Today's Seller Forum in New York coincides with the 25th anniversary of web advertising. During the event, I'll be interviewing Blackbird CEO Ross Martin who consults with major brands and media companies on developing belief systems -- taking clear positions on issues facing their industries, society and the world. It inspired me to offer up my own. Here's what we at Upstream Group believe.
- We believe that transparency, accuracy and fairness are not deal points. They are the beginning of our conversation with the consumer and the marketer.
- We believe that it's the marketer's money that fuels our entire ecosystem. When in doubt or dispute, we should always default to that which creates real value and progress for the marketer. We have a fiduciary responsibility to do what's right for the marketer.
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- We believe that the consumer is a valued human being, with rights. Reducing him or her to a target, an impression or a data profile begins a process of moral abdication. Caring for and valuing the consumer as we ply our trade is good business; without their long-term participation, we have no future.
- We believe that more is not always better. The relentless pursuit of scale has led us into a world of fraud, non-viewable or repetitive ads, and a devolution of value for both the marketer and the consumer. We must do better.
- We believe that those who think sales teams are only motivated by money will reap what they sow. By failing to imagine and build sales cultures around values and longevity we sentence ourselves to a permanent talent crisis.
- We believe that as an industry we must look like the world we serve. Recruiting, developing and hiring people of color is our shared responsibility. And while women are beginning to occupy leadership positions in our business, there is far more work to do in terms of equal pay and true parity.
- We believe that there is no way our industry can be a benign presence in the world. With regard to social justice, economic and environmental issues, if we are not doing good then we are doing ill. We must own the responsibility for what we create.
- We believe the best is yet to come. We haven't seen anything yet.
Happy birthday to our business. May we continue to believe, and to live up to our beliefs.
