A whole lotta lava
If the dot-com boom and bust was our era of smoke and mirrors, five years after bottoming out we are all about firebombs and rivers of hot lava. In 2007, hype and hope still reign, but they’re backed by the full faith and credit of a $16-billion digital ad economy.I had personal interest in two of this year’s big deals: Yahoo!-Right Media and AOL-TACODA. I was with Right Media when Yahoo! bought a 20 percent stake in October 2006 and the remaining 80 percent last April (deal closed in July) for more than $700-million. Before I joined Right Media, I was with TACODA for three years, and I celebrated AOL’s $275-million purchase in August.
Right Media and TACODA created two of the most popular trends of the hot lava era of media technology. A lower tier ad network, Right Media, came out of nowhere to invent the online media exchange concept that became central to the acquisition and growth strategies of Yahoo!, Google (Doubleclick) and Microsoft (AdECN). And behavioral targeting, ably nurtured from an interesting idea to a mainstream tactic by TACODA, is being touted and reinvented by dozens of networks, technology providers, and entrepreneurs with visions of better media tech mousetraps.
I had the unique opportunity to help create a lot of the hype and to evangelize the real results generated by these technologies that were, are, right for their times. MediaTechBusiness will be a platform for me to synthesize a lot of what I’ve learned over a long career in marketing, sales and management in media and technology, but not just from these companies. As a four-time loser with other startups, I know as much as anyone about what it takes to succeed. Now, as the guy with the “hot hand” and a couple of big wins in a row, I’ve had the privilege to meet with dozens of CEOs, VCs, analysts, recruiters, media sellers and buyers in recent months for up close and personal investigations of the possible next big thing.
Where permitted, I’ll identify and interview principals of some of these businesses. Where I’m under non-disclosure agreements, I hope to be able to share some of the truly imaginative and exciting new developments I’ve discovered. If you are among my sources, and you know who you are, please let me know right away that you’d love to join the conversation. If we haven’t met, what are you waiting for?
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