Magazine Publishers of America
Online media and technology company Burst Media came onto the scene when most people were still using a dial-up connection to visit this thing called the World Wide Web. In 1995, former print media ad sales execs Jarvis Coffin and Bob Hanna wrote a business plan on a napkin during a long cab ride in Manhattan. Their idea: Help online publishers generate revenue from their websites through advertising. The men recruited David Stein to build their first online ad server, which places advertisements on publisher websites based on what the Burst Media team could sell. Though there were others in business with similar ideas at the time, the Burst founders were unique in that they worked primarily with independent website owners whose nimble operations allowed them to move swiftly.
Like a cable router connects to the Internet in seconds, Burst Media rapidly reached success. In 2000, it became the first online advertising network to become system certified by media auditor BPA Worldwide. In 2001, the company made the top 25 on the famous Inc. 500 list of profitable businesses. Today, the Burst advertising client list includes heavy hitters like Wall Street Journal, Nestle, AT&T, and Sears who place their ads on some of the thousands of independent publishers Burst represents.
Companies of different sizes are served in different ways. Larger publishers that want to grow their reach or improve their ad operations through the use of ad management capabilities use Burst's adConductor technology and outsourced professional services. Those services include ad operations, publisher recruitment/management and billing functions. The adConductor Inventory Exchange allows publishers to extend their online reach to brand safe sites that mirror their own online audience to complete the budgets for their customers.
Smaller operators, on the other hand, typically use the Burst Network and Burst Direct media business. Burst represents these publishers in front of advertisers who want to place their message in front of highly targeted audiences. Because Burst owns its own technology for ad serving and ad management, it's more flexible in delivering client goals. Just last year, Burst launched its first vertical networks that include the Moms Network and the Baby Boomer Network.
Although Burst is not immune to the recession's impact on ad spending, they continue to focus on ways to add recognizable value to web publishers, whether they are smaller publishers seeking help in selling the value of their site, or larger publishers seeking to extend their brand to smaller high quality sites through the creation of a branded ad network. The business has grown into a $27 million company with 20 account executives located in the U.S. and in the U.K. Back in 1995, two former print executives saw the future. Now, not only online retailers, but traditional brand advertisers use online ad space to market their products, and the ad network business has a substantial role in delivering those messages.
by Dara Pettinelli
