7 Ways To Increase Advertiser Uptake of Your Emerging Media Platform

The following ran as an In Focus feature on iMediaConnection a couple of weeks ago. But in case you didn't see it...

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Lots of emerging media companies have difficulty making those all important first sales. Here are seven steps to improving your luck.

Some of the most exciting aspects of our media environment are the number and quality of “emerging media” platforms that are being launched – new media with the capacity to drive real change in the way brands connect with audiences and tell their stories.
But if one of these incredible new opportunities is your brainchild, or if you work on the team of one of these platforms, you know it can be a real challenge to get the people with ad dollars to engage with you. Indeed, whenever two or more people from emerging media companies get together, there’s usually some discussion about how difficult it can be to make planners and buyers break old habits – and try new things.

• “They want innovative, yet proven.”

I’d like to offer a different interpretation of the buying environment. When I talk with people in the planning and buying community, I hear that they are very anxious to experiment – what they find challenging is that most emerging companies expect them to do the “heavy lifting” of creating a business relationship. I asked a few buyers about this issue, and the comments I heard back were very consistent.

• “They expect me to accommodate them. It’s like they are trying to make it difficult for me to work with them.”
• “They pitch AT me instead of listening and responding to what I need.”
• “Many try to change the chessboard, introducing some weird new way to buy, or a new payment model, or a proprietary reporting platform. It’s not that I don’t like ideas, but it shouldn’t be my job to make their job easier. They are selling to me.”

Naturally, it is any buyer’s responsibility to capitalize on great opportunities as they become available – that’s why clients engage with agencies. But it is also critical that an emerging media company understand buyer needs, and accommodate those as part of the selling and account management processes.

With that in mind, here are seven ways that emerging media platforms can succeed in getting more consideration and business from the folks with money to spend:


1. Do Some Homework on How Media are Planned, Purchased, Reported On, and Optimized.

Many emerging media companies are led by people with technical backgrounds – folks who may not know how the RFP process works, what measures matter to planners and buyers, how agencies contractually engage, what’s sorts of out clauses are necessary, etc.

Even if your platform offers incredible opportunities for a brand, you need to understand that planning and buying from you needs to meet the basic parameters by which marketers and agencies make purchases. Purchasing processes in most companies are precisely defined, and deviating from those processes may take you out of consideration immediately.

Similarly, most major brands use a third party serving and reporting solution like Dart for Publishers (DFP.) Be sure to make your trafficking, scheduling, and reporting compatible with the major platforms like DoubleClick, Atlas, and Mediaplex before you hit the ground running. A lack of such compatibility will stop you in your tracks with the vast majority of brands.

In today’s environment, it is not at all unusual for a buyer to be spending millions on behalf of three, or five, or eight brands simultaneously. They do not have time to accommodate your special needs.

Further, an unfortunate reality of the digital media business is that there is still a lot of manual reporting and optimization going on. You do NOT want to add to that time suck with obtuse processes.



2. Be Prepared with a Well Honed Elevator Pitch

In an environment where your prospects have many time and attention demands, you often only get one brief “shot” and telling your story and making people care. In an emerging media context, you have the dual challenges of explaining what you are and what needs you meet in the first 20-30 seconds people give you to make your case.
There’s actually a formula to this that works for emerging platforms. Essentially, your pitch needs to include three things:

1. Context: A message that tells the prospect how to categorize you in their head, before they hear what’s unique. Are you…
a. …A social media platform
b. …A mobile application
c. ...A widget
It’s important not to get too cute here – you need to explain yourself in the context of the buyer’s current world view. Use their language, not newspeak. For example, you are not a “cross site ad vending and distribution platform,” you are an ad network. It’s not a distributed communication platform, it’s a widget. Many emerging media companies try so hard to be different that they make themselves unintelligible.
2. Tell them what’s different from an attribute standpoint: Is yours a social media site especially for beekeepers? A mobile ad network focused specifically on iPhone applications? An embeddable game platform focused on women 35-54? Make that clear. In plain English.
3. Tell Them What It Means For Them: There is a reason why your platform exists, right? Is it to create high quality branded experiences? A way to improve conversion rates by letting people buy in a widget? A better way to provide a completely brand safe UGC video experience for mothers and children? Tell them why they should care.
By sticking to the formula of context…differentiation…meaning, you will tell a concise and coherent story that prospects will understand and value.



3. Target Truly Likely “Innovator” Prospects

If you spent a few hours researching the “charter” advertisers for emerging media, you would quickly find that a small cadre of companies dominate. There are certain brands with both the money and the orientation to try truly new things – and there are many brands that don’t.

As an example, Procter and Gamble often leads the CPG pack in media innovation. In auto, foreign automakers often move more quickly into emerging media than Detroit, which focuses more on proven DR techniques. By defining the right set of target companies you’ll be able to focus your time on A prospects.

Another consideration is budget. Many emerging media companies target “cool” brands instead of “rich” brands. In most (though not all) cases, a brand with $10 Million to spend online is a lot more likely to sign than one with $500K. The cost to participate in your platform is also a factor. Smaller brands can swing $5K, but only major brands are likely to cough up $50K on an unproven platform.

You may also wish to consider a “charter” buying program to entice brands to participate with a lower initial pricepoint. A charter program can also set appropriate expectations about reach and other metrics while you build your market footprint.

Oh, but do make them pay something. Even just a little bit. People value things they pay for. Once you start giving things away, it’s tough to rebottle that genie.


4. Make An Effort to Understand a Prospect and Their Circumstances Before You Dial or Email.

You can boil most brand needs down to one (or more) of three things – awareness, trial, or repeat. By doing even a couple of searches on the brand and category, you can ensure that when you connect with a marketer you can tailor a message more likely to resonate. In an environment where resources are at a premium, planners and buyers must focus on those opportunities most likely to address specific brand needs.

Now, it is possible that the actual needs for a brand may be different from those you surmise. But the thing is, generally people are appreciative of “homework” whether or not you reach the same conclusions as they have. Getting it right can be a welcome surprise to the buyer. But what REALLY matters in the end is that you cared enough to try – it will set you apart from about 90% of the cold calls a planner gets.

5. Deliver Selling Materials That Answer the Likely Buyer Questions – in 12 Slides or Less.

Selling materials should be concise and clear. Now there’s a chocking statement, huh? But it is truly amazing how many emerging media companies offer seemingly eternal sales kits. I recently saw a deck of 73 slides for one. While the deck truly did answer every question one could possibly have about the platform, it is absurd to expect anyone to review it all.

Another problem: many sales decks tell stories inductively versus deductively; they offer a lot of data points and then the conclusion, versus postulating the rule and taking people through examples. An inductive deck may take people through 6 to 12 “the problem” slides before getting to what they offer. Problem is, in our ADD culture, people may never get to slide 12.

Instead, it makes sense to define what you are first (first slide,) and then explain the implications through examples.

Additionally, it makes sense to provide data to back up your story. Planners and buyers expect “proof”, not suppositions. That’s not to stay that you need case studies before you launch ;-) but rather that data in support of your reason for being make your offering more compelling.

Naturally, buyers will also need to understand creative specs and requirements. Visual examples, even spec examples, go a long way here to dimensionalizing the potential appeal of a new platform.
Finally, providing next steps and contact info is critical. On more than one occasion I have seen emerging media opps lose consideration because these basic elements were omitted.


6. Make Your Buying Model “Fit” The Spreadsheet

Don’t making buying your offering difficult. Agencies and brands gain approval of resources, often with formulaic Excel spreadsheets. The models that “fit” in these spreadsheets are CPM, CPA, and CPC. That’s not to say that another model cannot be sold but rather that unusual buying model s are harder to sell.
Brands typically care a lot about impressions, clicks, and buys. Naturally, some really good ideas may not be best measured in these three manners, so don’t rule OUT serving up a new model. But only do so if it necessary, because making things harder is never a good idea.
Some emerging media offerings have introduced novel buying and reporting methodologies as a means of differentiation. While I can’t say it NEVER makes sense, I can say with certainty that a new model makes you harder to deal with. Easy = good. Hard = bad.



7. Respectfully Stay On Your Prospects’ Radar

As an unproven emerging media opportunity, you’re not going to be a top tier priority for planners and buyers. They will naturally gravitate toward spending and managing large proven programs by which they can make progress toward your goals. Now, you can tut-tut over this, thinking it demonstrates a lack of vision. Or you can recognize that the planner’s job is not to help you. Your job is to meet their needs.
As the seller of an emerging platform, you have the onus to keep the dialogue going, to answer the prospect’s questions, and drive the sale. They aren’t going to “close” themselves.

That’s not to say that you should be calling five times a day every day but rather that emerging media are likely to fall to the bottom of to-do lists. It’s ultimately on you to cultivate and grow interest politely.

Once you’ve made the sale, it’s doubly important to meet and exceed your responsibilities. Many emerging companies, for example, wait to hire operations teams until they have a bunch of charter clients disgruntled by the service they aren’t getting. When you are just beginning your relationship with a marketer, it is even more critical to ensure smooth operations. In a new relationship it’s not about responding when the chips are down but rather ensuring that the chips stay up.