MRG Evening Meeting: Electronic Trading
A range of industry figures gathered at last night’s MRG evening meeting to hear speakers, Jeff Eales, Max Davies and Bob Hulks, discuss the developments in electronic media trading.
Jeff Eales, e-commerce director at DDS, began the discussion by saying that electronic media trading: “Is all about transferring data from a trading system to a buying system as quickly and as easily as possible.” He explained that automated data systems have come a long way in the last few years and have brought greater accountability to TV advertising.
Eales said that within the TV industry 1998 was a key year for electronic media trading, as the first standard file format was agreed upon, allowing data to be transferred more efficiently. He explained that 74% of TV ad-spots were traded electronically last year, compared with just 20% in 1999 and insisted that the industry was ready for the next step in electronic trading. He said: “We now have a successful e-trading community and common standards so there’s no reason why 95% of all TV ad spots can’t be traded automatically by June 2002.”
Max Davies, project director at JICRIT, said that there was a great desire within the radio industry to go ahead with e-trading. He explained that lack of accountability and administrative overheads were the only barriers to the adoption of e-trading systems and said that JICRIT was working to eliminate these factors.
He explained that MediaTel’s J-ET system, which Eales described as a “super system,” was working to provide transparency within the medium. Davies said that 15 of the UK’s top advertising agencies currently subscribe to J-ET, which has 450-600 users and handles around 200,000 radio ad-spots each month.
Davies admitted that there was a lot of “mess” that needed to be sorted out before the J-ET system could be launched but said: “In terms of electronic trading the radio industry is ready to take the next leap.”
Bob Hulks, independent consultant and author of an Admap monograph on e-trading, concluded the meeting with a enthusiastic portrayal of the future of electronic media trading. He called on advertisers, agencies and media owners to get behind electronic data systems, saying: “Now is the time to get on board. E-trading is all about the clarification of bookings, better campaign management and less errors.”
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