I was reading an AdWeek link sent to me by a friend sharing IAB’s ad tech organization chart. I think not only is it a poor layout (ad tech vendors on the outside looking in) but the visualization itself is a a pretty terrible example of visual communication.
See for yourself:
As my colleague Emel notes, it’s basically the Lumascape, redone as the next best thing… a maze. Why you would articulate our industry as a maze seems silly when the whole point of creating a visualization is to tell a story (and do so simply and elegantly). It isn’t good for anyone to provide the metaphor of online advertising technology being confusing.
The Lumascape is not much better in terms of complexity, but at least it’s a bit easier to follow:
Anyway, I do think it is a good idea to visualize the ad tech ecosystem. But I can’t help think we can do better. So consider today’s post a call to action for agencies, consultants and anyone in the creative space: someone please remix these images and create a simpler, easier to read visualization of our industry.
I’d recommend removing some of the complexity / consolidating areas or considering different ways to lay this out instead of cramming so much into a small space. Try something unique here.
Why you should do this? These visualizations get a lot of use and attention. If you can do better, you’ll likely get included in presentations at conferences, in media stories and shared in social. If you do remix it (and we like it better) please drop us a note and we’ll share it in a future post.