Why I work at Right Media

I was on the train yesterday. This guy sat across from me with this tiny MP3 player. The person next to him couldn't help but ask what it was. He responded, I didn't hear him, but they talked about various players for a while. It turns out that the guy with the MP3 player actually works for a company that was promoting that product. He also confessed that it wasn't as good as an iPod and that if one really wanted to invest in a music player, they should go with Apple. Of course, he said, take it from a guy that promotes this other player and is telling you iPod is better, then, it must be true.

The conversation left me a little awed. Why would a person work for a company where they didn't even believe in the product? I don't think I would stick around. If I didn't have faith that my company's product was the best, I would seriously consider my options.

I work for Right Media. Officially, we are the internet's first open media exchange. In layman's terms, we're the middle man that helps people with ads find websites who want to put up ads, and vice versa. I steer away from using the term "ad network" because our product is one that ad networks could also use. We are also an ad network Remix Media, that uses our own product, the Right Media Exchange.

We have been compared as online advertising's version of eBay, where buyers can find things (places for their ads) for a price they want to pay and sellers can sell their things (ad space) for an amount they want to make.

When I tell this to people, they're a little turned off that I may be helping to proliferate annoying flash animations and seizure inducing banners. I usually follow it up by saying advertising is how every site on the web makes money, including Google, YouTube(now Google), Yahoo!, and Myspace.

This is usually followed by them asking why I don't just work for Google if all these web companies did the same thing. The answer is simply business philosophies. Google (and other ad networks and services) and Right Media are fundamentally different in that ad networks (including Google) just take buyers and sellers and match them up the way they feel everyone should be matched up. In Google's case, AdSense matches ads based on words that are on the actual website. If the site talks about cars a lot, then the ads will have cars. It works well in theory.

Right Media on the other hand will show all the ads to all the websites and all the websites to all the ads. In this sense, they let the buyers and sellers pick exactly what they want and they know exactly what they're going to get. As stated above, it's a lot like eBay. A website targeting children can find and only show ads targeting children. A company that targets a religious audience can be completely sure that their ads are only shown on non-degrading sites.

So as I listened to this man promote a rival's product, I think I would never find myself telling people how great Right Media's competitors are. Sure, Google is a great search engine, that's ok, we're not. YouTube has great videos, that's ok, we don't do that kind of media. Other ad networks can provide the same kinds of services, that's ok, most of the ones you'll find use the Right Media Exchange to do some, if not all of their business.

I'm fine with all of that. I believe that the success of any website or web-based company allows Right Media to grow. That's the beauty of this product. It's just a way for everyone who wants to do advertising business on the internet find each other.

I'm sure I work with individuals who are just as like minded. They scoff at the kind of people who would blatantly lie to people and say their product is great, but turn around in private and confess that it really isn't that great. I'm sure I work with individuals who are confident of their product and go into work every day ready to make Right Media a more well known and successful business.

Because if I didn't believe that was the case, I would seriously be looking at my options.