www.DoubleClick.com/NerveCenter
ThreeQuestions
with media, marketing, and agency innovators redefining the digital space
Introducing the new DoubleClick
We’ve always worked to define our industry. Now we’re redefining ourselves, with a new look, and soon a new doubleclick.com.
It’s all part of our commitment to drive the industry with unique insight and insider knowledge, to be the nerve center of digital marketing.
Learn about the new DoubleClick
Our CEO on our changes
Help shape our new DoubleClick.com site
Tell us what you need
with David Rosenblatt
Our own fearless leader, CEO David Rosenblatt, kicks off this new interview series with a few words on the future of digital marketing and how DoubleClick plans to stay at the center of the industry.
Introduction
My name is David Rosenblatt, and I’m the CEO of DoubleClick, and I’m going to talk about what we do for a living.
question 1: On Innovation
What are you most proud of in your 10 years at DoubleClick?
I think I’m most proud of the fact that over the last two years, we have been successful in reestablishing ourselves as a company who, rather than simply provides a service, even if it’s an indispensable service to our customers, really pushes the edges of the industry, creates new products that define new markets, and improves the overall success of our clients. And I think along with that I’m equally proud of the fact that in the process we’ve made DoubleClick a great place to work again, with lots of great people.
When DoubleClick was founded in 1996, we really were established as a means to create this brand-new industry. We originated the concept of third-party ad serving; we originated the first ad network online. I think over the last two years we’ve actually seen a resurgence of creativity and innovation. For example, we’ve released more products and more business ideas in the last two years than we had in the prior four combined.
question 2: On New Solutions
What can we expect to see from DoubleClick this year?
DoubleClick occupies a unique position in the sense that we service both sellers and buyers of media. And so I think one of the primary things we’ll see is an increasing integration between both sides of the aisle. And that will lead to not only more process efficiencies, but I think also new and exciting media products that simply aren’t available as alternatives in traditional media. We’re hard at work on a new ad exchange that in a very efficient manner, somewhat like the stock market, matches buyers and sellers of online ad inventory.
Equally important to the day-to-day users of our products are some of the less visible technologies. We are rebuilding our user interface in all of our products so that customers can – our customers can customize the product that they work with. And we’re also excited about the ability to begin to bring together some of the different channels within online that previously had been managed separately – specifically search and display. And when you put those things together – new economic models delivered through new user interfaces and other things that impact our customers on a day-to-day basis – we believe that we have an opportunity to take advantage of our position to really reshape the way people think about the Internet media industry in ways both large and small.
question 3: On the Brand
Why rebrand now? And why green?
The reason why we’re changing our brand now is that, we feel that in a pretty fundamental sense, this is a different company today than it was a year or two years ago. And so the new brand, in the most concrete sense, represents that rebirth. Why the new brand? Why the color green, for example? What does that represent? To me, green is one of the most evocative of colors. It represents springtime, obviously, growth, potential, freshness, originality, creativity. All of those are the things that green says to me. Obviously color and brand is an emotional topic, and it says different things to different people. But I think almost more than any other color, green has some universal attributes that I believe are representative not only of how we are today as a company, but also what we aspire to be in the future.
Download Transcripts
with Lars Bastholm
One of the industry’s most decorated creative directors, Lars talks about trying to predict the future, reach the youth market, and sensibly integrate video and the web.
Introduction
My name is Lars Bastholm. I am the Executive Creative Director at AKQA New York, and I am here to try and predict the future – or not.
question 1: On Convergence
How do you see TV and the Web coming together?
What excites me most about the integration of TV and the Web is that hopefully we’ll only use the elements of both in a combination where it makes sense. So let’s not turn the Web into TV. TV is a passive experience where you sit down and get entertained; let’s not turn the Web into – or the TV into the Web where you constantly have to engage with choosing the next clip or what direction you wanted to go in.
Both mediums have exceptional strength in what they’re good at, and if you try and mash it all together into one big sort of communal entity, at least the way it’s looking right now it’s not doing much for the users or the viewers, I think. But if you take sort of the interaction factor from the Web in allowing people to choose what they want to see when they want to see it on TV, I think that’s huge and it’s only going to get bigger.
I think whoever cracks what true interactive video means is going to be a very rich person, or a very popular agency.
question 2: On Audiences
AKQA often aims at much-coveted 18 to 34-year-olds. What do you believe resonates with them?
Right now what we’re talking about mostly is social networks of any kind, any way of interacting with each other, because to an 18-year-old, other 18-year-olds will always be the most interesting. It’s about getting to know people, making new friends, and having a lot of friends. So that’s why places like MySpace or FaceBook have become so popular. Social networking hasn’t changed dramatically online over the last year or so except just turning more towards video. If you look at sites like Vimeo, that allows you to upload 250 megs of video free of charge every week, that’s the kind of site that starts vlogging – so the video version of blogging – and this starts to become prevalent amongst teens who have either webcams or video cameras, or video cameras built into their phones.
I think what we will see increasingly over the next year or so – even the next couple of years – is that the whole social networking thing will move into the mobile space increasingly, and we’ll see a lot of mobile social networks starting to appear.
They’re also hugely into anything that’s entertaining that they can discover for themselves as the first and share with their friends, whereas viral marketing is really a misnomer because it only means good marketing. It means good content that you want to share with friends and family and be the first to find and send around. That gives you cachet, to be the first kid on the block to discover the new thing.
So those are some of the trends that you see with that particular target group, and they’re never really going to go away.
question 3: On the Future
What kind of digital experiences do you think we’ll see 10 years from now?
I think anybody who says that they can predict the future in this industry is either deluding themselves or blind. That said, I’m going to try anyway. If you look at the digital interfaces in movies, if you look at mobile phones in Southeast Asia and try to take them to their natural conclusion, where the iPhone is going to kick off in the U.S., I think the Internet moving out of the computer and into a whole host of other digital gadgets is probably going to be the most significant development over the next 10 years. Pretty much every year something happens, something that starts to determine what developments in the industry are going to look like over the next 12 to 24 months.
These days you’re starting to see online ads that are using more and more video and using multiple video channels on the same screen to interact with one another so it becomes much more immersive and much more like an on-the-site experience versus a click-through experience. It’s what you do with the possibilities that the Web offers you that makes it interesting, not necessarily what’s technologically doable.
Download Transcripts
David Rosenblatt
CEO, DoubleClick
Our own fearless leader looks to the future and DoubleClick’s spot right in the middle of it.
More about David
Watch the interview
Lars Bastholm >
Executive Creative Director, AKQA
One of the industry’s most decorated creative directors explains how to predict the future.
More about Lars
Watch the interview
WHO TO WATCH FOR
Ari Paparo, DoubleClick
Coming soon, our VP of Rich Media talks about emerging media, mobile, and the TangoZebra acquisition.
Meet & ask the innovators
Taking questions for…
YOUR TURN
We’ve heard from these innovators, but what’s your point-of-view?
Get featured Can we interview you?
Driven by you and DART for Publishers Learn more at www.doubleclick.com/dfp
© 2007 DoubleClick Inc. All Rights Reserved.
(212) 271-CLICK (2542)
Trademarks
[link: www.doubleclick.com/us/about_doubleclick/trademarks.asp]
Privacy at this Website
[link: www.doubleclick.com/us/about_doubleclick/privacy/default.asp]
David Rosenblatt
CEO, DoubleClick
DoubleClick CEO David Rosenblatt is responsible for both the long-term strategic vision and the day-to-day operations of the company.
He joined DoubleClick in 1997 as part of the initial management team and has since held a number of executive positions, including President. He’s been instrumental in the recent growth of the company and in the success of several key mergers and acquisitions.
David holds an MBA from Stanford Graduate School of Business, graduated Magna Cum Laude from Yale in East Asian Studies, and is fluent in Mandarin.
Lars Bastholm
Executive Creative Director, AKQA
Lars, Executive Creative Director in AKQA’s New York office, has been working in interactive advertising for over 10 years.
After launching Grey Interactive in Scandinavia, he joined Framfab in Copenhagen as Creative Director. There he worked on some of the world’s most recognized brands, including Nike, LEGO, and Carlsberg. Now, at AKQA New York, Lars works with Coca-Cola, Xbox, Sirius Radio, and Dos Equis brands.
He’s one of the most award-winning creatives in digital marketing with over 25 international awards to his name, including three Cyber Lions Grand Prix from Cannes. Lars has also served as Internet Jury Chairman for the 2004 Clio Awards and was recently featured in the book How to Catch the Big Idea: The Strategy of Top Creatives.
Meet & ask…
Ready for your close-up?
Volunteer for Three Questions
We’re looking for more fearless leaders who can spare an hour or so to field three questions from the digital marketing community.
To volunteer for an interview, just send us your contact info and bio to threequestions@doubleclick.com.
Optional: Send Us Anonymous Feedback
Can you spare a few more minutes? We’d also like to ask you a few questions.
What type of content would you like to find on the new digital nerve center at doubleclick.com? What don’t we provide online that you wish we offered?
What online resources do you use today to stay on top of the industry?
What does the “nerve center” mean to you?
Thanks for your feedback; we certainly value your input as we work to re-imagine doubleclick.com and create the digital nerve center.
Moving Forward
Learn more about the new DoubleClick
The New DoubleClick
In 1996, DoubleClick pioneered third-party ad serving. Today, after a decade of leadership and innovation, we still sit at the heart of digital marketing, supporting billions of digital interactions a day for countless buyers and sellers.
Yet, just as we’ve worked to define our industry since its inception, we’re now redefining ourselves with some far-reaching changes.
You’ve probably noticed our new look, including a refreshed identity inspired by our position at the center of the industry. At the same time, we’re hard at work on a new doubleclick.com and want your input as we transform our site into a digital nerve center for our industry.
It’s all part of our renewed commitment to give buyers and sellers the insights and solutions they need to succeed – a commitment that fuels our passion for the digital future.
Best Regards,
David Rosenblatt
CEO, DoubleClick
Help shape our new site
Send us Anonymous Feedback
If you can spare a few minutes, we have three questions for you.
Over the next few months, we’ll be re-imagining doubleclick.com. ThreeQuestions gives you a small taste of the new direction, but your input will help us turn our entire web presence into a knowledge hub for the digital marketing community.
What type of content would you like to find on the new digital nerve center at doubleclick.com?
What online resources do you use today to stay on top of the industry?
What does the “nerve center” mean to you?
Thanks for your feedback; we certainly value your input as we work to re-imagine doubleclick.com and create the digital nerve center.
with Ari Paparo
VP of Rich Media at DoubleClick
Our own VP of Rich Media talks in-stream video, mobile, emerging media, and the Tangozebra offering. Watch Now
Ari Paparo >
VP of Rich Media, DoubleClick
Our VP of Rich Media talks in-stream video, mobile, emerging media, and Tangozebra.
More about Ari
Watch the interview
With: Ari Paparo
Our VP of Rich Media discusses DoubleClick’s Innovation Lab and Tangozebra acquisition, as well as in-stream video, mobile, and the new crop of emerging media.
Introduction:
I’m Ari Paparo, the vice president of Rich Media at DoubleClick. I’m here to talk about Rich Media flash advertising, in-stream video, mobile, and emerging markets.
Question 1: On Tangozebra
What does the recent acquisition of Tangozebra mean for your clients?
Tangozebra is a very exciting acquisition. DoubleClick has been a global company with large operations in the U.S., Europe, and in Asia. What we found is that the needs of the clients and the trends in those markets are different. They all center around Internet advertising but the emphasis and the different product attributes are different. Tangozebra is a specialist in Europe, specifically in the U.K. market. They have a great relationship with clients. They really understand that market. So in addition to having Tangozebra have a big benefit to our European presence, they also have the innovative point of view on all the newer technologies like podcasting, in-game advertising, and mobile advertising, and over time we expect some of those products to be globalized and launched for clients around the world.
Question 2: On Innovation
Can you talk about The Innovation Lab and some of your most recent projects?
The innovation lab is a pretty exciting development. The Rich Media space is using Flash and Javascript and browser-based technologies, but what we have done is we have said, let’s see how far we can push it. So we developed the innovation lab, which is really an R&D group specializing in Rich Media. They’re saying, how far can we take these technologies on behalf of advertisers for specific campaigns.
We recently had a great exciting success with the innovation lab, where we partnered with our client, who is New Line Cinema. They were advertising the new movie with Jim Carrey called, “The Number 23,” and “The Number 23” plot is about confession to some extent. So the idea was, what if we can get a confession from people, live, and then stream it into an ad in real time.
The innovation team worked with the production team at Foglight to go down to Washington DC, to a bar, and they actually filmed live confessions of people in the bar, and streamed it live into an ad unit that could run anywhere on the Internet. It was a really exciting success; it got to the brand message of the movie, and was really different, which is a big part of brand advertising.
Question 3: On What’s Next
What emerging media are taking the digital marketing industry by storm and how does DoubleClick view them?
The way DoubleClick looks at emerging media is that there’s a whole spectrum of media, from RSS, podcasting, gaming, mobile, in-stream, and the key is to invest at the point where those media are becoming advertising vehicles, not just on an experimental basis, but as a core part of the business of our clients. So, we look very carefully at each of these as they move forward in the marketplace.
In 2006, we saw in-stream video as crossing that chasm, as being an area where investment had reached a level where our clients found it to be very important to their businesses, a core part of the user experience on the web, and a core part of advertising.
In 2007, we see mobile as taking a similar position. The increase in number of people who are interested or doing mobile advertising has been phenomenal, and it’s an area where we feel that we have to invest in the products and services to support the growth of the business. It’s very exciting for – because you can reach the consumer where they are, when they want the information, as opposed to being restricted to a desktop or a home environment.
Both of those areas, in-stream video and mobile, have quite a ways to go before they’re large stable businesses that are easy to insert ads, easy to get reporting and all those things that we are used to in the Internet area, but by investing in products and working with our clients, we can help move the industry along, and also help our clients create businesses out of these exciting emerging areas.
Ari Paparo Bio
VP of Rich Media, DoubleClick
Ari Paparo is the Vice President of Rich Media for DoubleClick. In this role, Paparo leads the company's product vision for rich media, video and emerging technologies. As a thought leader in the online marketing industry, Paparo regularly speaks at industry events including recent and upcoming appearances at Ad:Tech, OMMA, iMedia and other leading industry events.
Prior to joining DoubleClick, Paparo developed Internet marketing strategies for leading brands and interactive agencies, with an emphasis on emerging technologies, blogs, and syndication. He was a founder and COO of Blink.com, a venture-supported personal information management service.
Ari earned his MBA from Columbia and is a lifelong New Yorker.