Announcing Parsec, the Time-Based Mobile Advertising Platform from Sled
New York, NY (PRWEB) July 22, 2015 -- Today Sled, maker of the leading high-impact advertising format for the mobile web, has announced Parsec, the first platform to sell advertising on a cost per second basis.
An Alternative to CPM is Needed
The fragmentation of ad formats and the incentives to increase the number of impressions have distorted the display advertising economy. By some estimates there are over 180 billion impressions available every day on exchanges - that translates to more than 600 per person per day.
“‘Cost Per’ pricing models dictate the incentives of the participants in a marketplace. CPM models create impression bulk, which generally does not equate to performance,” said Adam Shlachter, Chief Investment Officer at Digitas. “The beauty of the cost per second model is that it aligns interests around delivering high quality ads and content that readers choose to spend their time and attention with.
Media buying is more predictable and efficient when using a metric that more accurately represents the underlying good. In brand advertising, this good is attention. Paying by the second of time spent means an advertiser is certain to only pay when their message is seen and has an impact. This is a much more accurate and valuable measure of attention than CPM.
“Time based models have the potential to transform the media landscape. There is much less risk when purchasing media on metrics that are tightly coupled with attention” said Shenan Reed, President of MEC Digital. “We look forward to seeing what Sled’s platform can deliver.”
Polite Interruptions
Parsec uses a class of format called politely interruptive. Politely interruptive ads capture attention through user choice, making time spent much more valuable to the advertiser and the consumer than incentivized or forced time spent.
“These are formats that provide a high impact experience for an amount of time controlled by the reader - you see them on major media outlets like Google’s TrueView, Snapchat, Facebook and Instagram” said Sled CEO Marc Guldimann. “Advertisers can have a high degree of certainty that time spent with politely interruptive ads is authentic, which is crucial for time-based advertising to work”.
Creating a Properly Aligned Marketplace
When an advertiser pays based on how long someone chooses to view their ad, the entire marketplace aligns itself to that goal. Parsec delivers ads that an individual is most likely to spend time with, maximizing publisher revenue while creating a superior user experience. "Engagement driven pricing models are very promising" said Lindsay Nelson, Global Head of Brand Strategy at Vox Media. "Brands are interested in accountability. Measuring and investing media dollars based on time spent could be an interesting way to deliver transparency where it matters most."
Sled’s vision for Parsec is to create an ecosystem that values the quality of advertising and media in more effective ways. When media is priced on the amount of time individuals choose to spend with it, technology is built to maximize relevancy and impact rather than impressions or clicks generated. This benefits all parties:
- Advertisers waste less on advertising that is ignored, fraudulent or otherwise misses its mark. Higher quality ads are are rewarded with lower CPS rates.
- Publishers capture increased revenue from a more engaged audience that sticks around for longer.
- Most importantly readers are more likely to see advertising that is relevant and interesting.
“It’s hard to overestimate the potential value of time based advertising. It provides a new, common metric across otherwise splintered formats and de-risks display dollars” said Sarah Bachman, VP of Mobile at Horizon. “I’m excited to see Sled make attention transactable with their new Parsec platform.”
Buying on Time with Sled’s Parsec
The pricing model for Parsec is simply a per second rate for the time that consumers choose to spend with a message. There’s no concern with formats, viewability, fraud, bots or anything else - just a measurable amount of time the reader chooses to spend with an advertiser.
Sled has partnered with leading analytics firm Moat to provide measurement for the Parsec platform. “Direct response advertisers use the click as a proxy for success, but brand advertisers have never really had a true success metric to call their own, and finding the right metric for brands has actually proven a fairly hard problem to solve” said Jonah Goodhart, CEO of Moat. ”CPS could have an explosive impact on brand advertising, similar to what CPC buying did for direct response advertising in the early 2000s.”
About Parsec and Sled
Parsec is currently in limited beta and Sled is working with agencies within every holding company to bring their product to market. If you’d like to join the beta, contact Sled VP of Partnerships, Zach Kubin, at +1 (917) 273-0987 or email go(at)sledmobile(dot)com. More details are available at http://parsec-ads.com
Sled is a mobile rich-media platform that helps publishers monetize audiences with a flexible, new format for high-impact ads. There’s no code on page, formatting of content, skinning of sites, close buttons, 3d rotating boxes, adhesion or other funny business with Sled - just 100% in-view high impact impressions, inspired by the full page magazine ad.
Sled was founded in 2014 by industry veterans from Google and Spongecell and has offices in New York City and Pittsburgh. For more information on Sled, visit http://www.sledmobile.com or email go(at)sledmobile(dot)com.
Zach Kubin, Sled, http://sledmobile.com, +1 (917) 273-0987, [email protected]
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