In an article yesterday on ClickZ, Kate Kaye reports on Ben Edelman’s latest finds in his crusade against spyware and the companies perpetuating it. On his blog, Edelman describes how Cingular and Travelocity ads ended up serving through spyware in mid-February, and he includes data on how the ads passed through the Right Media Exchange. Kaye states: “As presented through packet log data, Edelman implicates Right Media as having distributed spyware-originated traffic to advertisers in four of the six examples provided.”

When we talked about this before, we concentrated on clarifying our role in the market — providing an open environment for buyers and sellers to trade more directly and with greater visibility — and how that will help cut down a lot of the tangle that comes with network inter-trading. That said, we’ve also talked a lot about the systems we’ve put in place, into which we’ve poured a tremendous amount of resources, to proactively combat problems like those Edelman describes. Our Creative Tester system, for example, puts ads in the Right Media Exchange through a multi-step scrutiny to catch any creatives with unsavory characteristics. We described in detail how that system and our auditors’ diligence stopped a new technique that spawns pop-ups out of banners.

We were similarly aggressive in handling the Fullcontext issue. Shortly after being notified of the situation, we determined that the spyware agent was using certain techniques, such as keeping publisher tags in files hidden behind multiple IP addresses on foreign networks, to mask its malicious intent. Within 24 hours of the complaint, we were in direct contact with the foreign hosting firm, and 48 hours after that, the hosting company terminated its contract with the spyware agent. We also severed ties with several publishers deemed associated with the offense described later in Ben’s article.

The systems for catching these kinds of things, however, are far from perfect. Combating the bad guys out there is an ongoing process — clever people are always going to think of new ways to sneak around the security guard. This affects every one of us in this industry — we have to keep learning with every new incident, and work together to make the broad marketplace safer. We at Right Media are spending a lot of time and energy trying to be as proactive and thorough as possible. But there’s more that we can do. Check back in with us on this blog to see how we’re progressing in the fight.

A recent MediaPost Behavioral Insider column focused on “paradigm shifting” and its relevance to display advertising, as already evidenced with search.

A new ad network’s CEO posits that “for a network to be relevant in the future,” it must bring multiple targeting methods and pricing models to the table. In particular, he highlights a goal of simplicity with “a technology that analyzes all the complex variables that go into matching an advertiser’s ROI goals, budget priorities and their message to particular placement options.” Advertisers need to focus more on front end campaign goals and other marketing activities rather than obsessing with keyword lists and manual site selection, he adds.

We couldn’t agree more. At Remix Media, the paradigm’s shifted already. Our brand and direct advertisers run campaigns that employ multiple targeting strategies and various pricing models, highlighted by our network’s innovative dynamic CPM pricing capability.

Advertisers’ ROI goals are what we’re all about. Leveraging Right Media technology, we’re already analyzing in real-time all the variables comprising an individual impression’s attributes to ensure an appropriate message is delivered every single time. And most important, it is only delivered at a price that makes sense for that particular advertiser and that particular campaign. This way, campaign goals are exceeded and budget constraints are met.

Apparently, in one small way, the ad network future’s already here.

Here at the Right Media Ad Network, we’ve been quite busy these days. Those that know us likely have run performance-based campaigns utilizing dynamic pricing across our auction-based network. But more and more of our partner marketers and agencies have been looking for more than the traditional network buy. This has led us to create a number of new offerings around our core capabilities.

Most exciting has been a new name to go along with our new solutions - Remix Media.

We’re still part of Right Media, leveraging the huge scale of the Right Media Exchange. But we now have a distinct identity to further expand our network with data-enabled targeting and customized solutions.

So check out our new site at www.remixmedia.com. We’re announcing the new name at iMedia’s Agency Summit this week and would be pleased to talk with you about it there. If we miss you there, give us a call.

In our effort to continually broaden our suite of solutions we’ve released an interstitial ad size to Yield Manager.

What is an interstitial?
An interstitial is often considered the web version of the TV commercial.  It’s an ad that is shown alone on a page before the originally requested page appears. The interestitial page contains the ad, your logo and a link for the user to skip the ad and go directly to the content.  It also has a set number of seconds before the page auto-refreshes and goes to the originally requested page.  View a demo here.

What size are the ads?
Interstitial ads are usually 720×300 and often contain the types of similar that you’d see in popup or popunder ads.  Although it’s possible to display any ad size on the interstitial page.

What CPM do they earn?
As with all Yield Manager ad sizes, each impression is auctioned off so CPMs will vary per publisher and network, but they generally pay more than any ad size except popups.

What sort of control do publishers have?
Publishers can choose the following:

• Logo used on interstitial page
• Page background color
• Text color
• Link color
• Frequency cap of interstitials per user
• Time it takes to refresh and move on to content

How do I get started with interstitials?
Getting started depends on what type of business you are.

Publishers: Log in and pull an interstitial ad tag under the pops category.

Advertisers: Let your sales rep know you’re interested in running  interstitial ads with Right Media or with another Yield Manager network partner.

Networks: Activate this new tag in your available tag sizes, let publishers know it’s available, and let your ad sales team know that they can sell it.

While discussing the RM Ad Network with a potential advertiser, I continually mentioned the topic of learning. As I went on about the value of this process for the advertiser, a great question came up: “Other networks I work with don’t have this learning process. Why does yours”?

Let’s start with a brief description of advertiser learning.

Learning within the RM Ad Network is the automated process in which Yield Manager, our ad serving technology, uses your campaign’s performance data to understand where, when and to whom it should deliver your ads in order to achieve the best possible results. Think about this process as an investment in the ultimate success of you campaign.

Without automated learning, you’re looking at the eventual, unavoidable manual optimization of your campaign.

When embarking on a campaign with most networks, a CPM is negotiated that will determine the quality level of inventory your campaign will receive. After a week of activity, you contact the network to assess performance.

Sound familiar?

After this conversation, manual optimization occurs. Your campaign no longer runs in the lowest quality inventory that your CPM has dictated, allowing your ads to rotate in very limited space.

So what has happened? You have “learned” that your campaign won’t perform in low quality inventory. However, you have little understanding of where it will perform.

Put simply, the RM Ad Network utilizes the automated learning process in order to understand performance tendencies, make the best decisions in the distribution of your ads, and generate better ROI.