What If Ads Were Content?
Heath Row
Research Manager
DoubleClick Inc.
PodCamp NYC
April 7, 2007

What I Do at DoubleClick
• Study the impact of new technology on advertising—and
vice versa
• Write original research reports such as “Influencing the
Influencers: How Online Advertising and Media Impact
Word of Mouth”
• Analyze aggregate data to detect trends in click-through
rate, rich media benchmarks, and other ad actions
• Support the team’s knowledge management and
collaboration efforts (blogs, wikis, mind maps)
• Work with the Innovation Lab to help develop new ad
formats and models

doubleclick.com/knowledge

A Brief History of Advertising
• Commercial messages and political campaign displays
have been found in the ruins of ancient Arabia; Egyptians
used papyrus to create sales messages and wall posters
• Newspapers emerged in the 16th century; the earliest
newspapers had few ads and were largely short lived
• The rise of the middle class brought an increase in ads
• 1878: The first full-page newspaper advertisements appear
• The 20th century business model evolved to
accommodate growth in mass-market advertising and
corporate consolidation

A Briefer History of
Online Advertising
• NCSA Mosaic released in 1993, leading to the rise of the graphic
Web
• Netscape Mozilla becomes the first commercial Web browser in
1994
• October 25, 1994: The first banner ad runs on HotWired
• The IAB’s Ad Sizes Task Force releases the first real ad standards in
2003
• March 2005: Warner Brothers Records sponsors the Eric Rice Show
• March 13, 2006: Rocketboom runs its first ad
• August 2006:YouTube’s Video Ad Platform launches

“The trade of advertising is now so near perfection that it is
not easy to propose any improvement.”
—Samuel Johnson, ~1759

Leading Indicators
• Historic example of the advertorial (1970s, Mobil Oil)
• Public radio underwriting spots (applicable to podcasts)
• The television infomercial, introduced in 1984
• Sponsored micro-sites online
• Unilever’s “Spraychel” ITV campaign on Cox VOD
• The embrace of “user-generated content” for the 2007
Super Bowl
• Fox Networks’s Oleg animated spots

Leading Examples
• Lurzer’s International Archive online
• Daily Jolt’s one-time ability to rate and comment on
ads (Hot or Not-style voting)
• Ability to share YouTube Partners videos
• Federated Media blog RSS content ads (Symantec)
• DoubleClick’s real-time streaming video ads (The
Number 23 campaign for New Line Cinema)
• The Innovation Lab’s cube format (and Frog Design’s
super-modal ZUI)

The Will Is Strong
“The huge thing for our industry is that, actually, what we
have been great at for the last 50 years, and what we will be
great at for the next 50 years, is developing and delivering
entertaining, engaging, short-format content.”
—David Jones, CEO, Euro RSCG

The Results Are Weak
“Apparently, it's too easy to buy online video. ... When
the campaign results were analyzed, guess where most
people stopped watching the video? ... When they
realized that they'd just started watching a TV spot.”

Challenges
• Ongoing concerns about the blurring of
advertising and editorial
• Are advertisers prepared to become
content creators?
• Content has a shelf life; ads do not
• Content can be shared and tagged; ads
cannot

Proposed Ad Actions
• Archiving
• Bookmarking
• “Send to a Friend”
• Tagging
• Commenting
• Discussing
• Battling

Discuss

Readers, and Thanks
• Kevin Dugan, Strategic Public Relations
• Greg Galant, Venture Voice and RadioTail
• John Havens, PodCamp NYC and About
• Eric Rice, the Eric Rice Show
• Michael Sommermeyer, via Twitter

Thank You
Heath Row
hrow@doubleclick.net