jordan-hoffner

Facebook, YouTube execs whine about slow online ad adoption

Nicholas Carlson · 09/24/08 09:00AM

YouTube's Jordan Hoffner, a content dealmaker for the site, told a conference in San Jose yesterday that it's "disturbing" how little advertisers spend online, considering how much time people spend online now. On an Advertising Week panel here in New York, Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg shared the complaint, telling the audience: "We are getting a smaller share of budgets than the time consumers are spending would say. Consumers are spending something like 28, 29 percent of the time online, but online spend is like 8 percent of global advertising spend and about 10 percent in the U.S." Maybe the squeaky wheels will get some grease. But Jordan, Sheryl: the big reason online spending is so low relative to how much time consumers are spending online is that those consumers spend much of their time on Facebook and YouTube, which haven't come out with ad products media buyers consider worth their money yet.

How CBS sells the video ads YouTube can't

Jackson West · 04/07/08 03:40PM

One reason that YouTube isn't making their overlords at Google happy is because the video site is having a tough time selling advertising inventory. The new solution? Letting content partners do the work for them, says Google director Jordan Hoffner in an interview with TV Week's Daisy Whitney. CBS is among a number of companies which have been granted license to sell their own ads. That move could allay advertisers' fears that their ads will end up next to potty humor clips. They can also show off the new graphs and maps YouTube generates to show where clips — and hence ads — are viewed. The only problem is that those stats are pretty easily gamed, and if there's anything advertisers like less than off-brand placement, it's fraudulent reporting. Full video of the Hoffner and Whitney interview after the jump.