This online learning resource is where you can discuss the issues from your Academy and download the outputs of our workshops.
Your Academy Director and lead tutor is Danny Meadows-Klue: Danny@DigitalStrategyConsulting.com
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Welcome to your Digital Training Academy: a great way to boost your knowledge and skills, helping you and your team get the most from digital marketing, publishing and communications.

All of us here at Digital hope you'll enjoy your Digital Training Academy, but we also hope you'll instantly be able to achieve more in your firm.

Find out how Digital Training Academy works

Is there something you did not understand on the Academy? Is there a new point you would like to make? Are there any new issues that you have discovered now you are applying your knowledge? Use this space to make your comments and to ask your questions.

Try to include the title of the Academy Lesson that your question relates to (if there is one). Putting this at the start will help other participants find the topics they are interested in.

The classroom is open for one month following your Academy and materials will stay here as a reference point for you for a further year.

In our operations Academies we run small workshops to help you find solutions to key problems. It's a great way to bring you together and to make the training really specific to the challenge you face in your company today. On the most recent Academy we had an interesting ideas generation session about some of those challenges and as part of the discussion took notes about the key issues. Here you can download our summary. This PDF covers off five key topics and how collectively Academy participants have thought about solutions to the challenges. If you have extra comments then why not post them here?

Download_Traffic_Management_Exercise

Christopher Hogg has been working in online marketing since late 1999, starting as an pan European account manager for Engage Technologies - part of the CMGi group. Here he was charged with over a £1.5m in billings, including the largest European online agency of the day, Carat Interactive in Paris. Before the dotcom bubble burst he went to work at the BBC as an assistant producer in Radio Drama, and then returned to the online environment in 2003 as a Senior Account for outsourced advertising operations company Traffic-maid. 2004 saw him move back into the technology arena as Senior Account Director for Adtech AG. A german based ad server now owned by AOL. His accounts included Sky, RBI, Emap, National Magazines.

Continue reading "Christopher Hogg" »

With over 9 years experience, industry veteran Dirk Fiebig is a leading expert for ad management technologies and process/workflow management. Today he’s the Head of UK Operations for FIVIA Advertising Business Solutions and shares his top tips on ad server administration:

Neat and clean ad server administration is the key to efficiency, productivity and optimal campaign performance for every trafficker. It impacts every aspect of your day to day work; from inventory management, to trafficking, ad delivery and reporting.

Continue reading "Ad Server administration: hints and tips from Dirk Fiebig" »

1. Be cautious in your predictions
2. Learn about your site; build up your intuition as to what the traffic levels are in the different zones
3. Have a contingency; if one site is full can you use behavioural targeting to deliver the extra volume? Can run-of-site be used to deliver part of the volume?
4. Explore ways to extend the campaign duration, or upweighting the delivery rate within the ad server.
5. Look for how different creative executions could deliver greater response.
6. Consider further campaign optimisation techniques.

Are you having problems trying to set up new types of creative we haven't used before?

Here are a few tips that may help:

1. Set up a very long testing period, give yourself weeks rather than days
2. Get specific training from the tech vendor supplying the service
3. Schedule time and responsibility for one team member to really investigate new products; take them out of the operational role of campaign booking and management to work on development for X hours per month
4. Teaching the sales team about exactly what products can be sold, in what way, and what they deliver; make clear that all new products need to have an operational 'thumbs up' before they can be out in the market as an ad product. You might need to get a 'thumbs up' from the teams responsible for content (product/editorial teams), and another 'thumbs up' from the tech team - see who all the stakeholders are. If it's a completely new format does it need user testing (not just for the technology's stability, but for customer experience)

What's your key challenge?

Here are a few ideas from your Academy:

1. Getting the sales team to communicate the deadlines
2. Putting the deadlines on the IO
3. Being more proactive about getting creative in on time
4. Keep a record of all your chasing emails; never delete those 'sent items'
5. Agreeing who will chase for late copy, when and how
6. Don't be shy of calling; email isn't the only route!
7. When copy arrives try checking straight away; if you spot a problem it gives everyone time to sort it out
8. The Friday @ 5 problem: Look for the signs of potential delay before you reach Friday
9. Adding links to a specs and deadlines page from email footers
10. Be cautious about start dates if there's a hint that the agency may decide to let them 'drift'; remember what's in the contract and have a mechanism for handling changes to contracts
11. Review your specs quarterly; are there some new things that should now be on them? Are there some common challenges your team all share?
12. Have a standard structure for copy-chasing emails; maybe 7 days and 2 days? Consider who has the control and responsibility for copy-chasing.

Elizabeth Townsend has been leading online advertising operations since 1999, first as a Ad Operations Executive at Yahoo! and now as a Head of Online Advertising Production at Financial Times where she manages the global online ads production team for the FT website. Elizabeth sits on our Academy Steering Board and we asked her for a few extra hints and tips to share for how to run ad operations.

Continue reading "Giving value to your business: hints and tips from Elizabeth Townsend " »

Since 2000 Geisla Turner has been exploring online advertising operations and now runs the ad ops team at CNET Networks in London. Geisla sits on our Academy Steering Board and when she dropped by at our last Academy, we asked her for a few extra hints and tips to share for how to approach inventory forecasting.

.    Build up your intuition about the website; you can't beat your instincts. Start by doing manual forecasting so you get a real sense of the data and how traffic behaves on your site
.    Remember that things are never 100%: you can't be perfect in forecasting, but you can be methodological and conservative. And always factor in that contingency so there's no danger you won't have the inventory that's been booked.

Continue reading "Inventory forecasting: hints and tips from Geisla Turner" »

Designed for newcomers to the world of online ad trafficking, getting you up to speed with ad traffic processes and giving you a framework you can apply to future campaigns. This hands-on session for advertising operations teams teaches the basics of advertising trafficking and scheduling. It’s an orientation to the principles and theory, and a roadmap for applying them to your workflow. You’ll see how popular toolkits work them and get a clear picture of how trafficking fits into the bigger picture.

Designed for newcomers to the world of online ad trafficking, getting you up to speed with ad traffic processes and giving you a framework you can apply to future campaigns. This hands-on session for advertising operations teams teaches the basics of advertising trafficking and scheduling. It’s an orientation to the principles and theory, and a roadmap for applying them to your workflow. You’ll see how popular toolkits work them and get a clear picture of how trafficking fits into the bigger picture.

Designed for newcomers to the world of online ad trafficking, getting you up to speed with ad traffic processes and giving you a framework you can apply to future campaigns. This hands-on session for advertising operations teams teaches the basics of advertising trafficking and scheduling. It’s an orientation to the principles and theory, and a roadmap for applying them to your workflow. You’ll see how popular toolkits work them and get a clear picture of how trafficking fits into the bigger picture.

Designed for newcomers to the world of online ad trafficking, getting you up to speed with ad traffic processes and giving you a framework you can apply to future campaigns. This hands-on session for advertising operations teams teaches the basics of advertising trafficking and scheduling. It’s an orientation to the principles and theory, and a roadmap for applying them to your workflow. You’ll see how popular toolkits work them and get a clear picture of how trafficking fits into the bigger picture.

Designed for newcomers to the world of online ad trafficking, getting you up to speed with ad traffic processes and giving you a framework you can apply to future campaigns. This hands-on session for advertising operations teams teaches the basics of advertising trafficking and scheduling. It’s an orientation to the principles and theory, and a roadmap for applying them to your workflow. You’ll see how popular toolkits work them and get a clear picture of how trafficking fits into the bigger picture.

Danny Meadows-Klue provides an overview of guidelines and best practice, developed as part of the standards programme for IAB Europe. Download the slideshow summary of IAB Europe online ad standards, check out the standards on the website, and ask the team for more information.

Download IAB_Europe_Standards_and_Guidelines

Read more: Danny Meadows-Klue on ad technology operations forum - AdMonsters

There is a vast skills gap in the media and marketing industries. It's holding individuals and companies back. Online can be tough; impenetrable language, constantly changing technologies or suppliers, unclear business process and evolving models for trading. And the pace means that even if you were up to speed six months ago the game will have moved on. That's why we set up our programme of digital training academies; to provide top quality, jargon free, leading edge training to the future leaders of the media and marketing industries.

Learn more: Download_What _training_can_do_for_your_company

If you've logged on to this online learning centre then the chances are that you're thinking about joining our Digital Ad Trafficking Academy soon. I'd like to introduce myself: I'm Danny, and I'll be your trainer. It was back in 1994 that I got involved in Internet media and web marketing, and by 1996 I'd started helping other people - especially media sales guys - make the transition into digital media and digital marketing. Our team really enjoy working with you at Digital Advertising Traffic Academy programme.

If you'd like some more background about some of the things I've done in the internet marketing and publishing industries then there's a biography in our press centre.