Interesting article about bringing “Wall Street-like analysis” to the advertising industry.
That unfortunate choice of words does not mean what it appears to at first blush. By “Wall Street-like analysis,” I do not believe the writer meant to imply that 1) the analysis was conflicted, 2) there was in inherent bias in it; 3) the parties are inappropriately compensated. Rather, the reference was to a rigorous mathematical approach, using standardized accounting to determine results (profits) via a consistent methodology.
Please pardon any confusion.
Excerpt:
“It’s putting numbers to an industry that never had numbers before,” says Mr. Herman, 27, who started and sold three media and technology companies before founding Varick last summer. “It’s nice to be able to tell your brand manager or the chief marketing officer which audience is interacting with the unit, what time of day, what day of the week, and what the response is on certain types of offers. Before, nobody could really tell you that . . .”
Where the data guys were once an afterthought in a marketing presentation, now they are at the core of the online strategy. What’s more, they can help advertisers save money in traditional media by testing different phrases or images online to see what works before producing an expensive television commercial or magazine ad . . . The shift to data-based campaigns is forcing marketers to learn new skills and drawing a new breed of worker to Madison Avenue. While most data executives now in the field came from media backgrounds, they are recruiting Wall Street math geniuses because the job requires hourly adjustments in strategy based on numbers.”
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Source:
Put Ad on Web. Count Clicks. Revise.
STEPHANIE CLIFFORD
NYT, May 30, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/31/business/media/31ad.html
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