RadiumOne announced as Winner in Digital Media for AlwaysOn Global 250

Posted by Doug Chavez @dougchavez

We Won!

We are pleased to announce that RadiumOne was selected as AlwaysOn Global 250 Winner in Digital Media. Each year, AlwaysOn honors the top companies in the Silicon Valley that are seen as game-changers in digital media, mobile, social media, cloud and SaaS computing. RadiumOne took the #1 rank in the Digital Media category!

Tony Perkins, founder and editor of AlwaysOn commented, “This year’s winners clearly represent some of the highest-growth opportunities we’ve seen in the private company marketplace in the history of the global Silicon Valley.” Other winners include: Dropbox, Meebo, and Spotify, just to name a few.

On July 28th, AlwaysOn is hosting their annual Silicon Valley Innovation Summit where Gurbaksh Chahal, CEO and Founder of RadiumOne, will be keynoting to discuss his experience with the dynamic landscape of online advertising and offering advice to those seeking to increase their online presence. Make sure to check out the session.

Woohoo - Go team RadiumOne

RadiumOne Labs Launches!

Posted by Doug Chavez @dougchavez

Earlier this week, we launched RadiumOne Labs.  Everyone here at RadiumOne is excited about Labs and being able to share with the community at large about products we are incubating here at RadiumOne.  With the launch of RadiumOne Labs, we are also reaching out to the community for feedback – we want to hear your input and thoughts about products you care about.  Also, RadiumOne Labs is sign up to hear about product updates and getting in on limited beta releases for upcoming products.  There’s a lot going on in RadiumOne Labs and we’re looking forward to engaging with the community.

We recently unveiled “Like/Share,” a product developed in RadiumOne Labs during a demonstration of new online advertising solutions.  “Like/Share” enables consumers to engage online to like and share display and video ads with friends on the Open Web. Since the product was unveiled and implemented, advertisers have seen engagement and click-through rates increase as much as 20-30%. This new overlay technology is just one of several advertising solutions being developed within RadiumOne Labs.

RadiumOne Labs is excited to be in the forefront of bringing new technologies that embrace: real-time, social and the Open Web

Click here to read RadiumOne Labs press release

Bill Lonergan Promoted to Chief Operating Officer

Posted by @dougchavez

Today, RadiumOne announced that Bill Lonergan was promoted to Chief Operating Officer. Prior to today’s announcement Bill was RadiumOne’s CFO.  “Bill’s extensive background in finance and operations make him a great fit for our operations leadership role”, said Gurbaksh Chahal, CEO and Founder of RadiumOne

Lonergan joined RadiumOne from Offerpal, Inc. where he also served as Chief Financial Officer. Previously, he was the Chief Financial Officer of Blue Lithium, the innovative behavioral targeting ad network that was founded by RadiumOne CEO Gurbaksh Chahal. Lonergan was responsible for managing the M&A process during Blue Lithium’s $300 million dollar sale to Yahoo! in 2007. Lonergan has also worked with LookSmart, Tacit Software and was a senior partner with KPMG for over twelve years.

RadiumOne Continues Leadership in Online Monetization Space

Posted by @dougchavez

Some companies are exiting the online monetization business, while RadiumOne continues to generate unprecedented revenue levels for publishers.

Zwinky is the latest online publisher to announce RadiumOne as their exclusive monetization partner, and they’re particularly excited about the re-introduction of cost-per-view (CPV) video. “We were the first to bring video offers into the social media space two years ago, and we’re happy to learn that Zwinky users love watching videos as a way to earn free ZCards,” said Rebecca Watson, VP of Business Development for RadiumOne.

Mobile app and gaming usage is exploding, and RadiumOne Mobile is monetizing apps through display and incentivized advertising from Fortune 500 brands. The online virtual goods market has experienced significant growth in recent years, with growth projected to increase from $600 million in 2009 to $2.4 billion in 2012 in the U.S. alone. While we can certainly understand why some companies are leaving this space.  Some veterans of this space still recall the stain  Scamville left a few companies with and the negative stigma. We can understand why some veterans of Scamville have left the space, but at RadiumOne we continue to innovate thanks to our close brand relationships  and cutting edge technology.

We’re happy to announce that over 8 million offers are completed on our network every month, and we are both profitable and continuing to grow at a rapid pace. Publishers and developers are confident in RadiumOne’s history of providing a clean and brand safe environment, and we intend to maintain that course.

END GAME

by Rupert Staines, Managing Director Europe at RadiumOne

You cannot miss a week on planet digital without another seemingly major development in product advancement being announced. The other week was the turn of Xaxis…

Martin Sorrell is a bit Draperesque - we admire ‘Madmen’ because we love the romance of the distant past where advertising could tantilise, rant and inspire us mere mortals…. and in many respects we miss it. But have we become slaves to the new Technorati…?

Well, the new digital order has certainly enabled us, as individuals, to become more expressive and opinionated about what we do, say and think, in everyday life…. and oh my god, it is so incredibly real, immediate and effective!

In advertising or marketing terms this represents both the nirvana and the abyss. No sooner had you realised this than technology had changed gears and pushed you towards increasingly measurable actions as a means of increasingly justifying your marketing spend…which leads to this point of inflection where ads meet actions.

Behavioural targeting has led the merry dance toward retargeting users who visited a client’s website, driven the, less than sophisticated, ‘gaming’ of the last cookie and created an unbalanced view of attribution.

As for the last click concept, well, there is discernible value in it for the agency/client bond but this is the sales promotion end of the funnel: ‘You stepped in the store and now I’m going to try and make you stay’. But this is the enclave for CPA/CPC driven attribution based on excessive retargeting and search metrics.

There is, however, a higher ground based on driving a more defined and socially engaged audience into the customer funnel and as far as is possible, delivering performance on a mix of metrics from Cost per Engagement right the way through to Cost per Action…

Display advertising is not about following users around the web, which is frankly annoying, but becoming part of the conversation and accompanying the user based on their interest, influence and closest connections. Welcome to the web’s sharing phenomenon….

Why Google+ has a #Winning Chance

By Gurbaksh Chahal, Chairman & CEO, RadiumOne @gchahal

The world doesn’t need another social network. Especially when you have one that already has 750 million highly active users in it.

The reasons why Facebook overtook MySpace was because it was different and solved a different set of problems. Facebook introduced “real identity” to the web. And, the “newsfeed” created a whole new distribution channel for sharing on the web that now rivals with likes of search for traffic.

But, now with 750 million users, with 4 billion things being shared everyday, noise has taken over the channel. Therefore, you don’t get to see the content you want to see; Facebook decides what you should see. This becomes a fundamental problem that causes frustration and where Google+ got it right with Circles.

On my Facebook account I have 474 Facebook friends. These range from family, close friends, co-workers, passive contacts, and acquaintances. However, when I log into Facebook – my newsfeed isn’t relevant. I rarely see my family and close friends – it’s basically about everyone else. Not a week goes by, when I have to hide connections from showing up on my feed. And that’s the bigger problem of the social web. Everyone loves the concept of the social graph, but the real defining graph – is your “implicit graph.”

While it took me some time to get used to, I now understand why Google+ forces you to organize your social graph into circles: Friends, Family, Acquaintances, Following and any other circle you wish to create. The first two groups are your “implicit graph”, Acquaintances becomes your “extended social graph”, and Following becomes your “interest graph” much like Twitter. Even though, not many people are on it yet (10 million vs. 750 million)– I already love the organization of the feeds. It makes sense, I get to now control the information I want in the circles I create, and I get to see my implicit graph come to life on a social network. This is a key difference and behavioral insight that gives Google+ a real chance to compete with Facebook.

I’ve always been a big believer that the “social graph” was just our explicit graph – an index of our address book of connections. But, the Holy Grail is going to be whoever can ascertain our “implicit graph” to show the content, messaging, and social experience consumers really want. It seems Google+ will be bringing that to a social network. Coincidently, the main reason, we started RadiumOne – was to create an implicit graph of the sharing conversations and incorporate them into advertising on the Open Web.

For those on Google+, you can follow me here: http://gplus.to/gchahal

Sharing on the Open Web - Explosive Growth a la Moore’s Law

Posted by  Doug Chavez @dougchavez

Earlier this week at Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, presented to a gaggle of media folks at Facebook Headquarters in Palo Alto.  The media had gathered to hear the groundbreaking announcement of Facebook’s integration with Skype.  Integrating Skype is certainly a great feature. But in my opinion the real news was Zuckerberg discussing the 4 billion things shared every day on Facebook. Zuckerberg said that Facebook is focused on sharing as a key metric over the next five years.



One of the principal reasons I decided to join RadiumOne is because of their keen insight about sharing on the Open Web and their proprietary ShareGraph technology that listens to social sharing on the Open Web.  Advertisers running on RadiumOne benefit from ShareGraph’s ability constantly expand audience – essentially compounding audience scale.  That unique ability of ShareGraph taps into the logarithmic social sharing that Zuckerberg talked about in his speech (see graphic bel0w).



Companies that have the foresight and ability to build social apps on top of this rapidly expanding social infrastructure will create a disproportional advantage over companies focused on old growth metrics – lookout legacy ad networks!

Lastly, here is link to a simple explanation of exponential growth, the concept Zuckerberg mentions of a small base doubling very fast – essentially why the law of social sharing represents a massive opportunity, especially for advertisers on ShareGraph.  This principal is akin to Moore’s Law - a law that states computing power will double every year. At RadiumOne we call this “Compound Advertising” and it’s what advertisers see when their campaigns are on ShareGraph.

If you understand what this profound growth of social sharing means and want to join the team leading the way, ping me with an email at doug@radiumone.com

And Thank you to Mark Zuckerberg for bringing attention to this social sharing party that Gurbaksh Chahal and the RadiumOne team identified 18 months ago and lead to the creation of ShareGraph.

The Monthly Money Maker — June edition

Here’s the June 2011 edition of the Monthly Money Maker, RadiumOne’s newsletter to inform publishers about industry trends, new monetization products, and events.

TIPS & TRICKSMonetizing your UK audience just got easier! RadiumOne’s Sales team in the UK has recently brought in dozens of new videos and offers for Kellogg’s, Internet Explorer 9, Foster’s, and more. Email us to learn how you can generate exposure and conversions on these offers.

MARKET WATCHElectronic Arts plans to acquire PopCap GamesThe casual game developer with massive titles including Bejeweled is in the process of being acquired by EA for $1 billion. This is great news for the games industry as a whole.

Google takes on Facebook’s social graphFacebook’s collection of never-ending data, known as the “social graph,” is Google’s biggest nightmare. The world’s largest social network is using that data to suggest things to users they may want to read, buy, etc. before those users go to Google.com to search for those things. So, what is Google doing about this threat?Many things, including launching new social products, like +1, in hopes of gathering “social graph” information through its own products.

Large game studios plan for mobile instead of new Facebook titlesMost of the largest game developers who began on the Facebook platform – Crowdstar, Zynga, and Playdom – have decided to build out mobile studios instead of creating “companion” apps that exist primarily to promote their Facebook titles. In this article, a Playdom executive talks about why mobile is more appealing now than it used to be.

ANNOUNCEMENTSRadiumOne’s team will be attending Casual Connect in Seattle July 19-21. If you’re planning to attend, let us know so that we can meet you for a beer or coffee.

Gurbaksh Chahal, RadiumOne’s CEO, will be giving the keynote speech at Tech Week in Chicago on July 22.

The daily deals space is red hot, so the Deals 3D conference in SF is sure to be packed. Come hear Rebecca Watson speak on July 18 on the panel entitled “Follow the Money: Payments, Rewards & Redemptions.”

Building Dream Teams

By Gurbaksh Chahal, Chairman & CEO, RadiumOne

Having been on my third startup, I’ve learned a few things about the “starting up” process. And one thing I’ve realized is that a great product isn’t the secret to success, it’s the team around you that makes it or breaks it.

The first “five” people you hire are critical. Think of these as your navy seals that’ll go into battle with you. They need to have the same drive, ambition, and their interests have to be aligned with you. They have to be in it for the right reasons. If you pick the right “five” – you’ll either succeed with the original idea or pivot to an even greater one.

Once you’ve proven to the marketplace you’ve got a reason to be in market – the next question is how big can you make this? It’s the growth stage. If you get this right - you’ll solve two things. The first thing: The foundation of your company culture. This becomes the DNA – the energy that celebrates all the ups and problem/solves the downs.

Second, it’s about the opportunity. How big can I make this? And you’ll only know the answers to that, when you’ve got the best minds working on the problem. Superman was fiction. But, delegation amongst the right team can bring the superpowers of success at your fingertips. Pick the right first 20 and they’ll take you as far as you can lead them.

In the technology world, people get confused – they feel a business is run by a magical algorithm. Relationships are everything in the life and most importantly in the business world. A successful business is not run by algorithms but by relationships.

I remember reading an article about Marissa Mayer, employee #20 at Google. On her second day at the Company, it had signed a deal to become Netscape’s default search engine. Employees were frantically doing calculations to determine whether they would have enough power to handle the searches that came in. They had about 300 computers at the time and weren’t sure they’d have the capacity. Google told Netscape to send only one of every five queries, but Netscape didn’t listen: It sent Google all its traffic, and Google had to take down its site.

Some can argue that it was the Company’s fault for not being ready. I disagree. No algorithm or product is ever perfect or ever will be. It’s an ongoing iteration. A team’s ability to understand, react, and solve each opportunity defines a Company’s future success. 10 years later from that event, they are still the most valuable Internet Company in the world.

And, that’s enough motivation and a case study for every entrepreneur on building his or her dream team.

Inefficiencies created by new buying platforms

By Kamal Kaur, Vice President, RadiumOne Display Network

Ad networks have succeeded in the past by being the fulcrum that maintains the delicate equilibrium between advertisers and publishers. Successful ad networks must meet a given advertiser’s ROI metrics while also protecting the financial goals of its partner sites. Striking this balance hasn’t been easy. Ad networks have had to constantly create new products and optimization techniques in order to preserve order.

Some of these new products have included innovations like audience extension, data segmentation, user profiling, behavioral targeting, remarketing, selective media buying, and now RTB (Real Time Bidding).

Current platforms and technologies have disrupted this equilibrium. With the advent of DSPs, SSPs, data vendors, data platforms, and creative optimization solutions, many publishers fear that their data is becoming commoditized. Meanwhile, even savvy media buyers have found that today’s landscape is cluttered and difficult to navigate. The growth of extra handoffs hasn’t made the process or product any easier; rather, it has added cost, not to mention increased discrepancies.

The Social Evolution

Fortunately, ad networks can once again restore equilibrium through taking advantage of the greatest tool that online advertising has ever known – the extraordinary growth of social media. Today, consumers are sharing unprecedented amounts of information about themselves on social media sites and more importantly across the open-Internet.

According to TNS Global Market Research, “Internet users worldwide spend more hours per week with social media than any other online activity.” Research firm Nielsen Online adds. “Social Media Networks and Blogs consume nearly 25 percent of people’s time online. The world spends 110 billion minutes on social media networks and blog sites.” It is clear that people are far more open to sharing and interacting on the open-Internet now than in the past. To DSPs, this data is a commodity.

For many of us Facebook is believed to be THE platform for social data. But it’s actually only a fraction of the total amount of social data on the open-Internet. Just about every website, almost every page, seeks to draw users into a conversation with other visitors to the site. The reams of social data in forums and comments posts is staggering. In fact, Facebook comprises only about a quarter of all the social interactions that are happening across the Internet. And the rate of social interaction outside Facebook is growing rapidly as media properties and others seek to keep conversations on their own properties.

Data Goldmine

The technology advancement of harboring this data in non-Personally Identifiable Information (PII) fashion has allowed few companies to capitalize on this goldmine. While you must have the core technology and keen sense of what data to mine to create an intent graph, one must also have a solid understanding of how to use that data on specific supply sources. The simple fact being that data can’t be separated from media. If this is not simple enough, here’s a more tangible example:

Every savvy foodie’s dream is to dine at Napa Valley’s famed French Laundry as often as they can. The ingredients used by the famous restaurant aren’t brought from a distant land. They are grown by the local grocers and available for anyone to buy. However, just because the restaurant’s chef Thomas Keller can whip up any palette’s ultimate desire, doesn’t mean you or I can go home each night and replicate the French Laundry dining experience on our own dinner plates.

The same is true with media and data. In my opinion, these are inseparable. Only a network knows all of the variables of a cookie pool, such as the performance of users on specific sites, how often cookies are segmented, and the frequency and recency of their use. While DSPs may believe that they can create value out of consolidating fragmented supply sources, the data that they offer lacks context – making that data almost instantly stale!

Getting the Best Value

Platforms brought efficiency for the advertisers to buy the inventory cheap. But, the eCPMs for the publishers are poor at best. Furthermore, the thought of supposal extra from buying through a platform has only layered in additional costs in form of data sources, verification companies for brand safety, creative optimization technologies, additional optimization algorithms, data warehouse cost, in-house optimization and billion other variables. At the end, there isn’t much of a cost savings at all. Rather, a blatant attempt to create a French Laundry dish with a week old leftover ingredients.

Through maintaining their own living supply of anonymous, non-PII data, ad networks that own their own data can match the right impression with the right brand and deliver the highest value for publishers and advertisers. While DSPs, SSP, data vendors, data platforms, and creative optimization solutions have roles to play, they are merely tools, not turnkey solutions. Used independently of ad networks, they produce short-term gains, not long-term savings.

Ad networks bring the most value - bar none. Networks have always and will continue to bring innovation to the ad industry, because they keep the balance between the advertiser and publishers. And we still are the chefs in our own private French Laundry kitchen, mixing ingredients into something magical for our clients that can be replicated.

Sources:

• Nielsen Online: http://blog.nielsen.com/nielsenwire/online_mobile/social-media-accounts-for-22-percent-of-time-online/

• TNS Global Research: http://www.tnsglobal.com/research/