RMX Tool Focus: The Media Guard Tab

What’s this tab do?

(Cameron McNeeley: Director of Support-RMX Direct) Media Guard is the Right Media Exchange’s advertiser classification and regulation system. Every single creative in the exchange is scrutinized by an automated and human review process and categorized with an unprecedented level of detail and accuracy.

This tab will allow publishers to choose what types of ads are not acceptable for their audience. Some don’t like suggestive dating ads; some don’t like flashing or distracting ads. With Media Guard, those can be stopped. We’ll let you decide how open you want to be with your rotation of ad types.

This tool is unique. With so many advertisers and networks buying up inventory all over the internet and so many different ad serving platforms running them, it’s hard to be sure that nothing unwanted might slip through. We want to give publishers the piece of mind that only the types of advertising they have allowed will be served. Instead of going through thousands of creatives to make sure they are acceptable, publishers should be able to set their profile up once and get back to doing more important things like improving their site and maximizing revenue.

Categorization of creatives can be subjective, but the Media Guard team will use an unbiased, detailed and accurate classification process to make sure publishers keep out what they want, and let the rest in.

Why is it important?

CM: A publisher’s website is their reputation and users that visit that site have an expectation of what they will see there. If a user gets offended, annoyed or disturbed by an ad that appears, they might never come back. When publishers lose traffic, they lose revenue, and everyone involved should strive to be sure that ads being shown on any given site are relevant and acceptable on that site.

What role have you played in its development?

CM: I have been chasing down unwanted creatives to assist publishers since the beginning of my time with Right Media. Most of the time this is a non-malicious misclassification of a creative, but with Media Guard in place, that will be a rare occurrence. With my experience knowing what publishers wanted out of a banning system, I helped the Media Guard team as they developed the list of classifications. What is great about the Media Guard tab in RMX Direct is that each publisher has the option of choosing one of the defined profiles or going in and customizing it specific to their needs.

What’s your insider hint for using this tab?

CM: The most important tip I can give about the Media Guard profile is to not over-ban. Some might want to go in and ban anything that doesn’t sound appealing to them. There are certain types of ads that legitimately might not be acceptable for a certain site, but publishers need to remember that the more creatives they allow into the rotation, the more potential revenue they will see. Having a larger selection of ads will promote more competition in the auction process of Yield Manager and produce higher eCPMs. Publishers should recognize that sometimes creatives that seem undesirable could perform very well with their users.

Cameron McNeeley Bio:

What do you do at RM?: I am the Director of Support for Right Media publishers and will have the same role for RMX Direct publishers as well. I try to offer publishers solutions to any issues, answers to any questions, and general advice on topics from troubleshooting to ad serving strategies. I try to be an advocate for the publisher as they are an important piece of the process that deserve equal consideration. The advertisers have the money, the networks provide value managing the transactions, but the publisher is the one who creates the content, gives up their space and brings the audience to the page.

How long have you been here?: I have been working at Right Media since March of 2005

What inspires you about RM/RMXDirect?: I am very inspired by the direction that Right Media and RMX Direct are going. The online advertising industry is so segmented and closed that it makes it almost impossible to develop and manage so many different relationships. When these entities can’t share ideas and work together, things will always run the same, allowing some to take advantage of the system and take revenues out of the hands of the people providing the true value to the transaction. An open and transparent media marketplace is a noble goal and I am proud to be a part of trying to change the industry for the better.

A ‘personal factoid’ : The Liger is pretty much my favorite animal; it’s like a lion and a tiger mixed… bred for its skills in magic.

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 13th, 2006 at 3:45 pm and is filed under Direct Media Exchange. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.