This post presents the first part of a three-part interview with Nate Pagel, CEO of innovative new video ad network Podaddies
. As you'll see, Podaddies is carving out a pretty unique space in video advertising that works (and measures) across both streaming and downloadable media formats.
Look for parts two and three tomorrow morning and afternoon, respectively...
Greg Verdino: The name Podaddies would seem to imply that you are mostly focused on podcast advertising. Is that a fair assessment?
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Nate Pagel: Nope. We are focused on video, because that is what we know. We are focused on areas that others are not really approaching in a way that is compelling or robust – and that includes podcasts and other downloadable media like P2P – but it also includes UGC, Social Media, viral video and (I hesitate to say this word as we all do with the phrase ‘Web 2.0’)… widgets. We started with podcasting, in a way, but see a broader market that our technologies and expertise lend themselves to – like the iPhone - at the same time (and this is crucial for a startup) we are focused on stuff that was simply not monetized two years ago at all.
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GV: There are plenty of video ad networks and there hardly seems to be a shortage of inventory, especially among tier 2/tier 3 publishers – so what makes Podaddies different from the others?
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NP: Hmm. Maybe I’m not hearing the question correctly. There is definitely a shortage of ad inventory. In fact, that alone is one of the key things to understand what is happening with online video, UGC and really (a majority of traffic and GB) on the internet today. I define inventory as ads. There are not enough ads to monetize all of the video being watched on the internet today. We may be the only video advertising technology company that (a) works online and off, (b) works with both Flash and QuickTime, (c) can distribute and track viral video and files on P2P network, (d) has its own network and ad sales team, and (e) works with third party ad networks.
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GV: What do you think are the key challenges that keep more advertisers from investing more money in podcasting as a media channel?
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NP: There is really one. Agencies. Ok, there are two. Podcasting is not that big (compared to web-based online video consumption). Yet. What do I mean? It’s easier for a bigger agency to spend money in more traditional, broader-based channels like TV. So they do that. Innovation is being driven more by advertisers than agencies on the whole. Having said that, we’re working with some larger agencies that certainly are beginning to get it. And certainly publishers and broadcasters all have podcasts and are looking into ways of measuring and creating more value around this newish mode of distribution.
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GV: What is Podaddies doing to make that happen?
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NP: Lots of things. We have technology and are an ad network. The technology does the tracking and ad serving for both online and downloadable media. But a parallel and important part of answering this question is understanding that we have some experienced, creative folks on our team that have done things like this before – created compelling advertising and marketing products and campaigns for major brands, created technology for rich media delivery for multiple networks. Our founding team of three has over 30 years experience combined in these areas.
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GV: Tracking ad supported media after download seems like an obvious innovation, but most of the “biggies” seem to be ignoring this space -- or incapable of addressing it. Why has this been so challenging and how did Podaddies crack the code?
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NP: They have been ignoring it because: it has not been their focus, it is a different way of thinking, it would require a retooling of all of their technology, it’s a different sales process and it’s not yet a billion dollar market. A half billion dollar market is big enough for any startup. It’s also a new way of thinking, it took a long time to crack the online media ad code – and it’s still being cracked – and we are one of the few companies doing that right now both online and off.
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