The Long Tail Starts Wagging the Dog
"Why does a dog wag its tail? Because a dog is smarter than its tail. If the tail was smarter, the tail would wag the dog."
Wag the Dog. (2008, March 1). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 01:14, March 8, 2008
AdAge.com recently announced that for the first time in four years, Avenue A/Razorfish saw a shift in their ad dollars from portals - down to 19% from 24% - to smaller sites and blogs of the Long Tail. Just as was seen in the past in other media channels, such as television and print, large, mass-appeal properties are beginning to lose their efficacy to engaging, niche sites. With this admission from a prominent agency, the question that should be heavy on the minds of advertisers and agencies is – if the Long Tail is starting to wag the Internet Dog, how are you going to grab some Tail?
AdAge.com’s article implies that many advertisers are indeed trying to grab some Tail, but they haven’t quite figured out how to best get the job done. Jeff Lanctot, Vice President of Media and Client Services for Avenue A/Razorfish, pointed out that spending on smaller sites was accomplished not only through ad network buys, but also through direct buys. While ad network channels may provide reach, they are not known for their quality or transparency and they source most of their inventory from the unsold impressions of the large sites. On the other hand, as the Long Tail grows, how can advertisers and agencies be expected to sift through millions of niche websites to find one worthy of a direct buy? And to complicate matters further, even if they do find that needle in the haystack, that particular publisher may not even know what an insertion order is. With the speed of technology and constantly evolving ad types, part-time and hobbyist publishers will likely never get past Adsense if they go it alone. So while both ad networks and direct buys can admittedly get you a piece of the Tail, they are hardly safe and scalable methods of doing so.
Figuring out how to tackle that tricky Tail isn’t about taking risks or doing all the dirty work yourself. It’s about leveraging the expertise and efforts of category professionals who have made it their full-time job to bring together the best of the Long Tail under a brand reputation – Grab some Tail!