14 DAY TRIAL // The Microsoft advertising strategy is evolving, denoting a consistent persistence to attempt, time and again, to get it right. The Redmond company is cooking PubCenter, which it has labeled as a new advertising platform for content publishers. At the same time, the software giant is ready to share the load associated with the process of building the advertising platform, and has formed the Publisher Leadership Council, a consortium of web publishers that will be consulted on PubCenter as the development process moves along. Microsoft Advertising will allow executives from IAC, Dow Jones Online, The New York Times, Time and Viacom to try PubCenter first hand and provide feedback.
“Digital media publishers have diverse needs and face many challenges,” explained Scott Howe, corporate vice president of the Advertiser & Publisher Solutions Group at Microsoft, the platform and monetization engine for Microsoft Advertising. “This initiative is validation of our commitment to partnering with the industry to meet those challenges together. Some key features of PubCenter are still on the whiteboard, and we’re giving our partners a pen.”
The insights and input from the Publisher Leadership Council will be integrated into PubCenter, with Microsoft promising that it will tailor features, functionality, targeting, measurement and reporting functionality to the feedback it receives. The Redmond company will rely on its partners for guidance when it comes down to platform design and the prioritization of development steps.
“As an industry, we’re forced to rely on many disjointed tools and systems, and the quality of the data we receive can suffer as a result,” said Nada Stirratt, executive vice president of Digital Advertising at MTV Networks, a subsidiary of Viacom. “Data is critical to managing, measuring and meeting the needs of our advertisers and audience, and enhancing the overall value we deliver. By collaborating with Microsoft, we’re in a strong position to help address these needs and, together, chart the industry’s future.”
The current adCenter Publisher architecture will serve as the foundation for PubCenter, even though at this point in time it continues to be in Beta stage. According to Microsoft, PubCenter will combine technologies and tools that were acquired concomitantly with Atlas and Rapt. What the software giant is promising is nothing short of new, innovative forecasting, accompanied by order management solutions, evolved analytics tools, and improved targeting functionality.