads are displayed to every website visitor irrespective of the device they are using. Publishers will also benefit from this solution as the efficiency of the ads on their website will increase CTR’s and the chances of conversation will definitely improve, especially for websites with large number of Apple device users/target group.

What I found interesting is the enormous rush by early adopters for the iPad, despite of the cons analyzed by critics. I am certainly not trying to criticize or sound negative about the iPad, it looks great when I had it in my hands, and I like the large screen and numerous features. I am waiting for its European Launch. The rush by consumers just amazes me. It’s an evident of the extent to which high-tech consumers’ embrace and love new and simplified technology.

Yesterday, I attended a monthly online advertising event in Amsterdam called “Online Tuesday”, an event that brings together online professionals from across the Netherlands; organized by DQ&A and partners. The topic of discussion for the evening was “Mobile”. The four presentations were interesting, and they all focused on the evolving mobile industry. They highlighted some hot topics and gave their opinion on key issues in the mobile industry. Each speaker discussed his approach in meeting the challenges, and taking advantage of the opportunities in mobile advertising. The presentation which I was very keen about was the one from Bob de Wit from Brightcove, who touched on some key technical issues including the HTML one. With reference to the key points in this article, i still believe that despite its tipping point as some are suggesting; the intense competition, lack of a standard mobile internet language, and the complicated alternatives advertisers and publishers are left with indicates a major drawback with far-reaching effects.

Should advertisers and publishers ignore the immense rise of Apple device users and focus on flash supported devices, or both? HTML is a great technology; can it full potential be realized at this moment? Android’s Operating System share in the US Smart Phone market is now 28%, 7% ahead of Apple’s OS with 21%, according to latest statistics. What are the implications for this intense competition?

If mobile internet will overtake desktop internet in 5 years,[i] where will we be in 2015, considering the pace at which mobile devices and applications are evolving?

In the last 2 years, the interactive advertising industry witnessed a number of changes, which for some players led to serious decline in ad revenue and for others the formation of a new landscape that will play a significant role in changing the way business is done in online advertising; namely: the importance of data and the role of online audience in digital advertising. Faced by one of the worst recessions and economic downturn since the “Great Depression”, advertising budgets declined dramatically. Advertisers chose for more measurable formats with prospects to increase their overall ROI in advertising. The shift from traditional media to online fueled some amount of growth in online advertising despite the crisis. Search maintain its position as the largest online advertising format by revenue, accounting for nearly 50% of total online ad budgets in many major online ad markets.

Not long ago, the future of online display ads was questioned. It became the topic of discussion in many panels, spawning discussion in the industry regarding its potential to rise again. However, the integration of display ads with search advertising and the emergence of high end technologies for rich media, online video, mobile and social media platforms opened up new opportunities, and are set to give online display ads a new life and help create even larger revenue streams for publishers, networks, agencies, and better ROI for advertisers.

Is Banner advertising really dead? How effective are banner ads?
Is this the Come Back of banner ads?

Many questions have been raised and many comments have been made regarding the future of display since search continued to grab larger portions of online ad budgets while display ad revenues continued to shrink. From a logical perspective and empirical evidence, I will call it the modernization of online display advertising. In spite of the challenges, I consider every trend in the online industry as an opportunity. In one of my recent articles about the rise of Exchanges and DSPS’s, I also called for the adaptation of current business models in online media trading, especially from the buying side; based on the opportunities and challenges in the industry. The role of online display will definitely get bigger as it is essential to the success of every online marketing mix.

In terms of ad revenues, the last 2 years were probably not a favorite period for the banner. If you still doubt the potential of display ad revenues to revamp then you are probably still considering display ads as static gifs, images, or text links, etc. Still living in the 90’s?

In a recent European survey by ComScore, visitors who viewed a display ad were 72% more likely to visit an advertiser’s website and 94% more likely to conduct a search activity on the advertiser’s brand than those who saw no ads. In terms of branding and reach, display ads have a greater reach than search. However they both need each other, as search engine can boost the effectiveness of display ads, and vice versa. Display ads increase awareness of a brand, which can drive direct traffic to an advertiser’s website and increase the likelihood of purchasing a product or service. Certainly, when combined with display, more search activity is conducted and website traffic increases.

Why should the effectiveness of display ads in clicks and conversation be questioned? Advertisers should be focusing on originality, being more creative and conversational with their display campaigns, presence in the right channels, at the right time, engaging audiences based on pre-knowledge about their characteristics, and applying an integrated and measurable marketing approach that works best for them.

How integration can fuel growth in online display.

In the interactive advertising industry, evolving trends are perceived by some stakeholders as opportunities, while others with a vulnerable position may consider trends as challenges or threats. Simply, whether you are an advertiser, publisher, network, or agency; the rise of new channels and platforms means an increment to the industry’s existing opportunities; as new streams of revenue will be created. Your final share of the industry’s revenue will depend on the extent to which you embrace and integrate these newly evolving technologies. It doesn’t require foregoing one form of advertising for another. Retargeting with search and display campaigns can significantly increase conversion rates and hence reduce the percentage of wasted or non-converting clicks. Advertisers spend time in optimizing their search campaigns that too often; end up delivering higher CTR and low conversion rates due to the absence of or lack of efficient re-targeting. With the integration of display in search campaigns, an advertiser can gain better insight about a visitor’s interest, thereby contributing in the efficient allocation of display ad budgets. Be it banner ads, rich media, widgets, search, or videos, etc. All that is required is a hybrid marketing approach in which all these forms can easily be incorporated. This will improve overall ROI and your share in the industry’s total revenue pie.

In capitalizing on opportunities and facing the challenges resulting from the current trends in the online media landscape, underestimating the potential of one of the channels due to preference for the other will be a mistake. If you are not getting enough conversion on your display campaigns, there could be many reasons for that. The technology, and the most effective technique for designing and creating more dynamic ads that could be served in Real Time and measured in CrossPlatform is already out there. Make use of it.

A week ago, I attended a monthly online advertising event in Amsterdam called “Online Tuesday”, an event that brings together online professionals from across the Netherlands; organized by DQ&A and partners. The topic of discussion was “The future of Online Display Advertising”. The keynote was Damian Lawlor, Managing Director Google Media Platforms Europe. His presentation was followed by a panel discussion that featured renowned European marketers from the Netherlands. The audience wanted answers regarding trends and technological challenges in taking advantage of opportunities in display advertising. In discussing the road ahead, Damian, said that “online display will grow faster than search”,a statement that was met with a number of responses from the panel and audience. After a broad discussion and a number of questions from the moderator and the audience, it was interesting to see how the entire panel ended up agreeing with the online giant, Google, on the notion that: “online display will grow faster than search”. From the audience, a marketer from the largest Dutch advertiser in terms of investment, also highlighted the opportunities in online and said his company “will invest in Ad Exchanges”.

A data driven industry

The data is in your hands. Understand it. In the current online marketing ecosystem, acquiring data and capitalizing on it is the key. There is so much data out there that could have significant impact on overall ROI in marketing spend for the demand side. Data is the key to success when you know where to get it, how and what to do with it. At the end of the day, it all comes down to data, which is already playing, and will continue to play the most important role in online advertising.

What will advertisers need? An integrated online advertising strategy with an audience-centric focus model in which, acquiring and sharing relevant data is efficiently applied.

In today’s rapidly evolving world of innovative technology, the need for creative solutions that would cut down costs, simplify processes, and increase transparency is drastically changing the digital media landscape. In online media consumption, the heat is on. An entire ecosystem is at the verge of loosing its traditional/classical structure. The emergence of Ad Exchanges and Real Time Bidding (RTB’s), as an auction-based market place to trade impressions based on the model: “the highest bidder gets it” is an innovative technology that does not only represent opportunity but a challenge for buyers and sellers in the market place.

Demand Side Platforms ‘DSP’s’, which in many ways provides advertisers with enormous benefits is becoming ‘the talk of the industry’. Networks and agencies played an important middleman role in the old pre-buying model. In the new age of media consumption, actively serving clients using both models: the Pre-buying and RTB is crucial to survival and will be met with technological challenges. This new wave of change will force many companies to redesign their business model in order to be able to effectively compete and meet the daily demands of their clients.

Since its inception, Real Time Bidding (RTB’s) marked a turning point in the history of digital media consumption. It signifies not only a fundamental change in the media ecosystem but also a slow demise of the classical media buying and selling business model. In a dynamic RTB environment where advertisers are provided with clearer insight regarding the impressions value and level of ROI, they will be willing to buy media and bid even higher for impressions, which will lead to higher CPM for publishers and better returns for advertisers.

In case you’re still wondering why DSP’s are becoming the most talked about topic today, it’s simple. Imagine a single system that offers online media buyers the opportunity to buy across multiple platforms and inventory sources in real time. It enables an advertiser to reach the right user, at the right time and place in a competitive bidding environment and eventually assigning an individual value to each ad impression. This specific targeting possibility in real time is the most outstanding trend in online media trading that is set to put an end to the often lower CPM resulting from assumptions about certain audiences. Not only will better performance in RTB simultaneously benefit publishers, efficient targeting based on a user’s unique characteristic will also lead to higher CPM and increase ROI for advertisers.

Additionally, DSP’s provide efficient targeting possibilities, helps decrease sales costs, and buyers pay for CPM in a real time environment. Furthermore, a DSP gives an advertiser greater control over pricing, targeting, and managing their online campaigns. Simply, it provides sophisticated and tailored targeting options in which an advertiser can eliminate waist due to pre-knowledge about the value of an impression and reporting in Real Time. Advertisers can target and dynamically allocate buying decisions across multiple exchanges based on market price moves. This helps them source inventory across multiple platforms with large number of websites that can meet their inventory needs with the possibility to compare, evaluate and decide on their level of investment based on their intended ROI. This model is leading to an increase in the pressure faced by players to be able to deliver to advertisers across multiple platforms.

Furthermore, RTB exchanges also offer publishers the opportunity to monetize their remnant inventory through a yield management system. A minimum requirement can be set for impressions based on content and ad type. Additionally, specific targeting by advertisers can earn publishers more value from each impression.

If direct selling in real time continues to work better for sellers and buyers, networks and agencies would need to re-consider their business model. In order to strengthen their position and increase their usage of RTB technologies in-house, networks will continue pushing forward in developing and acquiring some of these exchanges, and agencies would partly become DSP’s.

Finally, in order to succeed, media agencies will need to acquire in-depth knowledge about clients’ audiences through the implementation of advanced technologies backed by a business model that works best in today’s evolving digital media ecosystem. Whether you pre-buy your inventory, reserved for future use, or buy in real time, at the end of the day, what matters the most is reaching your target-the right audience, and having them perform your desired actions.

Need of more information on how to capitalize on existing opportunities, avoid threats to your business, minimize risks, and get the right set-up and configuration needed to succeed in this complex ecosystem?

Call DQ&A at +31 70 3001950 or e-mail your questions to info@dqatraffic.com.

Yet another successful event with interesting presentations and a round-up cocktail evening for attendees to broaden their professional network and meet other experts from across the Netherlands.

In the last Online Tuesday event at the Felix Meritis in Amsterdam, the topic of discussion was Online Video. Considering the evolving trends surrounding this topic, its sporadic rise and global impact in our daily lives, it was again a full house of online professionals with distinct backgrounds.

This time around, there were 3 speakers, all experts from renowned companies operating in the Netherlands. For profile and topic of presentation, see below:

Remco Bron – Yubby.com:

• State of the industry
• Online video landscape in facts and figures.
• Key players
• The road ahead
• Trends

Mascha Driessen – YouTube NL

• Effectively advertising online, using video
• The vision of YouTube

Ronnie Overgoor

• TV, not only for the masses

A quick review

The first speaker, Remco Bron from Yubby.com gave a marathon presentation. Nevertheless, it was quite interesting! He took it back to where it all started with an in-depth analysis of the video devices on the market and the move by innovative technology players in integrating traditional offline video devices such as TV, mobile phones, and video games with internet. Furthermore, he shared some relevant statistics with the crowd about the state of the online video industry, who the key players are, and the direction in which the market is moving.

Mascha Driessen from YouTube.nl was the second speaker. Her introductory part of the presentation was very interesting, even though no concrete new stuff, as some had expected, but I personally found the history about YouTube she shared with the crowd amazing. The eminent rise of online video streaming websites and its impact on the media landscape has led to the creation and adoption of new channels of communication not only for commercial use but also for political (US Presidential elections), religious (Pope) and philanthropic purposes, etc. We have witness an influx of audiences, young, old, male, and female; all active online, with uploading and watching video contents in every corner of the world.

The last speaker for the evening was Ronnie Overgoor from Blue Shots. He gave a spectacular presentation with a bit of his personal touch to it that changed the atmosphere in the hall. Not only was his presentation interesting, the cases he used as a reference contain some relevant tips for online professionals.

Key facts and Learning’s

Facts and Stats

• 34% of people in the Netherlands watch videos and listen to radio online
• It is expected that, by 2013, online videos will account for 90% of internet traffic. Take a second and think about it! This is the amazing video era!
• On average, 1.6 billion videos are uploaded on YouTube within a period of 60 days. (It will take RTL, SBS, 123 video up to 60 years to reach that amount, based on their total uploads per day in Netherlands)
• 33 billion videos were viewed online in the US alone, in December 2009. Google sites accounted for 40% share. Hulu accounted for 3% followed by Microsoft with a tiny 1,7%.
• 22hours of uploaded video every minute on YouTube
• On YouTube, 450 million people are watching over 1 billion videos every day
• Attentiveness to ads is 1.5% higher in YouTube than on TV. Add engagement is also 14% higher on YouTube than on TV.
• YouTube is the second largest search engine after Google

Food for thoughts

• Views are becoming less important. What is relevant is how long people watch your videos online
• Online video is more than just videos……it is content that matters the most
• An effective way of attracting audiences to your website is to place video contents where there is already a large audience
• YouTube is making use of behavioral targeting by recommending videos to users based on their viewing history
• It doesn’t matter how many people view your video. What matters is how long they viewed it.
• “Views are becoming less important. What is important is how long people watch your videos”. Yes, that is an obvious fact if you consider the importance of conversation rate vs. impressions.

Finally, how many people do you know that have access to internet but have never watched a video online on of the video streaming websites? If ads in videos can be more tailored to trigger viewers to take action and get more engaged with the content, click–through-rates will be more than doubled, and advertisers ROI will be way better than they are today. Tips: Get more creative with the content of your ads in videos, get the right audience, and worry about how to engage them to produce your desired action.

For further info, call DQ&A at +31 70 300 1950 +31 70 300 1950 or e-mail your questions to info@dqatraffic.com.

Which markets to watch out for?

Analysis
Low growths and fierce competition in many markets were the key worrying factors for marketers in 2009.The impacts of the global economic downturn were seriously felt as global media ad spend went down by -10%. In spite of the double digits decline in total media ad spend; the industry experienced some key trends that are changing the face of advertising. Among these trends were: an increased in paid search, integrated online media contents, online videos and social networking, etc. Furthermore, low conversation rates remain to be a great concern for global marketers wanting to divert online marketing efforts to emerging economies with larger online audiences. However, the likes of Latin America, Russia, China, and Eastern Europe are markets to watch out for due to the huge growth rates in online ad spend in these regions.

Landscape overview
The state of the online industry in emerging economies in comparison to EU and North America.

With 12.4% share of total ad spend; internet advertising is currently the third largest medium after television and newspaper. It’s expected to reach 16% by 2012.[i]Paid search is by far the fastest growing type of internet advertising in major advertising markets in Europe and North America. The US remains the largest and most significant ad market with online ad spend totalling €16,6 billion in 2008. In IAB Europe, online ad spend in the same period were 12,9 billion.[ii] In 2009, online ad spend was down by -4% in the US as Europe slightly recovers by a +2 % growth[iii]. As European online ad spend continues to grow, the gap between the US gradually gets smaller.

The advertising industry continues to evolve; thanks to advanced marketing technology and increasing broadband penetration in many regions. In the global landscape overview as illustrated below, a significant trend is outlined. Despite the fact that display advertising ad spend continues to decline in the matured/developed online ad markets, it is still widely embraced in the emerging online ad markets with less advanced marketing technologies.

The State of the Industry

Online ad spend growth rates in emerging advertising markets including LATAM, Indonesia, and South Africa are way higher than growth rates in the developed online ad markets including Western Europe and North America. As developed markets reach their ‘growth peak’ , further growth in these markets will be achieved as a result of trends in the use of paid search, online video, social networks, and other forms of content integration in online advertising. Display or banners are no longer the key focus in these matured markets as paid Search now accounts for over 50% of total online ad spend.

On the contrary, new comers including LATAM, India, Indonesia and South Africa, are experiencing a different online advertising climate as display remains the most significant ad format. A key reason for this is the low broadband penetration and lack of advanced marketing technologies in these markets that is yet to march the scale of improvements in the developed online ad markets. Use of display forms of advertising remain to play a dominant role despite the increasing popularity of search and online videos, etc.

Furthermore, in developing advertising markets with low broadband penetration but high growth potentials including Spain, Italy, Eastern Europe and China, the online industry is growing faster than those in the most developed markets in Western Europe and North America. Between 2006, 2007, and 2008, for instance, Spain’s online ad spend grew on average 57%, and was the highest growth reported in IAB Europe.

The bar chart below highlights the growth rates of online ad spend in the respective countries. It clearly indicates each countries position with regard to their growth potentials.

Moreover, many advertisers from developed countries are not really moved by the pace of improvements in developing markets especially the growing online population in key advertising markets in LATAM and Asia. They still see it as volume driven rather than ROI. They argue that conversation rates are too low as compared to the ad views. Additionally, the percentage of the online population in these markets that shop online is still very low, which in many cases is a key issue for marketers.

Nevertheless, developing economies with fast growing broadband penetration and larger online population including China, Brazil, India, and Russia are without any doubts the next online ad markets to watch out for.

For more information, call DQ&A at +31 70 300 1950 or e-mail your questions to benelux@dqatraffic.com.

[i]Source: ZentithOptimedia: Global ad market has stabilised; prospects for 2010 and beyond improving.
[ii] Source: IAB US and IAB Europe.
[iii]Source: eMarketer

Dutch headquartered DQ&A specialises in the technical implementation of digital ad campaigns and supports its customers in planning, monitoring as well as in the reporting of online and mobile campaigns from their offices worldwide.

Within the partnership DQ&A will expand its portfolio via Epsilon’s web-based email DREAM marketing technology in the Netherlands. The aim is that in future DQ&A will offer broad consultancy services alongside providing the DREAM technology in association with its own customer solutions.

“We are really pleased that we have DQ&A as our reseller in the Netherlands and thereby can strengthen our presence on the European market. Our new distribution partner has not only got excellent contacts to marketers, but additionally enjoys an outstanding reputation within the industry”, comments Swen Krups, Country Director Epsilon International Germany.

“DQ&A and Epsilon International are a natural fit when it comes to our joint capabilities, teamwork and approach to meeting customer needs – this partnership will not only bring added value to our clients but also will strengthen our position in the Netherlands as leaders in digital campaign —management”, concludes Marco Dohmen, CCO at DQ&A.

Image -> Ian Hitt, Managing Director from Epsilon International EMEA and Peter van Wingerden CEO from DQ&A International signing the partnership.

Quick Facts:

• Online was the only major media that grew in North America and major advertising markets in Europe and Asia during the worst months of the recession in H1 2009.[i]
• For the first time, online overtake TV in the UK accounting for nearly 24% of total advertising spend in H1 2009.[ii]
• Q3 World Internet Users reached 1, 7 billion, meaning one in every four persons in the world are internet users.[iii]
• Targeted online ads are efficient and measurable, and they deliver the highest ROI than any other major media.
• Global mobile phones (GSM & 3GSM) – more than 4 billion connections.[iv] (GSM World, February 2009)

In 2009, if you your business was not online, you didn’t exist!
In 2010, if you are not on Social Networks, you are not online!

A look back at 2009

2009 is history. A new year, new beginning; but the most controversial trends in 2009 will continue to shape the face of the interactive advertising industry. Among the most outstanding were:

• Online video advertising, which grew faster than any other media type
• Mobile internet and mobile ads achieved ‘tipping points’
• Unstoppable growth in social media and its contribution in boosting display ad impressions
• Growth in total online ad spend in the worst times of the great recession

These are all areas of consideration that will play a big role in shaping marketers strategy for 2010 and beyond.

More and more traditional advertising budgets going digital

Given the scope of its ROI and level of measurability as a medium to target and tailor campaigns, online ad spend continued to grow despite worsened recession in Q1 2009. Additionally, as more marketers continue to take their media investments online, a shift in the relocation of traditional budget continues. The biggest change from traditional media advertising to online according to marketers occurred in TV (according to 36% of respondents), direct marketing (30%), Magazines (30%), and Newspapers (27%).[v]

Furthermore, 94% of European marketers plan to increase their online ad spend in 2010 and 93% plan to do the same in 2011.[vi]

Mobile internet reaches tipping point

Mobile internet is without any doubt “the one to watch”. The adoption of mobile internet outpaces desktop internet adoption and it is expected to be bigger as more users will be connected to the internet via mobile devices than desktop PC’s within 5 years. This explosive growth is as a result of 5 converging trends, namely: 3G, social networking, video, VoIP, and advanced mobile devices. [vii] With global mobile ad spend growing at over 70% to reach $13 billion by 2013, brands seeking to engage consumers on the go will need social-awareness applications for targeted ads based on location.[viii]

Social Media – Still hype, or the future of online advertising?

Some still see it as ‘hype’, volume driven with less ROI, and other marketers consider it as the future of interactive advertising. However, social networking sites accounted for one out of every five display ads viewed online in the US[ix], and one out of every 4 display ads viewed online in the UK.[x] Be it a hype, or reality, SocNets are visited by over two-thirds of the global online population. SocNet and blogging sites now account for one in every 11 minutes spent online and it is the 4th most popular global online activity.[xi] Marketers that are yet to be moved by its potential may title social media as ‘Just about ad impressions’ and less ROI. However, sooner or later, social media will play a key role in digital branding and advertising as the success of a brand will depend on its popularity in social networking sites. Among other things that marketers will need are: getting the right content, presence in the right network, and the right combination of marketing tools. Nevertheless, Social media has its drawbacks if used with the wrong marketing tools. Most common mistakes by marketers are: wanting to control it, not listening to their online audience and selecting the wrong brand advocates, etc. Also, a social media strategy that results to success for company A may result to failure for Company B.

Finally, are your ads not delivering the desired results? Are the effects measurable? Is Monetizing and ROI troubling you? Where should you start? Call DQ&A at +31 70 300 1950 or e-mail your questions to benelux@dqatraffic.com. We are here to help!

[i] Source: ZenithOptimedia Press Release July, 2009
[ii] Source: IAB UK 2009
[iii] Source: Internet World Stats 2009
[iv] Source: GSM World, February 2009
[v] Source: EIAA Bi-Annual Internet Ad Barometer H2 2009
[vi] Source: EIAA Bi-Annual Internet Ad Barometer H2 2009
[vii] Source: Morgan Stanley, The Mobile Internet Report December 2009.
[viii] Source: eMarketer, 2010 predictions Round-UP, December 31 2009.
[ix] Source: ComScore, June 2009
[x] Source: ComScore, October 2009
[xi] Source: Nielsen, Global Faces and Network Places, March 2009

“By means of this acquisition, DQ&A Spain has improved its products and services range, supported by a large professional team who has extensive experience and is being able to provide a great level of service. This acquisition has placed DQ&A immediately into the leadership position in Spain.” says Marco Dohmen, DQ&A International Director of Sales.

The acquisition will provide existing Trafficking Solutions customers with more possibilities than ever to increase their contracted services through new collaboration opportunities as well as providing the extended product portfolio and solutions which DQ&A already offers its current customers in display and e-mail campaign management. In 2010 DQ&A will expand its current range of products with search and analytics services.

DQ&A’s most prominent customers include publishers, advertisers and agencies at an international level.

“Through DQ&A Spain we are completely committed to the Spanish market and convinced that there is no better partner than Trafficking Solutions for fulfilling this commitment”, added Dohmen, who also affirmed that “from our customer’s point of view, this business transaction signifies the comfort of being able to count on excellent service levels during the forthcoming years, helping us to generate new business”.

“Santiago Morán, Sales Manager at DQ&A Spain, underlined that “The current Trafficking Solutions team will join up fully with DQ&A Spain’s current team of professionals, with the objective of strengthening the company’s professional network to the maximum. Existing customers will be able to rely on the same level of support as always but with the multiple advantages that this acquisition will provide”.

For more information please contact Heleen van Oord – DQ&A

Tel: 070-3001950 / 06 21 24 55 24 of via heleen@dqa.nl

Heleen van Oord | DQ&A | IAB Interact 09 from punkmedia on Vimeo.

re blogged out of www.marketingfacts.nl

Torsten Ostmeier, an experienced sales and online marketing expert takes over the business of DQ&A in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. The 44 year-old business economist works in sales for 25 years, from which over 15 he spent in corporations in the online industry. After positions as key account manager at the Proximity Group, the Dialogue marketing specialists of the BBDO-group, and as director in business development Xplain agency, he was lastly responsible for the sales teams of the Adtech AG as country manager Germany, Austria and Switzerland.

“I am glad to accept the challenges, which DQ&A as a globally operating and expanding company offers me”, Torsten Ostmeier says. “Together with the team I want to enlarge the market in the German-speaking countries and want to serve our clients an optimal service and technical support in digital campaign management.”

The Dutch company DQ&A is represented in the German market for two years with its branch in Hamburg. “For DQ&A, Germany is a strategically important market with a huge potential”, Marco Dohmen says, CCO DQ&A International. “We see an increasing demand of our clients not only in the processing of campaigns but also in technical and strategic support services. For that, we need a charismatic leader for our office in Hamburg, who has Industry know-how and sales experience. With Torsten Ostmeier, we have found the optimal candidate.”

The corporation is specialized in the technical implementation of digital ad campaigns and supports advertisers and online publishers in the disposition, monitoring and reporting of online and mobile campaigns. Besides system independent ad server management, DQ&A offers consultancy as well as trainings regarding all questions of digital marketing. DQ&A is doing business in two time zones and has branches in Hamburg, Cape Town, Sao Paolo, Stockholm and Voorburg.

Six key reasons to attend:

• Get inspired by experts
• Get the latest and most relevant trends in online marketing
• Get informed about challenging and successful case studies
• Broaden your current network
• Share knowledge, interact, and socialize with marketing professionals from across The Netherlands
• Meet future potential clients

Online Tuesday is an inspirational monthly event that brings together marketers and experts in the online industry. With a selection of speakers, mainly experts in their fields, they shared the latest and most relevant trends and developments in the online industry. As usual, the event was rounded-up with an interactive and free – drinking session, where attendees can broaden their network, establish new contacts and meet future potential customers from various industries.

The last online Tuesday event was held at the Felix Meritis in Amsterdam and was focused on Digital Branding, a topic chosen by professionals from the Online Tuesday event that was organized in September.

The profile of the three speakers varies!

Here is the line up of the speakers in the last event:

Michiel Sala (Little Chicken): Gave a presentation about games and advertising with a creative touch on the impact of games as a branding tool.

Jeroen de Bakker (2009 en BrandWebbing): Highlighted the importance of digital branding and its long lasting effect in establishing a relationship between the brand and the customer. With the help of a case study, he made his point clear regarding digital branding.

Marjolein Poot (KPN Hi): Another interesting presentation with key focus on Hi’s digital branding strategy. It was more focused on the innovativeness of their campaigns in creating stronger effects.

Marketers/Advertisers and Sales people that are interested in broadening their network, meeting prospective clients, and engaging in some kind of partnership, then “Online Tuesday” may serve as a starting point!

The next Onlie Tuesday event will take place on Tuesday December 8, 2009.

Same place, Same time……See when u get there!

Online Tuesday is an initiative of DQ&A, Energize, NewPeople, Marketing Facts and Traffic4u, who came together to bring these sessions to the online industry in the Netherlands.

DQ&A is committed to share knowledge and innovation with its employees, clients and the industry in general, that is why we‘ve decided to support an initiative that is fully dedicated to this cause.

The first speakers of the event that opens doors the 13^th of October are Marco Derksen (IAB The Netherlands), Marcel Vogels (Memo2) and Ben van der Burg (WebAds). More information at www.onlinetuesday.nl *

We hope to see you there on the 13^th and every second Tuesday of the month!

Online Tuesday

October 13^th, 2009 (and every second Tuesday of the month!)

19:30 hrs, Felix Meritis

Keizersgracht 324

1016 EZ Amsterdam

www.onlinetuesday.nl

By establishing an open and neutral marketplace where prices are set in a real-time auction, the Ad Exchange enables display ad space to be allocated much more efficiently and easily across the web.

“Display advertising is not living up to its potential with too many advertisers ignoring its reach and power and too many publishers selling their ads below their market value. The new DoubleClick Ad Exchange is a real-time marketplace which helps online publishers on one side, and ad networks and agencies on the other, to buy and sell display advertising space at the right time and right place”, said Laurent Cordier, Ad Exchange European Sales Director. “By bringing them together in an open marketplace where prices are set in a real-time auction, the Ad Exchange enables display ads and ad space to be allocated much more efficiently”, she added.

Heleen van Oord, founder of DQ&A mentions, “It is key in DQ&A’s strategic positioning to bring expertise to the markets we operate in. Innovation and technology rule our business today and the new DoubeClick Ad Exchange is here to show us how expertise and technological innovation meet in one single product. The optimized version of AdEx will make business much more intelligent and transparent. DQ&A is looking forward to helping and consulting with our customers to make this exciting next step in online display, Ad Exchange will be launched in 2 of our most important markets, The Netherlands and Germany”.

The new DoubleClick Ad Exchange has been rebuilt using Google’s technology and infrastructure. It contains a wide variety of key features that will help improve the reach and returns for advertisers and enable publishers to get the most value out of their online content:

• More advertisers and ad space – by adding AdWords buyers and AdSense sellers into the new Ad Exchange, there will be an increase in the pool of advertisers and ad space available. The DoubleClick Ad Exchange will actively be encouraging other advertising networks to join as well;
• A “Real time bidder” – the new Ad Exchange has brand new technology which matches the real-time decision-making of buyers and sellers, increasing performance for the buyers, and yield for the publishers;
• Control – publishers have full control over where and when their ads appear with the ability to block specific advertisers, networks, formats and bid type, all of which can be adjusted minute-by-minute. Advertisers benefit from frequency capping and other key controls over ad delivery like time of day, type of site and geography;
• Easier reporting and measurability – using the simplicity of Google’s user design principles, publishers can easily find out how their site’s performing, to help them make the right decisions about their ad inventory. Reporting and measurement is now easier and faster with a brand new interface;
• Centralised clearing system – Google makes all payments and collects the bills from the networks on a publisher’s behalf. This means publishers’ get one cheque at the end of each month, so they don’t have to spend resources chasing overdue payments or managing payment relationships with multiple networks;
• A new API – Ad networks and agency networks have access to an API which enables them to modify the way they interact with the Ad Exchange, enabling them to integrate their existing functionality or systems.

DQ&A is looking forward to helping and consulting its customers to make this exciting next step in online display. If you have any questions regarding this release please contact your local representative.

It can take two main forms:

• Attackers can serve harmless banners but direct users to a website containing malicious code. In that case, the advertising message will be extremely attractive (“you are our 31359th visitor today. You won 1 million €!”) to incite users to click on the ads. Other examples fake virus infections to urge users to download fraudulent software.
• Attackers can highjack legitimate banners and insert malicious code. With this kind of attack, the user might be infected simply surfing on legitimate, prime and reputable websites!

What’s the risk?

Over the last couple of years, malicious advertising have been found on some of the most famous websites. The websites generally detect and remove malvertising very quickly, but that harm is done. The brands can get very bad press and some users might even sue the websites for spreading malicious code.

What can we do?

With the multiplication of ad networks, it’s impossible for publishers to check every single ad running on their website. Not only because of the number of different ads running, but also because the ads might be targeted to a specific region of the world, a specific time of day or day of the week.

There are, however some measures that can be taken in order to limit the risk.

From a technical perspective, malvertising is very hard to detect. Most of the top adservers (Dart for Publishers, Dart for Advertisers, AdTech Helios…) do check SWF creatives when they are uploaded by the Ad Operation teams. But malicious SWF files are highly obfuscated and hard to decompile. The automatic tests might let some malware go through the net.

There are also some “common sense” measures to take on the business and workflow sides.

• Be cautious with direct buyers (does he have a known reputation? can this agency realistically do business with that advertiser? Is the offer just too good to be true? )
• Emails from a free webmail, payment by credit card should trigger warnings
• Is anybody already working with that particular network?
• Is the ad network aware of malvertising and what processes do they have in place to fight that problem?