How Yahoo! is helping advertisers, agencies and publishers navigate a contentious trend
Nick HughWhen it comes to trading desks, you need to rely on an expert.
But there are experts, and then there are experts. Nick Hugh, Senior Director, Yahoo! Direct Response, EMEA and Commercial Director, is the latter. Nick is responsible for, among other things, the overseeing of all Yahoo! performance display in more than 30 countries, buying several billion impressions each month. Having worked in the Internet space almost since the beginning, Nick is no stranger to innovation and the latest ad business trends.
That's why he was the perfect Yahoo to sit on the Internet Week Europe panel, "Agency Trading Desks: Changing the Ecosystem for Better or Worse," which took place at the offices of the Internet Advertising Bureau in London Monday. Agency trading desks are a touchy subject at best. This relatively new, fast-moving trend in ad tech has sparked much debate over issues such as transparency and attribution, and the apparent threat that agencies pose to more "traditional" ad networks and demand-side platforms (DSPs).
After the panel, we caught up with Nick to talk about how Yahoo! is approaching the trading desk issue.
Yahoo! Scene: Why did you think it was important to have this conversation?
Nick Hugh: This is one of the most controversial and spoken about topics in the market at the moment. There's immense confusion on both the buy side and the sell side. We want to make sure that Yahoo! is seen as driving the debate and helping both the buyers and the sellers, helping them understand where this is going. That's why we took this opportunity to create the panel.
Scene: And how is Yahoo! guiding the conversation?
NH: We were one of the first to work with various trading desks. What we're trying to do is learn as we go and shape the way that the trading desks are working with the market, imparting that knowledge at an industry level where possible.
Scene: In the panel, the idea of bidding on your own inventory was brought up. Is this an ethical practice?
NH: It depends if you're doing it artificially or falsely. Today we do it. We use our own campaigns, which are campaigns on behalf of agencies or advertisers to create a competitive marketplace. That remains entirely ethical and is akin to the search model. Doing it artificially, I'm less convinced. That's certainly not an angle we would pursue.
Scene: What are some of the opportunities you are seeing for advertisers with the development of trading desks?
NH: More efficiency and improved performance, as long as they get the partnerships right with the publishers and the networks.
Scene: So then the question of trading desks really goes beyond good or bad?
NH: It's all to be determined. I think you've got to look at each one on its own merits. They're all very different. Some have better intentions than others. Time will tell, but we're ready to be open-minded to working with the big ones until we know otherwise.
-- Michael Mattis
