Is the CPM holding back online advertising?

Recently an article was guest authored on TechCrunch by Shelby Bonnie, co-founder and previous CEO of CNET - outlining his belief that the CPM model of online advertising should be killed off.

Shelby discusses that although most campaigns are created with the best of intentions of being creative, engaging and unique - the campaign inevitably falls into the hands of a media buyer who focuses namely on impressions and cost. This is not to say that media buyers do not look at other aspects of the campaign and its goals, but Selby states that their narrow concern for these two elements are limiting the campaigns from the moment go.

The result of this emphasis on impressions has opened up a whole new can of worms; websites that publish regurgitated content over and over, the use of top 10 lists, photo galleries and single paragraph summaries of someone else’s content. Effectively people are trying to increase impressions for monetary gain, regardless of quality. As someone who runs numerous websites, I have to say I am just as guilty – content can easily be seen as a chance to grab money, but at what point does this detrimentally affect a community and the internet as a whole? It has certainly made me re-think my position on this, hopefully for the better of the websites that I run (is this blog post just a regurgitated piece of information? In truth, yes.)

Example of trying to get maximum impressions, does this really add value to the advertiser?

Sydney Morning Herald photo gallery, notice how as you go through each picture, the page quickly reloads and generates a new ad? Each time that happens, that is an impression.

http://www.smh.com.au/snapshots/

Shelby stated "The CPM has done more to stunt innovation and drag down quality products than any single thing on the Internet. Maybe it works in other mediums, but it sure as hell doesn’t work on the Internet"

Interestingly enough, Shelby does not provide a solid solution to this problem. As Jack Matthews, CEO of Fairfax Digital once said ‘Don’t come to me with problems; come to me with solutions that will WORK’. I don’t believe there is one solid answer to how to overcome the CPM and the restraints it imposes on the industry and no one answer can totally provide a solution, including CPA, CPC and other methods of integrated advertising.

Interesting to ponder none the less.