Mark Pesce, an Australian entrpreneur, recently tweeted:
Brands are like Tinkerbell: If you stop believing in them, they die.
Pesce’s tweet reminds me of the ancient proverb about the things that we believe:
Seeing is believing.
That’s what comScore and Pretarget are suggesting. That a parlay on online display ads pays handsomely. Because brands get seen online. Clicks, They are also suggesting, are not the last word in conversion: transaction, interaction, conversation, and/or community. In other words, online measurement and metrics are suspect. Say What?
This is the same Netbridge that IAB Europe and Alain Heureux were so enthusiastic to support despite much evidence that IAB should not. This is the same Netbridge whose online and software investments were mismanaged by Orlando Nicoara, Silviu Sirbu, Vlad Stan.
This is the same Netbridge that operated the misleading traffic reporting service, Traffic.ro. It’s the same people who sold unreliable and improperly supported online advertising management systems (Ad Server). It is the same holding group that is rumored to cost cut with pirated software and pitiful salaries. The list of scandals, cheats, and failures is long.
This is the same Netbridge that Romanian journalists could not expose because their publishing groups were so closely tied with Netbridge and all of Netbridge’s bed fellows in the Romanian online advertising industry: AdEvolution, Imedia, MediaPro, Oligvy, Webstyler, Zenith and many, many more.
Implicating one, implicates all.
As I have written previously, I predicted the fall of Netbridge’s online group. Bad business is not sustainable. catastrophe is inevitable.
The failure to provide value to industry and market is not sustainable as a way of doing business- not even online.
It is a pity and especially for the foreign investors whose capital was misused and mismanaged by doi lei smechers.
Online advertising in Romania is at a dead end. There’s no one to trust. Worse, there is littel to no value in online advertising in Romania for the advertiser- except Google. Unfortunately, you can count the Google professionals on one hand.
Let us not forget Alain Heureux, President of IAB Europe, and IAB Europe, the trade association responsible for promoting the growth of the interactive advertising markets in Europe. Heureux and IAB Europe legitimized the bad guys. And so also IAB USA’s then international liaison. Heureux and IAB are not just guilty by association.
I am very pleased to see this house of cards begin to fall. Only when it has fallen down completely can there be a chance for entrepreneurs and investors to build an online advertising industry that is better, trustworthy and sustainable.
Below, Johnny Cash, Five Feet High and Rising
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Romanian Online Advertising Industry is FUBAR
Recently, the Romanian courts decided to suspend the activities of certain online holdings under Netbridge Investments SRL and New Century. According to reports, the online media and advertising giant owes one million Euros to unpaid web property clients.
This is just the tip of the iceberg. And it has nothing to do with the global economic downturn- even if journalists would like you to believe such a convenient lie. Ultimately, it’s about bad business, the failure to provide value and service, and a whole lot of hustle.
This is the same Netbridge that IAB Europe and Alain Heureux were so enthusiastic to support despite much evidence that IAB should not. This is the same Netbridge whose online and software investments were mismanaged by Orlando Nicoara, Silviu Sirbu andVlad Stan.
Through the Interactive Advertising Bureau Romania (IAB Romania), I have received several queries about how to evaluate the value of an online business in Romania. The answer is an interesting problematic. However, I shall endeavor to provide my honest opinion of the current situation. But I’m not quite sure how my colleagues in Bucharest will feel about my candor.
Below, something relevant from Bob Dylan to set the tone of my honest opinion.
Before things get better, things are going to get worse. The Romanian online advertising industry has four challenges to overcome before it will overcome the lackluster revenue performance and mistrust- two problems that have made foreign investors and advertisers hesitant to make big moves. Unfortunately, we will not see much headway until a challenger comes to Bucharest with 20 million and takes the bad boys by surprise. That may be just enough to flush out the rats.
Millions are spent sending out messages, but almost nothing is spent on reviewing the results. It happens as often in traditional media as in new media – if not more so in the latter. It’s a problem in online advertising that allows kids to make great money, charlatans to succeed and confidence games to abound.
Below, a little Johnny Cash to set the tone of this blog post
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Although most online advertising agencies do hope this problem will continue for many more years to come, I do not believe this ongoing failure to be in the best interest of the industry. Credibility, not blind faith and enthusiasm, will drive what I believe to be the most exciting communication channel ever to key to communication and marketing strategy.
Advertisers are not completely to blame for the lack of campaign measurement. Of course, they don’t want to spend money that they don’t have to spend. On the other hand, it’s easier for young upstarts in online advertising to talk about millions of impressions or clicks. Impressions and clicks, however, don’t really describe the impact of a campaign.
More importantly, it’s almost impossible for young upstarts or advertising heavyweights to provide deep business analysis of the sales and marketshare performance as it is related to their online campaigns. Read the rest of this entry »
Weening Romanian web publishers from the deep muck of intellectual property theft is not likely. Wild aspirations for online advertising revenues and future sell outs drive the need to draw and keep online traffic. Desperate for content, Romanian publishers depend heavily on the editorial content they lift from foreign websites and portals. Is it for lack of writers and thinkers in Bablion? Or, more likely, lack of business sense and too much World of Warcraft?
The future of advertising is here (see below), but it’s not as easy as 1-2-3 as some naive entrepreneurs would like to believe.
Like online strategy, mobile marketing is a complex mix of technologies, business skills and interactive sensibilities. Obviously, the mobile phone is the most important communication solution out there. As the Adidas All-Star Mobile Experience shows, mobile interactive is a wave that will carry far into the future.
Below is a news clip about the Adidas All-Star Mobile Experience.
I enjoyed seeing you again in London. Let’s do it again, soon. Hopefully, somewhere else.
IAB European Council
I write to you with great excitement as I reflect on what I experienced at the IAB European Council meeting in London.
I thank you for your kind and enthusiastic reception of the IAB Romania team. Ana-Maria Ilie, Iulia Prioteasa and myself return from London to face our challenges and tasks with new excitement, new ideas and new aspirations. We will move mountains.
And we shall do so with the confidence of renewed friendship, inspiration and support. Your commitment to us strengthens our resolve to do amazing things. Reflecting on this new friendship and the inspiration of upir national successes, it is important for me to acknowledge your experience, ideas and accomplishments over the last year. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by Stan Faryna 
Follow me on Twitter: @Faryna