WebProNews » Spot Runner

Yahoo! Gets a ‘Softie

Chris Crum — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 16:57:19 +0000

Joanne Bradford has made a lot of career moves in recent memory. She was once Corporate VP of Microsoft Digital Advertising Solutions, then climbed up the ladder to Chief Media Officer and Corporate Vice President of MSN. Earlier this year, Bradford left Microsoft for an enticing job with Spot Runner as Executive Vice President.

Apparently an offer from Yahoo! was even more enticing, however, because she has just signed on as their senior vice president of U.S. Revenue and Market Development. In her new job, she will oversee sales and market development for advertisers, small business, and Yahoo! HotJobs, reporting to U.S. Yahoo! Executive Vice President Hilary Schneider.

Yahoo! Sings Praise for Bradford

"Joanne’s deep understanding of the marketplace coupled with her proven ability to package and deliver results-driven solutions for the world’s biggest brands will help Yahoo!’s customers connect with the audiences they most want to reach not just on Yahoo!, but across the web," says Schneider.

Yahoo! President Sue Decker seems pretty excited about the company’s recent addition as well. "We are thrilled to have an executive of Joanne’s caliber to lead Yahoo! through to the next phase of its growth," says Decker. "Yahoo! and Joanne have a shared mindset about the strategic role that Yahoo! and online marketing can play to both build leading brands and drive customer acquisition for the world’s leading marketers."

Yahoo!’s Best Days?

Yahoo! has not had its biggest amount of success in recent years, but that doesn’t seem to be a problem to Bradford. "I am convinced that the very best days for this company are ahead, and I want to leverage my experience in programming, distribution, and selling to help Yahoo! take this business to the next level."

I wonder if the famous (or infamous depending on how you want to look at it) Google/Yahoo! deal might have anything to do with her astonishingly positive outlook. She better hope that the Department of Justice lets it go through. Otherwise, those "very best" days might be behind Yahoo! after all.

Google by the way, has already said that they will go forward with the deal next month if the Department doesn’t stop them by then. Meanwhile, the Department has just gotten around to hiring an antitrust lawyer. It doesn’t seem like the case has been a top priority for the Department, so perhaps Bradford’s optimism isn’t too misguided.

Spot Runner Runs Off Staff, Reorganizes

WebProNews Staff — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 12:19:00 +0000

The company’s business model of online and TV advertising expanded through the year, with Spot Runner now laying off employees to bring on others suited to the new lines of services.

About 50 people received the dreaded pink slip from Los Angeles-based Spot Runner, as they reorganized to compete better for ad business in several areas beyond their original concentration as a video advertising company.

PaidContent said 40 of the positions will see new hires in their place. Spot Runner needs people who can do search marketing and radio advertising to suit the shift in business strategy.

Ex-Microsoft rising star Joanne Bradford, now the executive vice president at Spot Runner, still has responsibility for marketing the firm’s services nationally. She will earn her paycheck if she can help the company stand out in a field crowded with ad competition.

Those competitors include global giant WPP, which holds three percent of Spot Runner. WPP’s leader Martin Sorrell like the concept of getting local businesses into TV advertising, and as of September 2007 reportedly wanted a bigger stake in the company.

He may not be as thrilled with the path Spot Runner is taking now. As Valleywag noted, the change to marketing search ads and national TV ads puts them in the midst of crowded markets, dominated by existing players.

Spot Runner Launches Political Advertising Program

Doug Caverly — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 22:07:05 +0000

In a move that’s either ingenious, scary, or both, Spot Runner has launched a new Political Advertising Program. Political campaigns of every size are supposed to buy preexisting video spots, personalize them, and then put the things on television.

Spot Runner Political Ads

Former Senator Bill Bradley, who sits on Spot Runner’s Political Advisory Board, stated, "Spot Runner is helping to further democratize the election process by leveling the playing field for all candidates. It’s giving every campaign an equal opportunity to broadcast important messages to the most appropriate audiences. It’s truly ground breaking."

And in some cases, this will hopefully be true. Not everyone is sitting on enough money to create expensive ads and fund a bid for office; if the next (Your Favorite Politician Here) didn’t get his start because he couldn’t afford a television commercial, it would be a shame.

On the other hand, the idea of political ad templates is a little worrisome. Do we really need more politicians who fit into ready-made molds? At least the current crop has some idea of how to manage its (if not the nation’s) money.

Meh. A hat tip goes to Michael Learmonth, and Spot Runner’s ads start at $499 if you’ve got political aspirations and a little spare cash.

Bradford Bails On MSN For Spot Runner

WebProNews Staff — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 22:44:05 +0000

Joanne Bradford’s rapid climb up the Microsoft ladder took her all the way out of the company and away from her job as chief media officer over MSN.

After seven years with Microsoft, Bradford must have felt it was time to set out for greener pastures. Los Angeles-based Spot Runner announced their hiring of Bradford to head up national marketing services for the company.

Todd Bishop’s Microsoft Blog noted the announcement by Spot Runner, and found that Greg Nelson, former general manager of MSN International reporting to Bradford, will take over her job on an interim basis.

Bradford had been moving up the corporate organizational chart quickly in recent years. Before gaining the chief media officer/corporate VP job, Bradford ran Microsoft Digital Advertising Solutions as corporate VP and chief media revenue officer.

Her boss at Microsoft, Steve Berkowitz, was already on track to leave Microsoft before the end of 2008, as Mary Jo Foley noted. She also cited a quieter Microsoft departure, Amir Majidimehr, corporate vice president for Microsoft

Spot Runner Snaps Up GlobeShooter

Doug Caverly — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 16:28:23 +0000

All eyes were on WPP – it was supposed to acquire the advertising agency known as Spot Runner, and that may still happen. But in a move that came as something of a surprise, Spot Runner made an acquisition of its own and formed the Spot Runner Production Network.

The (former) services of GlobeShooter, which was "a network of more than 1,200 independent filmmakers, professional videographers, photographers, producers and production companies throughout the U.S," comprise the new Spot Runner entity; GlobeShooter was the acquisition target.

This should put Spot Runner in a good position to get more local footage for its ads, and that is the company’s exact goal. "The acquisition of this network is a natural extension of our strategy to be a central resource for local businesses’ broad spectrum of advertising needs," noted Spot Runner CEO Nick Grouf in a statement.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed, so it remains unknown just how much of a hit Spot Runner took in order to accomplish the acquisition. And as we mentioned before, it does seem like an odd move for a company that might get bought out at any time.

In any event, we’ll continue to keep an eye on both Spot Runner and WPP, and with a hat tip to Greg Sterling, we’ll be on our way.

A Modest Proposal – WPP And Google

WebProNews Staff — Mon, 21 Jan 2008 18:02:52 +0000

Don’t look now, but WPP honcho Martin Sorrell has been tipped to be looking for another acquisition to complement the ad giant’s 24/7 Real Media buy from 2007.

Last year, when Internet giants like Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft shelled out cash for digital advertising companies, WPP got in on the fun too. Sorrell opened his wallet to the tune of about $649 million to secure 24/7 Real Media.

In September of last year, Sorrell’s interest in Spot Runner, where WPP already owns a 3 percent stake, surfaced in rumors at the New York Post. Those rumors returned, same same subject, in a new Post report.

Spot Runner looks like a favorite due to WPP already having a piece of the company. If acquired, Spot Runner opens cable advertising to small businesses in a way Google TV has been doing in its testing.

As AdRants noted, ex-Ogilvy executive Andy Berndt, now with Google, told marketers “Google is not starting an ad agency.” Google made similar noises about mobile phones before Android emerged too.

The Post also suggested JumpTap and VideoEgg as possible morsels for WPP to consume. But instead of considering WPP as a competitor, were Google to form an advertising agency, what if they partnered with Google?

We don’t think that’s likely, as both Google and WPP prefer to play with house money. A partnership makes for intriguing ideas, with WPP’s ad agency experience coupled with Google’s dominance in search and online advertising.

Sorrell’s clients may end up on Google and DoubleClick anyway, should that deal receive EU approval, so why not make it easier for multi-million dollar big brand accounts to reach people through all of the outlets WPP and Google could reach?

After all, Berndt’s old Ogilvy firm is part of WPP.

Web 2.0 Companies Waiting to go Public

Geoff Simon — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 18:40:08 +0000

At this point, we really haven’t seen a major Web 2.0 company make it through an IPO.

We’ve seen YouTube gobbled up by Google, and MySpace snagged by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. To date, they remain the companies that have truly defined success in the evolving Web 2.0 era.

But there are some major Web 2.0 players out there, perhaps waiting for a shot at an IPO. FaceBook, LinkedIn, Spot Runner and some others immediately come to mind. But what would going public really mean for these companies and, more importantly, what would it mean for investors who want to grab a piece of one of these companies? Obviously, this is pure speculation at this point and we’re only now starting to hear some of the valuation numbers associated with the venture capital infusions that the major Web 2.0 companies are getting.

And amidst all of the excitement and skepticism, I can’t help but be reminded of a magical time not too long ago; a time when business models meant little and the “global reach” of the Internet was going to allow every eager start-up to “make it up on volume.” There were voices of opposition during that time, but they were often unable to be heard over the din of corporate ping-pong tournaments and the unbridled glee of greenhorn business owners with millions of venture capital dollars at their disposal. We all remember how that ended.

But, in fairness to the Web 2.0 phenomenon, I think the experiences of the dot-com implosion have made us all appropriately wary of over-hyped Internet companies. As a result, we usually don’t hear too much about Web 2.0 companies until they are actually making money. Granted, most of the Web 2.0 money is ad-based, which is a little scary. And most of that advertising money is in one way or another tied to Google and its unrivaled dominance of Internet search and advertising. But at least money is being made and the strength of the brands mentioned above would seem to indicate that they are going to be difficult to supplant as industry leaders in the foreseeable future.

Will Web 2.0 companies have enough momentum to carry them through an IPO and establish themselves as successful publicly traded companies? Only time will tell.

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Ad Magnate May Faceoff With Google TV

WebProNews Staff — Fri, 07 Sep 2007 22:35:23 +0000

Martin Sorrell’s WPP already owns a small stake in Spot Runner, but could move to take it over to complement an earlier online advertising company purchase.

When ad networks were swapping "For Sale" for "Sold" signs earlier in 2007, Google, Microsoft, and to a lesser extent, Yahoo, all figured in those transactions. There was another big deal that took place for an online ad network, only the buyer wasn’t one known for being a big Internet player.

Sorrell is very much known in advertising circles, as the helm of WPP. He’s been critical of Google’s proposed acquisition of DoubleClick, while purchasing 24/7 Real Media for his firm. WPP may be poised to do more.

The New York Post said Sorrell wants more of Spot Runner than the three percent he owns now. Spot Runner has similar goals to the secretive Google TV project: becoming a go-to destination for small businesses who want to advertise on TV.

"It is a business-to-business model that is perfect for a traditional ad agency," the Post said in citing a source familiar with WPP investments.

Google against WPP, the Google executive techie trinity of Schmidt, Page, and Brin versus the steeped in Machiavellian tradition Sorrell, this should be fun to watch. Maybe Vegas will put a line on this matchup.

Another $40m For Spot Runner

Andy Beal — Tue, 31 Oct 2006 16:44:33 +0000

ClickZ has details of some new funding for low-cost television commercial provider, Spot Runner. Spot Runner is an interesting concept, allowing companies to create and place TV ads for as little as $500, using an online interface.

The $40 million raised, is impressive in its own right, but companies financing the round are even more intriguing

The addition of CBS, Interpublic and WPP as investors is also significant. The three companies are major players in the online/television ad market, controlling billions of dollars in advertising budgets for some of the biggest buyers. On the ad buying side, WPP says it manages about $50 billion of clients’ budgets worldwide and Interpublic Group agencies serve more than 4,000 multinational, regional and local clients around the world.

Anyone actually used Spot Runner?

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Andy Beal is an internet marketing consultant and considered one of the world’s most respected and interactive search engine marketing experts. Andy has worked with many Fortune 1000 companies such as Motorola, CitiFinancial, Lowes, Alaska Air, DeWALT, NBC and Experian.

You can read his internet marketing blog at Marketing Pilgrim and reach him at andy.beal@gmail.com.