(March 1/99)

There aren't too many jobs where one figures that maybe it's time for lunch and discovers it's already 6:30 p.m.

But it's happened more than once to Wendy Muller since she jumped ship from the traditional print of magazines and into the Internet.

"This job has sped up my life like you wouldn't believe," says Muller, now into her second year as general manager of DoubleClick Canada. "When I saw the people in the U.S. office for the first time, I wondered what they could be drinking. Now I see what it's like. It's exciting. It makes people run to work."

DoubleClick Inc., New York, was founded three-and-a-half years ago by Kevin O'Connor, CEO, and Dwight Merriman, CTO, two high-tech experts, who, with the assistance of interactive marketing firm Poppe Tyson, melded the world of advertising and technology and developed a company to answer the online needs of advertisers and represent Internet sites for advertising.

The unique feature that sets the firm apart is its proprietary DART (Dynamic Advertising Reporting and Targeting) technology that provides the dynamic serving of ads that can be targeted to a particular user based on their IP address - unlike sites that have a static banner appearing all the time, regardless of whether anyone is viewing it.

The company, positioned as a leader in providing Global Internet Advertising Solutions, now has more than 400 employees, delivers 6 billion ads per month, and operates 22 offices in 15 countries. In Canada, with offices in Toronto and Montreal, its network reaches 800,000 unique users each month and delivers 100 million advertising impressions a month to Canadians.

A Big Jump from the Magazine World

Muller had spent 20 years working in Canadian magazines, most recently as president of Shift magazine, which she had helped relaunch, grow from three to 20 employees and saw win four 1997 National Magazine Awards. Earlier positions were associate publisher of Chatelaine and advertising director of Chatelaine and Modern Woman. She also worked in the U.S., Australia and U.K. as international advertising director for Where Magazines International.

Despite the print background, it didn't take long for Muller to adapt to the Internet world.

"It seemed so easy, once I understood what the technology was all about and that it really is possible to target one-to-one and it's not hocus-pocus,' she says. "Having come from a traditional print background, I knew that, if I was going to change positions, I would need a medium that's truly accountable. Print is very much a response medium, so after spending 20 years extolling the virtues of print, I told myself that this had better not be the eight-track."

Helping her make up her mind to jump ship was Wenda Millard, now executive vice-president marketing and sales, who had joined DoubleClick from a similar U.S. magazine background.

"When I asked Wenda whether DoubleClick's formula worked, she said, "Like you wouldn't believe! What advertisers give you on feedback is that the response rate wipes out anything they've done before. They want to work with you so much, it's a joke."

That convinced Muller, who claims that one year on the Internet equals seven years of knowledge gained elsewhere.

"I can't believe I've learned so much in so short a time," she says. "I had to learn and do comparisons with traditional media, and reconfigure my head in relation to print terms. When you look at reach figures and accountability compared to traditional media, the Internet dominates them all."

Not a 'Propeller Head'

The company's hiring of a traditional media person to head DoubleClick Canada, "rather than a propeller head" as she refers to high tech gurus, meant that she had to learn the technological side of the business, but only enough that she could talk intelligently in layman's terms - to be able to explain the meaning of an IP or a cookie, for example, so that advertisers would get to know a reaction to an advertisement.

"I had to have enough basic knowledge to be able to explain things, but I guess I've learned more because sometimes now my husband thinks that I'm a propeller-head," she says.

Husband is Geoffrey Dawe, former associate publisher of Saturday Night and publisher of Tribute, who now oversees Magazine Network, his 15-year-old advertising rep house. They've been married for five years and have known reach other for 25.

"I married my best friend," says Muller, happy that she married someone who understood the business and what she does. They have a dog, Tosca ("We haven't told her that she's not pure-bred!"), she skis, he snowboards, they both play tennis, garden, travel a lot and entertain friends.

Where does she find the time? "It's Geoffrey. He's much more spontaneous than I am. But I sleep less. The computer goes everywhere. I use it for everything from looking up postal codes to sending greeting cards.

"And I multi-task like never before. If I'm talking on the phone I'm usually reading e-mails and signing invoices or answering notes at the same time. It's the only way to cope. I get about 200 e-mails a day.

"It's incredibly demanding, but I'm really energized by it. DoubleClick is poised on the front wave and technically so far ahead."

The Customer Comes First

Part of what makes the company successful ("It's a darling of Nasdaq," she says) is its emphasis on 'customercentricity'. The bottom line is that the customer comes first and 'are you doing the best job you can do for him or her'.

To that end, the company holds 'war council sessions,' one-hour meetings where a mix of specialists (eg. from research, e-commerce, an expert on what is going on in Europe, and a category manager) toss around ideas and develop strategic help for the client.

Muller reports to Barry Salzman, president of DoubleClick International, based in Dublin, Ireland. Of Double Click's total business, International accounts for about 25%. With a small staff and the demands of the job, Muller's management style is straightforward. "I'm a great believer on giving people enough rope to hang themselves and then letting them figure out how not to do that. I believe in passing on as much knowledge as I can. Everyone knows our weekly, monthly, quarterly goals. They know the budgets. I give them as as much as I can and empower them to do the job themselves."

She admits to not taking the word 'No' very well.

"I'm likely to ask, 'Why not?'. I want to know beyond 'Wow!' I want to know what made us get the business or, alternately, why not. Often 'No' is really just not understanding objectives. I'll say give me your group and we'll show you how to do it. I expect a lot from people, but I don't expect them to do something I wouldn't do myself."

DoubleClick usually only takes on websites that have a minimum of 500,000 monthly page impressions, although it occasionally will take one with less if it is a particularly strong Canadian brand. It does take on what in other types of organizations would be considered conflicting accounts, because selling is by affinity groups, for example business and finance. And it demands exclusivity in terms of sales force, mainly to avoid market confusion.

CPMs Likely to Stay the Norm

Internet advertising sales tend to be based on cost-per-thousands. Selling by CPMs isn't expected to change, she says. There's a cost to reaching 1,000 people, and it makes sense in terms of interest level. DoubleClick offers a special product, Spotlight, where, for an additional $5 CPM, tags are put on a few pages of an advertiser's site so that more can be learned about what happens when someone lands there. For example, did they click into the ad, go deeper into more pages, look for information on a product, perhaps make a request for further information or an actual sale.

And if a customer does make a request or complains via e-mail, an advertiser must be ready to answer, she says. (A recent survey by Jupiter Communications, N.Y., revealed that 42% of companies do not respond to e-mail questions within five days of receiving them).

"You've got one shot at customers when sent an e-mail," she tells advertisers. "If you don't answer promptly, you've lost them."

Small websites have a role to play on the Internet, if they offer solid, credible information and have a reason for being, she says. "Content is king." But to be revenue-generating, they need critical mass, be part of a network so as to pick up aggregate buys, or have a specific reason to exist as a Canadian site versus one from, for example, the U.K.

In terms of advertising, while banners are still the main form of advertising on the Internet, other forms such as sponsorships are becoming more important, says Muller. Banners currently make up 60% to 70% of DoubleClick 's revenue, but she hopes that in Canada, the balance will be closer to 50% banners/50% sponsorships this year. She expects certain advertisers to want to 'own' specific sections of websites, such as, eg. a pharmaceutical company wanting to 'own' the health section of a magazine's website content.

Canada High in Banner Creativity

Nevertheless, the banner is not dead, she says. In fact, the enhanced creative banner has really taken off, and Canadian advertisers are way ahead in terms of enhanced creative, most of which is coming out of the hot new interactive agencies.

"Canada is number two, right behind Sweden and ahead of the rest of the world," she says. "They will probably help rejuvenate banner advertising."

However, it is the advertisers and not traditional ad agencies who are at the forefront for the Internet in Canada. If agencies don't dance fast, they're going to suffer in the long haul, she says.

"If you're not using the Internet and buying online, you're going to lose your clients," she warns agencies. "They'll leave you. If you're still trying to throw huge television buys down their throats, they can see through it. They know you can target one-to-one on the Internet."

That targeting is helping build the whole e-commerce category, which is expected to reach $12 billion Cdn. in Canada by year 2003 ($107 billion Cdn. in the U.S.). There are currently about 4 million Canadian households online (expected to reach 7 million by 2003), about 1 million of whom are currently shopping online.

The combination of lack of distribution by some U.S. companies in Canada, coupled with the weak Canadian dollar, lack of critical mass, and the skepticism of Canadians have all combined to held back e-commerce in Canada, says Muller. However, the expected entry into Canada of companies like Peachtree (Internet grocery, giftware and cookware shopping) will speed its use, as will the lessening of Canadians' fear of giving credit card numbers over the Internet.

This same fear of lack of security is one of the reasons micropayment technology, whereby websites charge a few cents for content, has been slow to take hold.

"I'm thrilled that people are talking about micropayment technology," she says. "The technology exists. It's the user that's the hold-back. Once fear of lack of security online passes, probably in four-to-six months, it may become more prominent. The future of the Internet depends on the secure back end."

And websites need traffic to make money, she says, disputing the idea that CPM levels are dropping. It's more a case of more inventory being available, she says. "Traffic is king."

Websites with audited figures help the acceptance of the Internet by advertisers, she adds. DoubleClick is doubly audited: by ABVS, a division of the Audit Bureau of Circulations, and by PricewaterhouseCoopers.

With so many websites available, DoubleClick handles its own training to represent them correctly, and to understand the various facets involved, from what sites are available to details like HTML and JavaScript. Every employee must complete 80 hours of training a year, and can choose the training they want in each sector.

Muller is among them, learning along with her staff.

"This will probably be the last job of my life," she says. "I'm smitten with DoubleClick."