All of us read the same articles in our industry, and for the most part, we all do a pretty good job of staying current with hot industry trends and recent announcements. It's actually very impressive. In my early days in the CPG world (before this fad called the Internet came around), our only real propaganda came from the voicemails we received from our District Sales Manager each night, telling us all the day's news from our company, with an occasional newsflash from our industry.

Today, it's a different story we all visit our eight "go to" sites each day to see what's happening, and as a result, our industry is very susceptible to trends and fads. In this industry, everyone seems to know what's happening. There's almost a pop-culture like affect that happens too something gets hot for a year or two, fades away, comes back, etc. Many ideas or companies make it to happy hour conversation for a few months and burn out; some even hang around for a couple of years until the money runs out and the party quietly ends. I won't name names, but you probably can think of a few. However, some trends break through the clutter and are so valuable that they become a permanent part of the digital media landscape no better example than paid search, which now gets a whopping 40% of online media spend. In 2000, it wasn't even a category now, it's a must-buy.

Media exchanges are all the rage these days. Our company, TRAFFIQ, has been building an exchange since the Fall of 2006, which will launch in July. As you might imagine, we've been studying the exchange landscape for the last two years, and doing everything possible to build a platform that genuinely makes sense for its end users. In much the same way that we're trying to build the kind of company we always wanted to work for, our biggest goal at TRAFFIQ is to build the kind of media exchange we always wanted to use. Insert cliché here about "built BY sellers and buyers, FOR sellers and buyers". And flashbulbs went off last year when our Director of Product Management, Sung Shin, told us in no uncertain terms, that any new B2B platform is either built into the existing workflow, or it gets run over by that workflow.

So what did we do? Before a single line of code was written, we got ourselves into different rooms with buyers and sellers, and we listened. Hard. We believe that exchanges can impact the digital media business the same way that paid search did. Search grew quickly not because it changed the game, but because it IMPROVED the game. More control and precision campaign management tools for buyers, and better monetization for sellers; we all know the story. Paid search found a way to fit into our media world by taking advantage of existing processes that made sense, and by adding new elements to that process that radically improved the metric that matters most. In the end they put more P into practically every P&L out there.

Media exchanges can further extend this vision of improving the game. If it's really an exchange (and not a closed ad network trying to change its spots - be careful here in your review), challenge the owners of that platform. How are they adapting their product to existing workflow? If they are deviating from existing workflow (let's face it ”the current system isn't perfect), is it legitimately an improvement? Is it really an open, transparent platform, or is it only transparent on one side? The real question here is balance is there a balance of commitment to both buyers AND sellers. We all know the quest a platform that simultaneously provides greater buying efficiency and better sales yield. And to get there, a truly balanced exchange requires that for every market force, there will be an equal and opposite force.

These are some of the things we're thinking about at TRAFFIQ, and our team is excited about delivering our media exchange into the marketplace this summer. To those buyers and sellers that helped us fully understand the marketplace, we are forever indebted to you. Our invitation-only beta starts in late July, please reach out to us at info@traffiq.com. We'll see you on the trading floor.

Regards,

Dan Ballister
Chief Operating Officer