As part of the run-up to the Context Revenue Strategies conference next week (on Thursday, October 5th only and FKA AdSpace at last Spring's adTech in San Francisco), we'll be running some terrific Q&A with some of the panelists from the CRS kick-off panel "The State of Content Advertising: The Players, The Options, The Best Practices" at 9am on Thursday, November 5th.

Today, here is a Q&A between panelist Brett Brewer, President of AdKnowledge and moderator Jay Sears, EVP at ContextWeb, Inc and the ADSDAQ Exchange. 

Your Name:

Brett Brewer

Your Job:  President, Adknowledge I live on Southwest Airlines, spend more time on the road with advertisers and publishers than in the office, and work closely with Board and CEO.  I'm one of two inside Directors.

Your Company:Adknowledge is an ad network, one of the largest in the world, and has developed a leading targeting technology. It all started in the technology center of the U.S. -- Kansas City, MO.  We're a performance solution, so it figures we have our roots in the Show Me state.

It used to be contextual advertising was the "step child" of search, living in its shadow. It finally seems to be coming into its own. Do you agree or disagree and what are the macro forces contributing to this shift?

Agree. We think the PPC's in search have pushed advertisers and marketers into the world of display and we love that.  We see SEO/SEM practioners as more knowledgeable about contextual and display in general than ever before

Why does content and context matter?

Environment, qualified audience, fit, engagement.  But . . . I would raise the question whether, over time, ad-serving solutions that emphasize the targeting of users, not content, will prove to be more successful.

How does behavioral and demographic targeting tie in with content and context? Or does it? Mutually exclusive or best used together?

Speaking of targeting . . .so, yes, they do tie in to some extent. Content in the form of the advertising format - a social network app, inventory on this publisher, an email ad in this category  - can factor into targeting.

The Long Tail and media fragmentation. More than 80% of Internet sessions start with search-the advertiser's customer is now everywhere. Adsense has one million publishers carrying its ad tags. How do you compete in the Long Tail and against an installed based such as Adsense?

In short, targeting technology and multiple channels.  Deepen the targeting technology and broaden the channels. I think that's a good competitive position.

Search has benefited enormously from last click attribution. More recently, Microsoft has published Atlas Institute research on engagement mapping and more advertisers are considering multiple attribution protocol when determining media mix. What are some of the macro "forcing functions" you see behind multiple attribution models and how will this benefit contextual advertising?

The challenge with "MAP" is how many advertisers will use it, how big do they have to be, and will the large segment of SMB's incorporate it into media-mix decisions? I am optimistic that MAP will have significant penetration.

Site targeting. When you move into the Long Tail (or even past the top 1,000 or 2,000 publishers), can site targeting deliver scalable solutions to advertisers? Is content a better answer because it is a common currency across all web pages?

I don't have a long view into site targeting . . .but I have a point of view that  common currency of content does provide value. As content continues to benefit from targeting technology improvements, that creates separation vs. site targeting.

Dynamic content. Web pages change constantly. How important is real-time - real time valuation, allocation, optimization?  Many folks who talk about real-time talk about "audience aggregation" and re-targeting, but how important is content as one element of a "real-time" decision? 

Depends on ROI. The change in web pages reflects growing importance of 1-to-1 approach to consumer.  How far does customization need to go to be effective?  We are all going to find out.

Keyword vs. category targeting. Keywords are the holy grail of search. But are keywords effective in content targeting? Are they a destructive vestige of search-too granular or sometimes out of context to be impactful for content targeting? Is category targeting the answer?

Category targeting, done right, presents greater opportunities. The out-of-context challenge for keywords can create problems.

Pricing Models. CPM. CPC. CPA. Cost Per Whatever-engagement, order-Cost Per Flowbee. Is this the direction we are headed? Good or bad?

Good. Pricing varies with the advertiser's needed action or result, and varies with the business categories of advertisers.  Credit card companies have different needs from dating sites who have different needs from entertainment companies (think viral).  Multi-pricing options will increase total online advertising spending.

Can you sell content ads alongside search ads-1. With the same value proposition? And 2. To the same SEM buyer? Or is it more sensible to sell to agencies?

I think it depends on advertising category.  Selling alongside can require more testing and tweaking by SEM buyer.  But sure . . . can sell to the same SEM buyer.

Tell us about you.

What did you do last Saturday?

Played in a beer pong tournament at an event we hosted for publishers and developers of social games.  I can talk all day about my pong-playing prowess.

What's the best conference you attended in the last two years (besides AdTech and CRS, of course)? 

It has to be one of our own. Australia Social Media conference.  Whether in U.S. or Australia, I love talking with advertisers who are still figuring out the social advertising space. The flight over was not part of best . . . was in middle row, in coach.

Thanks, Brett!

Brett's Bio:

Brett Brewer is a leading Internet pioneer and executive. He co-founded his first company, Intermix Media, just two years out of college. Intermix Media was the parent company of several businesses including Myspace.com. Intermix was sold to News Corporation for $673 million in October 2005.

Brett joined Adknowledge in 2006 and serves as President and Board of Directors member. He played a key role in attracting a $48 million investment from Technology Crossover Ventures (TCV) and in completing several acquisitions that have helped make Adknowledge the largest, independently owned ad network in the world.

Brett is active with many charities and education-related organizations. He received a BA in Business/Economics from UCLA in 1996.

About CRS

Produced by Marc Phillips and David Rodnitzky in conjunction with adTech, CRS is a "conference within a conference" is 100% focused on contextual advertising-an area that has needed its own conference for some time. Please join us for the CRS kick-off panel "The State of Content Advertising: The Players, The Options, The Best Practices" at 9am on Thursday, November 5th.

Our panel looks like:

ADVERTISING:
The State of Content Advertising: The Players, The Options, The Best Practices

Where is contextual advertising going? What's hot, what's not? What can you do today to make your content buys massively profitable? This roundtable discussion features some of the top minds in contextual advertising sharing their insight on the state of the industry now, and in the future.

MODERATOR:
Jay Sears, Executive VP, Strategic Products and Business Development, ContextWeb, Inc./ADSDAQ Exchange

PANELISTS:
James Colborn, Director, Microsoft Advertising, Microsoft

Oded Itzhak, Founder and CEO, AdSide

Brett Brewer, President, AdKnowledge

Geri Guillermo, Director of Sales, BidPlace Pro, Sponsored Listings and AOL Search, AOL Advertising

Jeff Arena, Senior Product Manager, Yahoo!

Rajas Moonka, Group Business Product Manager, Google, Inc.

Special offer: Register today and receive $100 discount (Promo Code: CRSNY91) for the upcoming Content Revenue Strategies @ ad:tech NY.

We'll be posting additional CRS, industry-related news and ContextWeb, Inc. / ADSDAQ Exchange insights and updates in the coming weeks, so make sure you subscribe to our Internet Advertising blog, follow ContextWeb on Twitter and join the Ad Exchange Traders Group via LinkedIn.