Managing Proprietary and Shared Platforms

摘要

Individually targeted television ads-for two decades, a dream of marketers eager for efficiency gains-are moving closer to reality. Most of the technologies required for targeting are now in place. Fifty percent of U.S. households have broadband Internet connections, and the long-promised convergence of TV sets and personal computers is in full swing with products like Apple TV and the Windows Vista Media Center. But who will build and run the platform needed to target TV ads? The coordination task will be demanding due to the large number of different parties involved, including marketers, Madison Avenue, broadcast networks, cable TV systems, and consumer electronics companies, among others. The effort will require new protocols for information exchange as well as huge investments in software development and server infrastructure. Will these burdens be borne by a single firm, for example, Google or eBay? Both firms have already launched online exchanges that match buyers and sellers of TV ads. Alternately, will a consortium of firms emerge to set standards and share infrastructure costs, as it is with stock exchanges and credit card associations?