‘Test and learn as we go’: Publishers’ new mode of ad selling faces first test as delta variant spreads

As COVID-19 cases begin to shoot back up thanks to newer, more contagious strains of the coronavirus, clouds have gathered on the horizon that are darkening everything, including the media business.

The virus’s unwelcome rally has pushed back office return plans, made hopeful commercials seem out of touch, and forced marketers to return to a flexible mode of spending they honed last year. It’s also about to test a mode of selling that had started to take root at the end of 2020 and which had started to feel like a permanent way of doing business in 2021, according to conversations with senior revenue-side executives at five different publishers. 

Though most of the publishers feel like this more flexible, measured approach to deal-making will help avoid a repeat of what happened last spring — “There are things that will mitigate [against another slowdown],” the chief revenue officer of one large digital publisher said. “It would take something very, very drastic to shift that” — the reality is that nobody knows for sure. Only two of the five sources Digiday contacted for this story felt comfortable speaking on the record. 

“It’s very similar to last year,” that source said. “Every time you thought it was safe to come out of cover, something happens.”  

Through the first half of 2021, publishers’ ad sales efforts felt settled into a kind of new normal. The programmatic markets, which had been one of the first sectors of ad spending to rally last summer, finally surpassed their pre-pandemic highs, thanks to healthy growth in private marketplace and guaranteed deals; direct ad deals, after months of being executed quickly and cheaply, involved bigger dollar amounts and longer lead times again — relatively speaking. 

“Prior to COVID, the average lead time for us would be about 50 days,” said Clark Benson, the CEO of Ranker. “After that weird two-month period where nothing got sold, we were seeing an average of 15 days. [Second quarter of 2021], we’re at 33.”