From TV week in the US - "Turner Broadcasting System and Yahoo! have made a multiyear strategic content and advertising deal for sports-related content. Turner will exclusively represent online advertising sales, including display, sponsorship and video advertising, for Yahoo! Sports’ NBA, golf and NASCAR pages"
http://www.tvweek.com/news/2008/07/turner_yahoo_sports_enter_cont.php
I think this sort of deal is an interesting one. In my opinion, it sees Yahoo! outsourcing selected sales duties to a company more equipped, skilled to sell this content to market. Turner handles nba.com as well as other sports properties as is a leader in this space in the US. As a result these Yahoo properties also get better access to premium content from nba.com, the PGA tour and Nascar.
This has potential locally I think. Given there's a shortage of sales talent could we see, as an example, a group like sportal sell sport content on a major portal, and in turn provide better content to these groups. Or Business Spectator do the same with a portal finance offering and also give them access to their content from Kohler etc. CNet/ZD or Gizmodo selling Tech/Gadget info etc.
I like the idea as it gives specialist sites the ability to further distribute their content and monetise their sales expertise ... for the larger site it allows them to focus their sales efforts in areas they have the skills to do so in.
Showing posts with label CNet. Show all posts
Showing posts with label CNet. Show all posts
Monday, July 14, 2008
Monday, June 9, 2008
Are category specific sales teams the way forward?
So CNET in the US is "restructuring its online sales force around advertiser categories (like TVs or autos), rather than specific CNET brands (like BNET or GameSpot)"
Link - http://www.alleyinsider.com/2008/5/live_cnet_chief_neil_ashe_talks_to_goldman_sachs
Could this work in AU?
Google are trying this sort of strategy now. I can say from experience it's probably not working as well as it could be, but it's early days.
Yahoo! tried a similar approach with Key Account Manager in specific categories (Auto, Finance, Entertainment) back in 2005. Did it work? Well ... not really ... but I think there were factors beyond their control that hampered the effort.
It's an interesting debate. What's the most valuable for an agency or client - a generalist working across ALL categories ... or a specialist that has expertise in a chosen area? This goes for sales as well as sales strategy.
I would argue a specialist ... however does this exist within the digital sales teams in AU right now? Probably not ...
Why do I think this is better? Well ... agencies and clients are always looking for value (value BEYOND rates) in terms of insights, information, ideas and strategy. An industry expert can do this - and can essentially move the publisher close to the world of the 'trusted advisor'.
Think of it this way - no one knows the publishers users and site better than the publisher ... the problem is generally a lot of the ideas thrown forward don't really show much insight into either.
Personally, I would say right now is the time for the larger publishers to maybe look at this approach again. There are more players in the market, more sites, lower rates and higher expectations ... competing on eyeball mass isn't much of a strategy, and no matter how low you take your willingness to negotiate on ratecard there is generally always someone else who will better it. Add to this huge duplication of eyeballs across the web and the real and sustainable competitive advantage for the large guys may come from their ability to resource up in key categories and provide value outside of straight CPM transactions.
I am not saying this is 100% the answer ... there are loads of factors at play that would impact on an organisations ability to integrate this sort of structure ... but I think it's something worth looking at closer.
For instance, the digital industry keeps on asking itself when the FMCG dollars will flow online ... but is doing virtually nothing to make a case to FMCG marketers to allocate budget online aside showing audience numbers. More work is needed to show the VALUE of digital to these guys and potential activations.
Question to publisher side people - when was the last time your employer gave the market any real insights into their audience beyond the Morgan and Nielsen data we all have access to? Your users are your product - tell us more about them.
I think the term 'value' is key here. What is it? And how do you define it?
Link - http://www.alleyinsider.com/2008/5/live_cnet_chief_neil_ashe_talks_to_goldman_sachs
Could this work in AU?
Google are trying this sort of strategy now. I can say from experience it's probably not working as well as it could be, but it's early days.
Yahoo! tried a similar approach with Key Account Manager in specific categories (Auto, Finance, Entertainment) back in 2005. Did it work? Well ... not really ... but I think there were factors beyond their control that hampered the effort.
It's an interesting debate. What's the most valuable for an agency or client - a generalist working across ALL categories ... or a specialist that has expertise in a chosen area? This goes for sales as well as sales strategy.
I would argue a specialist ... however does this exist within the digital sales teams in AU right now? Probably not ...
Why do I think this is better? Well ... agencies and clients are always looking for value (value BEYOND rates) in terms of insights, information, ideas and strategy. An industry expert can do this - and can essentially move the publisher close to the world of the 'trusted advisor'.
Think of it this way - no one knows the publishers users and site better than the publisher ... the problem is generally a lot of the ideas thrown forward don't really show much insight into either.
Personally, I would say right now is the time for the larger publishers to maybe look at this approach again. There are more players in the market, more sites, lower rates and higher expectations ... competing on eyeball mass isn't much of a strategy, and no matter how low you take your willingness to negotiate on ratecard there is generally always someone else who will better it. Add to this huge duplication of eyeballs across the web and the real and sustainable competitive advantage for the large guys may come from their ability to resource up in key categories and provide value outside of straight CPM transactions.
I am not saying this is 100% the answer ... there are loads of factors at play that would impact on an organisations ability to integrate this sort of structure ... but I think it's something worth looking at closer.
For instance, the digital industry keeps on asking itself when the FMCG dollars will flow online ... but is doing virtually nothing to make a case to FMCG marketers to allocate budget online aside showing audience numbers. More work is needed to show the VALUE of digital to these guys and potential activations.
Question to publisher side people - when was the last time your employer gave the market any real insights into their audience beyond the Morgan and Nielsen data we all have access to? Your users are your product - tell us more about them.
I think the term 'value' is key here. What is it? And how do you define it?
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