I recently got slapped down for giving the "oxygen of publicity" to yet another meaningless acronym. And in fairness it was probably justified. If you were to stand back from it all and look at the current fragmented landscape and give an honest perspective you'd conclude one thing: all these new three-lettered companies are essentially variations of the classic ad network model. And I'll happily argue this point with anyone. As I said before the European ad network is far from dead - it's merely iterating to meet the new challenges of the data-driven market. One ad net who has embraced the changes in the market to deliver improved performance is Netherlands-based BannerConnect. ExchangeWire recently spoke to Tim Geenen, Business Development Manager at BannerConnect, about its demand and supply side offering and how it is evolving the current model to meet the new requirements of its clients.

Can you give an overview of the BannerConnect offering?

BannerConnect was founded as an ad network back in 2004. We have different approaches to the buy and sell-side. It has allowed us to understand the requirements of both sides of the market.

On the demand-side, we provide transparent media buying services and exchange expertise.

Our supply-side offering has two components. Firstly, we build custom ad management solutions for publishers like RealGames Europe and actively help them maximize revenue on both premium and non-guaranteed inventory. Secondly, we act as an inventory aggregator as we are fully utilizing all existing exchanges and sell-side platforms.

How would you define BannerConnect? Is it an ad network or exchange trading specialist?

Neither and both. Our skill set is too varied for just one of these definitions. We like to refer to BannerConnect as a Trading Platform, but not always in the physical sense of the word.

Depending on the client’s wishes, we can fulfil both roles - albeit from different departments within the company.

We offer our direct publishers a complete package of services, such as consultancy and campaigns matching their supply. Advertisers can take full benefit of a wide array of specializations, like retargeting, audience segmentation, real-time bidding, view-time tracking, creative engagement, container pixels and conversion path analysis.

But our clients also consider us to be exchange trading specialists as well. BannerConnect was the first European company to move from a traditional ad server like DART to the RightMedia Exchange and were early adopters of AppNexus. Over the years we have truly learned a lot about exchanges, and developed the skills and resource in-house to deliver this data-driven expertise.

Are the current innovations in the market changing how ad nets position themselves?

Absolutely. It makes them re-evaluate their strategy, behaviour and offerings. This is a good thing though. You have to be very adaptive and tech savvy in this line of work - especially for a privately owned company. It all comes down to human intelligence, technology and a straightforward attitude.

In our experience, more and more networks are moving away from the classic model. Instead, they try to focus on the demand side of business, while dropping their direct publisher relationships.

Has the data market taken hold in the Dutch market?

The phenomenon has, but the market as a whole is still playing catching up. There has not been much of this type of buying and selling. There are a lot of preparations being made though. The “former” ad networks are pushing this new model, in my opinion, and I expect to see a lot more data-driven trading by the end of this year.

From our point of view the data-buying model can be very beneficial to both advertisers and publishers. Advertisers, for obvious reasons, understand the opportunity. Publishers are starting to see the value of the model. They view data selling as a possible new income stream. Websites that are not depending on standard display ad income, like e-commerce and comparison sites, seem quite eager to exploit their data commercially. Trust seems to be key in actually securing the data though.

The cookie discussion is a hot topic in the Dutch market. The IAB is doing a great job lobbying, informing and educating all stakeholders. The upcoming Do-Not-Track options within browsers don’t really worry us. In an industry where change is the only constant, two things are certain: one, the market hasn’t fully developed and matured yet; and two, sooner or later people will start realizing that the internet is free because of advertising and behavioural targeting is part of that process.

Are you seeing big growth in automated media buying in the Netherlands?

Define automated. In our opinion, people are still doing business with people. Our team, performing manual campaign management and optimization, can still outperform any automated system. It’s not only about having the best technology, but knowing how and when to use them.

Media buying as a true DSP has not really been introduced yet. AppNexus is doing a great job in the Netherlands, connecting good partners and enabling them to use RTB. Their platform infrastructure will probably grow to be the largest over here in Europe.

Although fully automated media buying has all the potential to make the lives of our campaign managers and media buyers easier, we do not consider it to be a substitution for human interaction and insight at this time.

What changes have you made to your business to compete in the exchange space?

We are developing our own technology, named B-Nocular, which is our way of differentiating and welcoming a new market. We have literally asked everyone in our organisation to pitch in, think about it and help where they can. Basically, B-Noc is our optimisation layer that can sit on top of multiple inventory sources. It automates, connects and operates.

By creating such a product, we can spend more time working on campaigns and being creative in new ways for our clients.

Many companies are already using us as their exchange buying specialist or consultant. We have a great set of tools that we use to acquire brand safe inventory - and clients appreciate the educating role we play here. Last year we vetted more than 25.000 URL’s together with ComScore.

Also, as we are expecting huge data loads this year, and have invested heavily in our own data warehouse solution.

BannerConnect recently appeared at the AppNexus conference in New York to discuss how it is leveraging the AppNexus platform to deliver for European Publishers. Can you give more detail on this partnership?

Sure! We have built a custom ad management system for RealGames Europe, called Cockpit. It manages all internal ad processes and provides output to all relevant teams including management, finance, sales, conversion and retention. Among several other features it provides inventory and revenue forecasting, partner logins, IO’s, reporting and data analysis. Most of these features are built on top of the AppNexus API.

We are connecting RealGames’ direct sales, consumer revenue and unsold inventory. All combined in one auction. This was a significant challenge when we first started: RealGames sells a three-in-one combination, a so called roadblock. Try to make that auctionable. AppNexus proved to be the first auction based environment able to run roadblocks.

There’s no official partnership between BannerConnect and AppNexus, but we think that the relationship is mutually beneficial. We would not have been able to facilitate RealGames without AppNexus, and they are profiting from our constant feedback and our required customisation.

Is the solution offered to RealGames likely to become a bigger part of the BannerConnect business?

Yes. The private exchange setup has our full attention at the moment. It’s already a viable part of our business and we are working on several similar projects now. Through these private exchanges we still have access to unique inventory. For our publishing clients this means more control and a great set of new features, like connecting DSP’s and Agency Trading Desks.

We are constantly helping RealGames adapt new standards and technologies. Creative engagement, rich media, VAST/VPAID video and Facebook ad policy are a number of services currently offered. This is an example of the variety in our skill set. Delivering real value through a customized solution is delivering real value for our clients.

What are we likely to see from BannerConnect in 2011? Are you looking at offering your services in the UK, France or Germany?

2011 is going to be an exciting year. We will be branching out into the UK, expanding the team again in the Netherlands, launching B-Nocular and building private exchanges.

We are also looking at the possibilities to expand the auction based model into more directions like mobile and digital TV. But that goes beyond 2011.