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Media buyers' favorite ad networks
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Lotame Solutions
For Greg March, there's an odd task at hand. As media director at Weiden + Kennedy, he's responsible for getting the word out about a number of television shows hitting the airwaves. Traditionally, a big TV show like "CSI" doesn't require much in the way of innovative advertising to get people to watch. It's flippin' "CSI." It's straightforward. But some less conventional shows require a little bit more of a push. For example, "Arrested Development" and "Firefly," two recent critical hits but audience flops, require a little more thought.
"I have a robust strategy that covers a broad base of things, but I happen to carve off a piece of my budget that is about trying to stimulate talk," March says. A number of ad networks offer behavioral advertising, but that wasn't what March was looking for. "Those ad networks say, 'Well, if you've visited this site, then you are an entertainment person.' But I say, 'I don't care what websites you visit. I care about what you write about.'"
In other words, March wants to connect with the people who drive word-of-mouth on the internet. By doing so, he may be able to give the online buzz machine a shove in the right direction -- meaning in favor of his clients' shows.
March hammered out a strategy with Lotame Solutions to find these online influencers. A social ad network that allows brands to locate, target, and connect with influencers in any particular market, Lotame is pretty new -- but its technology is just what March was seeking.
"They can actually see what users write about in blogs and what they leave in comment sections, and then they can create clusters of people," March says. "So what they effectively sell me is people that talk about entertainment."
These were clusters of people, and data, that nobody else had -- and something March couldn't duplicate by himself. "[Lotame] recognizes the biggest value they have is data, and they try and get different kinds of data than other folks," he says.
Even Lotame's lack of transparency doesn't bother March that much, so long as the network delivers on what it promises.
"If you're someone who blogs once a week about television, and I've got a television show and I can hit you with an over-heavy amount of frequency, that in and of itself is a win," March says.
This all points to March's overarching rule of thumb as to how ad networks can garner his attention: "Be unique. There are 350 of you guys. Ninety-nine percent of what you do is identical, so figure out what you do differently, explain to me why I can't do it myself, and convince me that it's valuable."