in search of a premium for online brand advertising...2 in search of a premium alternative: an...

In search of a premium alternative: an action plan for online brand advertising By John Frelinghuysen and Aditya Joshi

What media companies andbrand marketers can do tounleash the power of the Webto build brands online

Copyright © 2010 Bain & Company, Inc. All rights reserved.Content: Manjari Raman, Elaine CummingsLayout: Global Design

John Frelinghuysen is a partner with Bain & Company and a leader in the firm’sGlobal Media practice. Aditya Joshi is a partner with Bain and a leader in thefirm’s Customer Strategy and Marketing practice.

The authors would like to thank Jason Wiethe and Chris Sims, managers withBain & Company, for their contributions to this Bain Brief.

About this study

The authors would like to acknowledge the support and collaboration of the Interactive Advertising Bureau(www.iab.net ) and its members in the development of this Bain Brief. The IAB is comprised of more than 460leading media and technology companies who are responsible for selling 86 percent of online advertising inthe United States.

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In search of a premium alternative: an action plan for online brand advertising

What media companiesand brand marketerscan do to unleash thepower of the Web tobuild brands online

As online advertising approaches maturity, itfaces a major crossroads. The industry cancontinue down the path of commoditizationdriven by direct response, with its promise ofhigh volumes but little room for differentiation.Or it can reinvent itself around brand advertiserneeds and deliver more premium offerings.Making the right choice will not just ensuresustainable growth—it will redefine the indus-try’s future winners.

On the surface, online advertising appears tobe in good shape. It has weathered the down-turn better than other media: Online adver-

tising revenues fell by just 3 percent in 2009,while print and television advertising sawdouble-digit declines.1 Moreover, future growthprospects appear robust: Bain & Company fore-casts that online advertising revenues will growat an average annual rate of 12 percent between2010 and 2014. Spending on online advertisingwill overtake print in 2010. Dig a little deeper,however, and some worrying trends emerge(see Figure 1). Consider:

• Much of the projected growth will comefrom direct-response advertising—in particu-lar, search. This suits advertisers seeking animmediate, measurable return on invest-ment (ROI), usually in the form of websitetraffic and sales transactions. However,response advertising is not geared to build-ing long-term brand affinity for marketersand does not fully value the content and“premium environment” of specific siteson which ads are placed. For example, twosites offering comparable response rates

Percent of total advertising spend

Brand marketers Response marketers

100%

2008 2011P

Other

Online

TV,magazines,newspapers

Other

Online

TV,magazines,newspapers

+5%

�3%

+8%

�6%

2008 2011P

80

60

40

20

0

Source: Bain/IAB 2009 Marketer survey; N=700

Figure 1: Brand marketers still rely on traditional media, while increasingly, the leadingmedium for response marketers is online

1 AB Internet Advertising Revenue Report: 2009 Full-year Results. Pricewaterhouse Coopers (PWC), April 7, 2010.

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(that is, click-throughs or transactions)become increasingly interchangeable—even if one is a top-tier content site such asFT.com (Financial Times), and the otheris a relatively unknown financial blog.Implication: Premium rates on “premium”publisher sites will be difficult to sustain.

• Display advertising is increasingly commodi-tizing due to excess inventory, lack of high-impact creative and the proliferation oflow-cost ad networks. These developmentshave been devastating for online publishers.Their ability to charge for premium displayadvertising, measured in CPMs (cost perthousand impressions), has deteriorated—and shows no sign of a turnaround. Despitethe potential for lower rates in the shortterm, brand marketers also have cause forconcern. As sites grow more cluttered,marketers have less control over placement,the other advertisers adjacent to their ads,and the overall quality of the impressions

generated. Implication: As audiences shiftonline, advertisers and media companiesface serious constraints in their ability todeeply engage consumers and build brands.

Little wonder that marketers seeking to build

brands online have become disappointed with

the medium. A recent survey of marketers con-

ducted by Bain and the Interactive Advertising

Bureau (IAB) highlighted brand-focused mar-

keters’ preferences: They spend about 75 percent

of their advertising budgets on TV and print

media, nearly three to four times as much as

they advertise online. In our survey, marketers

recognized that the Web is inherently more

interactive and can address a broader set of

marketing needs (see Figure 2). But despite the

immense potential for online advertising, the

current reality falls short. So, what will it take

in this environment to build brands online?

A first step is to recognize the obstacles.

Which marketing objectives are the following media vehicles best suited for?


0

25

50

75

100%

Percent of respondents

TV Magazine Newspapers Online

Brandobjectives

Driving traffic/purchase intent

Promotingconsideration

Generatingfamiliarity

Creatingawareness

$64.4 billion $13.3 billion $34.4 billion $23.1 billion

Total adspend (2008):

Promoting loyalty

Figure 2: The online medium is versatile, with the potential to influence the full set of marketing objectives

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Barriers to building brands online

Through our survey, as well as interviewswith brand marketers, agencies and mediacompanies, we identified five major gaps thathold online back as a medium for premiumbrand engagement:

#1: Ad formats and creative executionare not evolving with the medium

Brand marketers are disenchanted that theonline medium has not lived up to its potentialfor storytelling (see Figure 3). Static display“banners,” originally inspired by newspaperand magazine ad formats, are still the primaryunit of online inventory, and with surprisinglylittle innovation over the past 15 years. Bannersare inherently limited for brand advertising,with marketers preferring more engaging,even interruptive, ads with sound and motion.

The typical website is cluttered with too manybanner ads, and the placement of low-costresponse ads (for example, mortgage ads)alongside image-oriented brand ads is oftenjarring. Despite the early promise of onlinevideo and larger-format ads, marketers stillperceive a lack of innovative, new creative ideasfrom agencies and media companies. Manymarketers with whom we spoke believe thatagencies are holding online back by not commit-ting their best creative talent to the medium.

#2: The Internet is awash with undiffer-entiated, low-cost inventory

The recent exponential growth in online adver-tising inventory has not been matched by aproportional increase in demand. Without trulydifferentiated, premium offerings, the massiveoversupply has forced content publishers toaggressively monetize “remnant” inventory

Source: Synthesis of marketer interviews and surveys

Engagement/emotionalresponse

Targeting

Measurement

Sales/support

Perceived strengthBrand marketing needs

TV Radio Magazines Online

Onlineadvertising issues

• High�impact creative, customization• Audience attention, interactivity• Cross�platform

• Clutter• Static, small creative• Creative execution lacking

• Precision: right customer, right time• Ad position, timing

• Often hard to target at scale• Less placement control

• Reach and frequency• Ability to gauge brand awareness, equity• Link to sales impact

• Reliance on impressions• Lack of media comparability• Small scale

• Pro�active solutions and packages• Cost and resources to plan/manage

• Less access/relationship, too reactive• Often small buys, subscale

Figure 3: Despite its potential, online advertising falls short on meeting the key needs ofbrand marketers

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and depend even more on less-premium,response-driven advertising and ad networks.In fact, Bain’s 2008 digital pricing study, con-ducted with the IAB, highlighted that leadingpublishers were releasing excess inventory toad networks at one-sixth to one-tenth the priceof direct sales. This behavior further reducesthe attractiveness of the online medium forpremium brand marketers, worsens the supply-demand imbalance and conditions buyers toshift dollars to ad networks. Airlines typicallycreate a premium experience for first-classpassengers; they don’t place them in the sameseats as budget travelers paying a fraction of thecost. But this is essentially what online mediacompanies have been doing, with costly results.

#3: Too many metrics, too few thatbrand marketers really need

Marketers are inundated with online trackingmeasures, from click-throughs to page viewsto unique visitors, and many more. These canbe valuable metrics for direct response adver-tising, but marketers can’t use them to answerbranding questions, such as: What is the impactof the campaign on increasing brand aware-ness in my target audience? Does it influencepurchase intent? While various survey-basedalternatives (such as, Dynamic Logic, comScore,Brand.net) exist to track such measures, mar-keters indicate they are too expensive and don’tallow for effective comparison across media.Also, as different vendors are often used, thereis no standard “currency” on which buyers andsellers can agree. This limits marketers fromcomparing online with other media, and thusfrom making the decision online media com-panies want most: shifting more brand spend-ing to the Web. A leading consumer packagedgoods marketer summed up the problem:“What we need to see is: If we move 10 percentof our TV dollars to online, are we better off?There’s no way to measure that today.”

#4: Online offers unreliable targeting—especially on a large scale

Brand marketers struggle to target specificconsumer segments online, at a scale that iscomparable to traditional offline brand cam-paigns. While network TV can deliver a largeaudience watching a specific show in a specifictime slot, websites have the much harder taskof gathering traffic from across their pages andacross different points in time. Consequently,marketers have difficulty accurately assessingthe unduplicated reach of their ad, the frequencywith which it is viewed and the gross ratingpoints (GRPs) across multiple sites. Largemarketers (such as consumer goods companies)told us that the complexity and uncertaintyassociated with targeting at scale on premiumsites actually makes them recognize the valueof mass reach with ad networks and portals.At least, these non-premium options can offerhigh unduplicated reach and delivery metricswhich can be measured with a single cookie.

#5: Support from agency and mediapartners is underwhelming for premiumbrand campaigns

Marketers indicated in our survey that they

want media and agency partners who under-

stand their industries, develop innovative ideas,

and help them execute consistent and integrated

campaigns across media platforms. Instead,

agencies are hindered by silos, both within

individual agencies and among different agen-

cies serving the same account. Online media

companies also fall short in brand marketers’

perceptions. Today, many sales teams use a

selling approach that, unintentionally, further

commoditizes their inventory: They focus on

buying agencies, respond almost solely to

requests for proposals (RFPs) and provide

limited customization or innovation in offer-

ings. In addition, online sales teams often lack

Brand marketersstruggle to targetspecific consumersegments online,at a scale thatis comparable to traditionaloffline brandcampaigns.

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industry vertical expertise, interact with mar-

keters too late in the media planning process

and do not have the caliber of talent required

to advise senior decision makers. Media com-

panies with both online and offline operations

often struggle to deliver integrated cross-platform

ad campaigns; their respective sales teams tend

to work in silos, too.

Making brand marketing work online

In the battle for advertising dollars, online pub-

lishers, portals and other sellers of premium-

priced inventory face the most significant

challenges. To better meet the needs of brand

marketers and enhance the prospects for premi-

um CPMs, we suggest the following action plan:

1. Develop “triple play” capabilities

Online media companies must develop andeffectively deliver three distinct product and

service models that address different marketerobjectives (see Figure 4). At the same time, theyneed to determine which model, out of thethree, will be their “core” business.

Strengthen direct-response offerings. This isthe proven “killer app” of online marketingtoday. It focuses on specific customer actionsand satisfies a marketer’s critical need forimmediate “transactions” and “traffic,” both onthe Web and in the bricks-and-mortar world.The Web as a medium for direct-responsemarketing is becoming more cost-effective thanever before, and continues to grow rapidly.While search captures the majority of this spend-ing, billions of dollars are still up for grabs indirect-response display and other formats.

Determine the right “brand reach” strategy.Recently, brand marketers have seen the oppor-tunity to “scale up” investments in high-costcampaigns on premium content sites, as well asincrease impressions through a broader swath of

Larger�scale,reduced�service,efficiency model

Larger�scale,more�automated,efficiency model

High�touch,higher�priced, premium model

Key decisionmaker

Marketerobjectives

Onlineproductofferings

Response Brand reach Brand engagement

• Drive customers to site• Generate transactions and immediate ROI

• Supplement buys in other media • Generate wide exposure at low cost

• Banners, rich media• Mix of premium and non�premium positions

• Banners, rich media• Mix of premium and non�premium positions• Content/placement control

• Build brand awareness and purchase intent• Deliver custom, high�impact campaigns

• Digital video, rich media• Premium position banners• Social/UGC applications• Cross�platform integration

• Buying agency (downstream)• Creative agency (large clients only)

• Brand marketing team• Creative agency (upstream)• Buying agency

• Brand marketing team• Creative agency (upstream)• Buying agency

Figure 4: “Triple play” offerings will help media companies serve three distinct marketer needs

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lower-priced online advertising opportunities.Mercedes-Benz, for example, supported itspremium ads in top-tier newspaper websiteswith low-cost placement through ad networksto expand the reach of its E-Class launch cam-paign. The difference from direct-responseads is that brand reach advertising still valuesthe brand “environment” and is focused onimpressions as opposed to click-throughs. It’san opportunity for online publishers to extendtheir offerings, but can be a double-edged swordif not managed carefully. Online publisherscan sell less desirable inventory at $3–$5 CPMsfor brand-reach applications, but if they canni-balize other brand sales, they can quickly erodea publisher’s ability to charge $8–$12 CPMsfor premium units and services.

Develop premium engagement skills. The thirdleg of the triple play—and the one with themost growth potential—is to create emotion-ally compelling online brand advertising thatbuilds long-term brand affinity. Today, thatremains largely the domain of television andmagazines. But it’s a huge untapped opportunityfor online media companies, as the vast majorityof national advertising dollars reside with large,brand-oriented advertisers seeking deeperengagement with consumers. To make thathappen, online media must recognize that atransformation of their current offerings andsales approach will be required.

2. Re-commit to delivering a “premium” offer

Online publishers who want to increase theirshare of premium-priced brand advertisingdollars must put their house in order and builda truly premium value proposition for brandmarketers. They must:

“Wall off” premium ad inventory. In our sur-vey, marketers consistently expressed frustra-tion with clutter, unreliable context and seeing

their full-priced ads alongside heavily discountedremnant ads. Sites must clearly designate theirpremium placements, limit the clutter aroundthem and restrict access solely to brand-orientedads. Bottom line: premium means offeringfewer, but better, inventory units.

Manage “non-premium” inventory better.While not all ad placements offer the equivalentof NBC TV’s Thursday primetime position, thekey is having a clear definition for what isn’tpremium and creating disciplined processes tomanage that inventory. One online publisherwe interviewed created packages of second-tier“run-of-site” ad inventory that sells at a 30 percentto 50 percent discount compared to the CPMsof higher-end inventory on the site. These lessexpensive packages are clearly separated frommore premium placements and are sold withminimal sales support. Net result: the publishercost-effectively monetizes less premium inven-tory, minimizes cannibalization and maintainsthe premium positioning of the website.

Invest in ad-format innovation. Protectingpremium ad inventory is good, but rejuvenat-ing the ad units themselves is even better. Inour survey, brand-oriented marketers identifiedformats utilizing video, sponsorship and socialmedia as exciting options that go far beyondtypical display ads. Apple’s “Mac vs. PC” cam-paign on the New York Times, Yahoo! and Wall

Street Journal sites showed a willingness toexperiment with new formats—using video aswell as custom ad units that interact acrossthe page. Similarly, the creative for Nintendo’s“Wario’s Land: Shake It!” on YouTube was asophisticated execution that appeared to breakapart the actual page. The ad hooked visitorsand eventually generated several millions ofviews through word-of-mouth publicity. Today,such custom efforts are expensive, but by devel-oping more standards and tools in the future,the online ad industry can increase this typeof business.

The third leg of the tripleplay—and theone with themost growthpotential—is to create emotionallycompellingonline brandadvertising thatbuilds long-termbrand affinity.

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3. Become a strategic partner for marketers

Brand marketers are accustomed to receivinga high level of support from television andother offline media providers. In the future,online media sales teams too will feel the pres-sure to meet and exceed the emerging needsof brand marketers for “partnership” and con-sultative selling. But this will require differentselling and serving models—ones that offermore senior client contact and more value-addedsupport throughout the media planning process.Key requirements include:

Delivering new ideas and category expertise.The number one capability marketers wantin a partner is category-specific knowledge(see Figure 5). Just as with their agencies,marketers expect media companies to under-stand their businesses and bring innovativeideas to the table. Says one CMO, “We wantto sit down once or twice a year with our key

media partners and hear their best thinkingon how to improve what we do. But we’ll onlyhave time to do that with a handful of partners.”

While this raises significant change manage-ment challenges, we believe change is critical.Developing “category-focused” sales teams willhelp media companies in several ways. Salesteams with higher-caliber talent and categoryexpertise interact directly with marketers earlierin the planning process, are able to offer morecustom solutions and influence the creativeaspects of the campaign. For these reasons,Google invested in a multi-year effort to developcategory expertise in selling and services, andhired from the ranks of traditional marketers.Similarly, the New York Times integrated itsonline and offline sales organizations to offeradvertisers a category-focused, custom and cross-platform approach. Such efforts have raisedthe bar for media sellers and are deliveringsubstantial benefits for brand marketers.

Which capabilities are most important in supporting your online advertising?


0

10

20

30

40%

#2

#1


Deepknowledgeof marketerand industry

Effectivetargeting

Strongrelationship

with marketer

High�impactonline creative

Customizedoptions

Digital advertisingknowledge

Digital advertisingsuccess metrics

Best contextualfit for ads

Cross�platformcampaign options

Full adplacement

transparency

Streamlinedpurchasing

options

Figure 5: Brand marketers seek category expertise, customization and a relationship mindsetfrom online media companies

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Make cross-platform the norm, not the exception.Over the next three years, brand marketersexpect nearly 40 percent of their ad budget tobe spent on integrated, cross-platform cam-paigns—with another 25 percent on advertisingthat is at least coordinated across platforms.Media companies that have both online andoffline properties can develop fully-integratedpackages with online and offline components,often providing customization of inventoryunits and creative input. For pure-play onlinemedia companies such as portals, cross-platformcan involve developing ways to extend offlinecampaigns to online and link them to theirsites. While such cross-platform solutions arestill far from the norm, they are growing inpopularity among all the publishers we spoketo. And while online might represent as littleas 5 percent to 10 percent of the overall dealvalue with brand marketers, it might accountfor half of the sales discussion and most of thecustomization and creative support. In otherwords, online capabilities are increasingly thekey differentiator in gaining share of offlinebrand ad dollars.

How might the typical sales structure changeto make all this a reality? We believe it requiresa fundamental shift from an online-versus-offline model to one organized around thecustomer’s needs, offering brand-focused anddirect response-focused sales teams with deepercategory expertise (see Figure 6).

4. Speak the marketer’s language

For online advertising to mesh seamlessly intothe brand planning process, content sites needto go beyond “hits,” “clicks” and “gross impres-sions” as the primary means to measure impact.

Talk GRPs. Brand marketers plan their adver-tising around gross rating points (GRPs)—reaching a certain target audience with a certainfrequency within a defined time period. In the

online world, that audience is typically sharedacross multiple sites, making measurementeven more challenging. At the non-premiumend of the online advertising market, ad net-works are able to track overall consumer reachby using common cookies. For premium sites,however, the challenge is complex: theirapproach of a separate cookie for each sitecomplicates the evaluation of the reach andfrequency of an ad served to consumers acrossmultiple sites. “De-duplicating” the audienceacross multiple sites is difficult and will likelyrequire new industry standards and publishercollaboration. Larger online publishers andthe IAB can use their influence to lead thisindustry-level collaboration.

Measure what matters. Marketers are clear thattraditional brand metrics—especially brandawareness, favorability and purchase intent—will help guide their decision to shift dollarsonline from other channels (see Figure 7).Today, these metrics are delivered in part bycustom service providers like Dynamic Logicand Nielsen IAG. But the lack of an ongoing,syndicated common “currency” and standardsmeans that marketers are unable to compareacross campaigns and across media platforms;nor can they assess impact over extendedperiods of time. Industry forums such as theAssociation of National Advertisers and the IABhave a leading role to play in defining specifi-cations for such metrics—and helping moveexisting players toward a more comprehensive,cross-platform offering.

5. Gain scale

Traditional brand campaigns often need to reachwhat are, by online standards, very large audi-ences. For example, a leading women’s mag-azine might reach 30 million to 40 millionreaders monthly. In contrast, the website forthe same title might deliver only 5 million to10 million unique visitors a month. And a

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• Separate online and offline salesforces, impractical for cross�platform campaigns• One�size�fits�all approach • Limited category expertise

• Category�focused integrated offline/online salesforces with high�touch and innovation focus • Separate reach/response salesforce • Ability to meet the reach�requirements of brand marketers as necessary

Typical legacysalesforce approach

Media company

Onlinesalesforce

Offlinesalesforce

Mostly responseneeds

Engagementneeds

Example of futuresalesforce approach

Media company

Transactionalonline salesforce

Multi�platform“engagement”

salesforce

Reach/responseneeds

Engagementneeds

Auto Etc.CPG

Note: Illustrative

Figure 6: Media sales teams need to reorient from a platform-centric structure to a category-based approach

Which metrics are most valuable for brand�building campaigns?


0

20

40

60%

Brandawareness

#1

#2

#3

Likelihood torecommend

Conversionrates

Clickthrough

Messageassociation

Time spenton page

Viewthrough

Purchaseintent

Favorability Recall Uniquevisitors

Adimpressions/views

Interactionrate

Engagementtime

What brand marketers want What brand marketers get


Figure 7: Brand marketers want traditional brand-impact metrics to gauge online ad effectiveness

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marketer would need to place numerous ads onthat website to reach any significant numberof those unique users. Marketers and agenciestherefore often find it inefficient to try to reacha large number of consumers across manysmall websites.

If you’ve got scale, use it. Scale represents amajor advantage for large media companiesand online pure-plays. But it is surprising howfew online content companies utilize their fullpotential to offer scale. We believe many onlinepublishers can offer more consumer insight,creative services and innovation/experimentationthan they currently do. That will require themto bring their existing capabilities closer togetherwhen pitching to marketers and be involvedmuch earlier in the campaign planning process.Recognizing this, larger players are increasinglybringing smaller sites together to create branded“networks.” In some cases, publishers areintegrating their own sub-brands into packagesthat offer marketers more scale. MTV GenerationTribe, for example, targets young adult con-sumers. Similarly, Meredith’s online BHGNetwork integrates cooking, home improve-ment, gardening and beauty content fromBetter Homes and Gardens and other relatedMeredith brands.

If you don’t have scale, get it. As online advertis-ing continues to mature, brand marketers andad agencies are becoming more selective—and ad networks allow them to efficiently placetheir ad on many sites with a single buy. Largebrand marketers therefore have a diminishinginterest in dealing directly with small contentsites—unless these sites bring a distinctiveaudience or are truly a perfect fit for theirbrands. This does not mean, however, thatsmaller sites are running out of options. Instead,we believe that at the one end, they should

double-down on serving their base of “natural-fit” advertisers and at the other, forge links withcompatible media companies to gain scale andbroaden the base of advertisers they can attract.One such approach is to create premium “mini-networks” with exclusive membership. Anotheris to establish a relationship with a larger mediacompany for sales representation. As an exam-ple, the Rubicon Project helps smaller contentpublishers gain scale and better monetize theirunsold inventory.

Online advertising as we know it is long over-due for change. As direct-response advertisingcontinues to commoditize inventory and erodepricing, media companies are under pressureto provide more value and transform the salesmodel. Those who are first to deliver morecompelling and integrated brand campaigns,offering the full “triple play,” are likely to buildpremium portfolios and pull away from therest of the industry. The change won’t beeasy or quick. But for those who lead in onlinemarketing innovation, there are billions of brandadvertising dollars waiting to move online.

Scale representsa major advan-tage for largemedia compa-nies and onlinepure-plays. Butit is surprisinghow few onlinecontent compa-nies utilize theirfull potential tooffer scale.

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The role marketers can play

Advertisers also have a significant stake in cracking the code for building brands online.

Brands such as Apple and Unilever’s Axe are beginning to point the way forward. Their

experience, and that of other progressive online brand advertisers, suggests some prac-

tical steps for marketers:

Develop and utilize more innovative ad formats

Marketers who have been successful in driving online brand engagement challenge the

constraints imposed by “standard” display advertising formats and instead push for larger,

innovative formats that incorporate video and sound. The goal: mirror the attention-grabbing

potential of traditional television advertising.

Cast a wider net for creative ideas

The most progressive online marketers actively collaborate with media companies to

create custom ads that best utilize the layout and capabilities of their specific media

properties—and resonate closely with the site’s target audience. Clearly, there are limits

to how many online media companies a marketer can deal with directly, but these are

increasingly valuable endeavors to pursue with their most important media suppliers.

Drive cross-platform campaign integration

Marketers are increasingly aspiring to integrate campaigns across different media plat-

forms in order to create “surround sound” effects for the consumer, stretch more expen-

sive advertising investments in certain platforms such as network TV across multiple plat-

forms, and better maintain brand consistency regardless of the platform being utilized.

Further, pointing to the importance of cross-platform integration, we found that brand

marketers who use the same creative agency for online and offline work were 40 percent

more likely to be satisfied with the results than those using separate agencies for online

and offline. Whether through a single agency or coordinating efforts through an inter-

agency team (IAT), cross-platform integration is increasingly becoming the norm for effective

brand advertising campaigns.

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