Yesterday's OMMA Panel: Ad Exchanges

Yesterday, I moderated my second panel at OMMA Hollywood, this one on Ad Exchanges. Dave Smith from Mediasmith, Jason Heller from Horizon Interactive and Hannah Bubis from Did-It Search Marketing joined me in exploring the notion of the resurgence of ad exchanges. An enthusiastic Ken Fadner (the guy who started Mediapost) was in the audience and asked quite a few questions. I had reminded people in the audience that one of Mediapost's original missions was to be an ad exchange. Before they figured out that the money was in the content, Mediapost built a bunch of tools to help create a marketplace on their site. It makes you wonder...If exchanges take off again, will Mediapost dust off the tools they invested in years ago and have another go at it?

It was a short panel, and we explored the idea of whether our industry has sufficient standards to allow an exchange to be successful, what types of ad inventory might be sold on exchanges, and which companies are best-positioned to provide the marketplace.