Two days ago, adBrite announced the launch of their Real-Time Pricing™ solution that maximizes ad revenue for premium publishers by automatically optimizing the floor price for every page view on their properties. We spoke with Iggy Fanlo, adBrite’s President & CEO, about what this launch represents and how RTP can serve both publishers and advertisers.
Otilia Otlacan: Congratulations on the recent launch of adBrite’s Real-Time Pricing solution! Could you tell us what prompted you to look into offering RTP to adBrite’s premium publishers?
Iggy Fanlo: It was like a light bulb going off in our product team. They knew the great things we were doing for our advertisers and when we took a hard look at the ecosystem, there weren’t any companies applying that same data, intelligence and algorithms for the publishers. We felt that the dynamic aspect of our technology, when applied for publishers, could make it a win-win for the industry where our publishers will be on equal footing with advertisers.
Otilia Otlacan: You said that the digital media ecosystem is weighted against the sell-side. Would you mind explaining why that happens, would there be reasons beyond the simplistic explanation of offer – demand equilibrium?
Iggy Fanlo: In many ways, the customer is always right, and because the buyers control the spend, the ecosystem will naturally favor them. However, we all know that if we give more advantages to the seller, they will be more willing to provide the highest quality of inventory.
Here is an analogy to consider. If all the research and intelligence in the financial markets were only used by buyers and not by sellers, that wouldn’t make any sense and would leave the buy side with an unfair advantage.
adBrite aims to level the playing field. We want to give all the tools and capabilities that currently exist for buyers to sellers.
Otilia Otlacan: I understand that the adBrite RTP solution will be available for wide adoption later this year. Do you expect smaller publishers to see results comparable those of the largest publishers, or are they facing a different set of challenges in pricing their inventory?
Iggy Fanlo: The publishers with the best audiences should benefit the most regardless of size. Just like RTB, RTP will properly value the audience that any size publisher brings to the adBrite exchange.
Otilia Otlacan: There are numerous factors influencing ad inventory pricing. In your experience, what are the most important ones, and do you think they’re reflected well enough in today’s ad exchanges?
Iggy Fanlo: There are intuitive factors such as page depth (first impressions are valuable), position on the page and basic audience data such as demographics. These are already reflected in exchanges. We think it’s technology like real-time pricing that can give publishers the boost they need and help them differentiate exchanges from one another.
Otilia Otlacan: Is there anything else you would like to share with our readers? What will adBrite be focusing on next?
Iggy Fanlo: RTP is a big breakthrough. Like RTB, this will play out over the next couple of years and you’ll see us applying it to all formats — video, mobile, etc. We’re hopeful that it will demonstrate to publishers that digital media can deliver effective monetization that supports their business.
Iggy Fanlo – President & CEO, adBrite (www.adbrite.com)
Iggy Fanlo joined adBrite in May 2006 as its CEO. Prior to joining adBrite, Iggy was President and Chief Revenue Officer at Shopping.com. His tenure (1999-2006) ran from the pre-revenue days to over $200 million a year. The company completed an IPO in October 2004 and was acquired by eBay for over $650 million in August 2005. Prior to his technology career, Iggy spent 15 years on Wall Street with Morgan Stanley and J.P. Morgan. As a Managing Director at both firms, Iggy held various positions, ending as the head of all US Dollar Securitized Debt Trading and Capital Markets. During his final fiscal year, Iggy’s department generated over $300 million in gross profits. Iggy received a degree in Chemical Engineering in 1983 from Princeton University.
