Mindshare announced a partnership with Lotame network to begin selling ads based on a time-spent model, rather than an impression-based model. Read more about it here in MediaPost
While it’s nice in theory, I don’t think they’ve discovered a scalable model to really change the ad game yet. Lotame is still a network of second tier social networking sites, which means (at the core) they’re trying to offload remnant inventory for mom ‘n’ pop sites. And these sites will do anything to get some incremental ad revenues.
This model reminds me of the days when cost per acquisition models were making a lot of buzz in the market. As long as there’s a separation between media and creative, I still believe these models falls apart. Media owners will be held liable for creative that doesn’t pull engagement from their users.
So while this might work in tier 2 environments where sites will do anything for an extra buck , a time-spent media model will not work with major media players like Yahoo or MSN…
That is unless a partnership model is introduced between advertiser and media owner that involves rev-share. BRB…
welikey 