Someone Actually Stands Up For Late Creative

Klipmart CEO Chris Young actually writes an article for Mediapost in favor of letting creative deadlines slip.

Sure, late creative is annoying and obstructive to ad execution. But that's part of the reality of the business we're in, and it's up to all of us to find ways to adjust.

Like actually delivering things when you say you'll deliver things?

But online, we go impression by impression. If an ad goes live late, impressions can often be made up at the end of a campaign. And even after the ad is live, changes can continue to be made as many times as they need to. Late creative might add pressure and frustration, but it's certainly not the kiss of death.

Earlier in the same column, Tom Hespos grumbles, "It's obvious that deadlines slip in online media only because they can."

Well, yeah.

So shouldn't we be proud of that fact, and work to deliver the best performance we can from a medium unlike any other? We're not a traditional format, and we shouldn't be playing by traditional rules.

Rather than charge a client full price for materials that never ran, why not place the ball in their court by just saying, the pay period starts whenever you get the materials to us?

What Young is advocating is being different simply for the sake of being different. The distinctions he made about online media being served impression by impression are important, but they don't change the fact that inventory still expires. When a $20 CPM flight doesn't start on time, yes we have the capability to shift the flight dates. But what runs in that ad's place? Typically a house ad or a low CPM or CPC ad. Say what you want, but publishers are deprived of a revenue opportunity. And that opportunity cost rises the tighter inventory gets, so the problem is getting worse.

Not to mention that it's bad business to say you're going to deliver something by the first of the month, but you deliver it on the 7th instead.