_Mike Carney is Director of Media Sales for Monster Media at “monster.ca”:http://www.monster.ca. Mike (pictured on the right with Jeff Taylor founder of Monster) has been specializing in online advertising and web solutions for eight years now. He’s been a long-time AIMS member, was involved with the IAB in their early years as their VP of Publishing and has launched three successful online advertising programs in his time._
*One Degree: Monster Media? I thought Monster.ca was the place to go to get a job or add to my team.*
You’re correct that Monster is still the place to go for leading candidates and for employers. Now with the introduction of Monster Media, it’s the place to start when trying to reach your ideal audience.
*One Degree: Do you feel that ads on Monster can compare with contextual advertising through search results or contextual networks like Google’s AdSense?*
Monster Media’s offer is in a different arena than those offers. Instead of relying on keyword matching, Monster Media thrives on supplying advertisers with an opportunity to handpick their audience. With Monster’s audience naturally broken down by career category, industry and location, advertisers can drive revenue from their ideal audience.
*One Degree: How important do you think it is to support the “IAB Universal Ad Package”:http://www.iabcanada.com/standards/cuap.shtml ?*
I think it’s critical and Monster Media being early adopters shows that we’re here to provide value to our advertising partners. With the UAP you can drive creative production efficiencies, increase response and conversion rates and increase the value exchange between advertisers, publishers and users. On a personal side, it’s incredibly satisfying to have the ability to move away from the invisible 468×60 banners and the unacceptable practice of stacking button ads upon button ads. Spend your clients money like it’s your own is my motto. Being a Scot I only want to pay for my core target audience while shifting my impressions to untapped audiences in that target range and taking advantage of uncluttered ad environment – that’s not asking too much is it?
*One Degree: Do you think we’ll see a trend towards companies that we normally won’t think of as media companies introducing ad revenue as part of their business models?*
I think that you will see more of it – some will do great, most will fail. The ones that will succeed are the ones that have a great underlying or untapped value there for advertisers. With Monster naturally broken down into ideal niches and having an opt-in email list over 3 million, we’re well on our way to having a great online ad program. The biggest challenges I’d say of opening up this new revenue stream is taking on the hurdle of changing a successful paradigm of thinking, managing expectations and not being satisfied until things are done right.
Some people would call that being a glutton for punishment but I’d prefer something a CMA trade show attendee called me – an intrepreneur – somebody that’s an entrepreneur within an established company.
*One Degree: Is this a Canada-only initiative?*
Fortunately it’s not because we now can tap into North American and global audiences and compare notes country to country.