Re: Ad server options

From: Matt Stevens <matt_biz_at_yahoo.com>
Date: Tue 21 Aug 2001 12:48:23 -0500

JOSHUA NOVICK <jnovick_at_i-network.com> WROTE:

> Our experience, to the date, is that Dart is by far
> the most complete solution, being the only one of
> the 4 we tried that provides precise inventory
> management, deals efficiently with rich media, pop ups,
> interstitials, layers, etc..., and rarely under serves
> or over serves.
 
> Our company migrated from Dart to Adforce a couple
> months ago, when Adforce shut down. Adforce crisis
> was an economic and logistic disaster for us: many
> of our the campaigns in the last few months did not
> run properly, where under delivered, improperly targeted,
> or simply did not run. My advise is that you stick with
> Dart, if you can afford it. Maybe you could try to
> renegotiate your deal with them, prices on ad serving
> have fallen considerably in the past year or so, maybe
> you just have a "old days" contract. If you chose to
> change ad serving solution I would advise you to take
> into great consideration the future viability of
> your new software provider. Of the ones out there,
> only L90 and DoubleClick seem to have enough cash at
> bank to be around one year from now.

> You might want to take a look at L90 Admonitor. We
> where very impressed with the capabilities it provided,
> and the main reason we decided to sign with Dart rather
> than with Admonitor, was their lack of good ip targeting
> database for Spanish users, and Doubleclicks stronger
> presence and local support in Spain.
>
> What you might want to also think about reducing the
> number of pages you serve ads on, if you are so worried
> about costs. What we found is that a great part of our
> inventory was unsold and the cost of hundred of millions
> of house ads was a luxury we could no longer permit
> ourselves. You might want to "re-program" your site in
> a manner that it is easier to place Dart ads only when
> you are serving a campaign and serve house ads with a
> simple banner cgi script, when a paid campaign isn't
> running.

Joshua,

Having used Dart, AdServer, Open AdStream and
Accipiter myslef with various clients, I must disagree
with your assessment that Dart is the most robust
product.

In terms of Inventory Management it is a solid
product, but then again so are Open AdStream and
Accipiter. One issue that I have always run into is
that whenever there is a discrepancy in reports,
DoubleClick always claims that it is the fault of the
other ad server. I know for a fact that one reason
for the inaccuracy of DC's reports is that Dart does
not offer very good spider filtering, causing lare
discrepancies in actual deliveries and Click-throughs.

In addition, the biggest issue I have run tino with
Dart is the lack of support and the hours it takes to
implement changes to campaigns. With Open AdStream
and Accipiter you can make campaign changes must
faster since the product is local.

And as far as I know, Real Media is the ONLY company
that still has solid operations in Latin America. I
had thought that DC pulled back long ago.

Lastly, and most importantly, Dart means giving away
your data and control. If you really want to stay in
business over the long run, I would advise dropping
Dart. Keep in mind, the accuracy of the product will
probably go downhill very fast with the new P3P coming
into effect with the new MS browser.

Matt Stevens

In terms of serving rich media



Received on Tue Aug 21 2001 - 12:48:23 CDT