One of our favorites, Seth Godin, wrote a brief article about “Snakes on a Plane”, over-hype and the importance of a quality product.

Well, for months now (probably dating back to December/January) we’ve been talking about SoaP around here and I think it’s time to give the public some insight into our own version of SoaP.
When we began talking about SoaP, typically we weren’t talking about the movie; we were using it to describe RMX Direct. (Please note that this began during the wire-framing days of RMX Direct…when we were literally drawing and pasting key components of Yield Manager onto our office walls and figuring out how we could make them flow in a clean user interface).

Our office spin on SoaP was called, “Snakes on a Page“. Snakes on a Page became a daily colloquialism that can be best summed up by the following:

Pat: “Brad, should we allow xxxxxx to xxxxxx?”

Brad: “But if we do that, then xxxxxx and xxxxxx will ask for this piece”

Joe: “Is it worth developing either piece? Do publishers need it? Cam???”

Cam: “I get what all of you are saying…if you ask me, it’s all just snakes on a page”

(scene: the foursome breaking huddle and making a v-line to their respective offices)

So, in short, Snakes on a Page came to mean:

“Am I going to have to be the guy to point out that this conversation did a 360 instead of a 180??? We’re back where we started an hour ago…honestly, we’ve talked this issue to death; it’s time to make this happen!”

This scenario happened over and over again, until we were finally ready to release a well-rounded RMXD beta (sometimes, we got a little Samuel L and tossed in a *bleep* or two for emphasis, but that’s beside the point).

We were able to refine RMXD using the voices of the industry, current/previous publishers and our own experiences as filters - and we feel that we’ve produced a good product that’s well on its way to being great…thanks to a little SoaP.

To wrap this article up, just ask yourself - How would Sam end this?

“_______________________”

This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 23rd, 2006 at 3:10 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.