When I think about potential new websites that I’d build, I usually look for underserved niches–gaps to fill. There are so many companies building large generalist sites that you really need to do something different to have a chance at building a real business. At least that’s my take. Emerge Media has a completely different philosophy. They are a Chicago, IL based company that is “taking on the essential roots of everyday tasks and breathing real life into the technology behind them.” They’ve been launching new sites in broad niches with a lot of competition. It seems crazy to me, but it might just work.
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For some people a rug is a functional thing, for others it’s art. A handmade carpet can drastically improve the way a room looks–it can bring an exotic flair to an otherwise muted decor. The problem with handmade rugs is that they are often made by children. Child labor continues to be a problem across the world, and it’s especially bad in the handmade carpet industry–there are more than 250,000 children currently being exploited. Goodweave is a Washington, DC based non-profit that “is helping to combat this problem and transform the rug industry by certifying child-labor-free rugs and by providing education and opportunities to rescued and at-risk children.”
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I’m not sure if travel is any more popular today than it used to be, but it sure seems like it from looking at what my Facebook friends are up to. Travel is a massive industry because it’s both a leisure activity and a business activity, and that also makes it a very complex industry. People who work in travel need to keep up with the latest news and trends, so they often turn to Northstar Travel Media. They’re a Secaucus, NJ based “business information and marketing solutions provider to the $300 billion U.S. travel, tourism and meetings industries.” It started in 1939 with Hotel & Travel Index, and today Northstar Travel Media reaches more than 1.7 million monthly unique visitors online and 1.1 million people through subscriptions.
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As I mentioned earlier in the week, media and advertising are all about demographics. Unless you have the targeting capabilities of a Facebook or Google, it’s almost always better to build your properties targeted at a specific group. For SheKnows it’s all about women. They are a Scottsdale, AZ based company that has built a “women’s lifestyle media platform” that “allows brands to distribute authentic content and integrated advertising at scale.” What kind of scale? 40 million unique visitors per month. That’s a lot.
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Most media businesses are about advertising, and most advertising is about demographics. That’s why a lot of media companies focus on owning a portfolio of properties that cater to similar demographics. For Radio One the focus is on targeting African-American and urban consumers. The company is headquartered in Lanham, MD, but they have stations and offices all across the country. If your music tastes are similar to mine, there’s a good chance that you are familiar with one of Radio One’s properties.
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I always enjoy when two people with moderately funny last names decide to get married. There’s always the question of will they combine their names with a hyphen? The best potential that I’ve ever heard of was Weiner-Butt, but the couple sadly did not decide to hyphenate. These funny combos can also be created by business partners. Imagine that a guy with a not very funny last name of Wong and a guy with a pretty funny last name of Doody decided to start an ad agency. They could try to invent some random brand name that doesn’t say much about who they are, or they could smash their identities together and start WONGDOODY (the company logo is equally smashed together). The agency is based in Seattle, WA and “is the most awarded independent advertising agency on the West Coast.” They’re relatively small, but they’re doing some serious work.
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It wasn’t long ago that words like “builder,” “maker,” and “product” were reserved for talking about real, tangible things. Today it seems that those are all buzzwords used to talk about the production of web sites, apps, and other digital goods. There are all kinds of companies making software products, and one with a very interesting model is Betaworks. They’re a New York, NY based company whose “ideas, people, capital and data are united in an imaginative way that enable us to create beneficial and transformative products for the socially connected world.” Their goal is to define the future of media with their products, and they’re off to a good start.
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You’ve probably looked at thousands of ads already today, but chances are that you haven’t thought about how they got in front of you. Behind all of those ads is a group of people who made a complicated set of decisions to get that specific message to you in a specific place at a specific time. Managing those kinds of decisions at scale is really hard. Centro makes it easier. They’re a Chicago, IL based company that works “to improve the lives of those working in the advertising industry by building media management software that helps marketers engage with audiences across all digital channels in the most successful manner possible.” The goal is put all of the options in one place so that advertisers can make the best decisions for themselves or for clients.
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We all have a story to tell, but sometimes it’s better to let someone else tell it for us. That’s why so many brands use marketing and advertising agencies. Not only are they professional storytellers, but they are also able to offer an outside perspective (at least at first). Haberman is a Minneapolis, MN based agency that calls itself “modern storytellers for pioneers.” This means “creating integrated marketing programs in partnership with the leading entrepreneurs, innovators, healers and heroes of our day to help their companies and organizations grow and succeed.” I guess Haberman is a bit picky about the kinds of stories that they tell.
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It still amazes me how much old media drives new media. If you’re already famous, you can almost instantly carry that fame over to social media. A show like Shark Tank can drive millions of dollars in online sales. And the right tv mention can crash a website. What I think is cool is that we’re starting to see the reverse happen. People who are famous on Youtube, Twitter, or Instagram are carrying that fame over to more traditional channels. In short, it’s all coming together, and marketers need to be ready for it. Fullscreen is a Los Angeles, CA based agency that is aiming to build “the first media company for the connected generation—together, right at the intersection of tech and entertainment.”
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If you’ve watched as much Seinfeld as I have, you’re familiar with Lloyd Braun. He’s the guy who George Costanza’s mother wants George to be more like. Anyway, the real Lloyd Braun was Larry David’s lawyer and manager. I’m not sure how similar he is to the tv character, but let’s hope it’s not very. Anyway, the real Lloyd Braun moved away from the legal side and started a company called BermanBraun. The company recently rebranded as Whalerock Industries, but it’s still “a media company for the 21st century, one where the best and brightest minds come together to create world-class content, spanning all mediums and screens.” They’re based in Santa Monica, CA, and they’re behind some brand that you may be familiar with–for instance they’re managing Moviefone for AOL.
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It’s easy to forget how important certain ecosystems have been to the development of human civilization. With agriculture, industry, and transportation, we can make any place on this earth habitable. In many parts of the world there are groups of people who are still living close to the land–they depend on nature for their survival and their ways of life. In fact, there are “nearly 400 distinct indigenous peoples [who] depend on the Amazon rainforest for their physical and cultural survival.” That’s why Amazon Watch was founded in 1996. They are a San Francisco, CA based non-profit that partners “with indigenous and environmental organizations in campaigns for human rights, corporate accountability and the preservation of the Amazon’s ecological systems.”
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I love shows like The Wire, Breaking Bad, and The Sopranos. One common theme in all of those shows is money laundering. When you earn a lot of money illegally, you have to find a way to make it “clean.” While pop culture has made me well aware that money laundering happens on a large scale domestically, I had no idea how big the problem is for developing countries. Not only do these nations have to deal with the initial problem of criminal activity, but they also have to deal with the fact that these activities are sucking money out of their economies. Global Financial Integrity is a non-profit organization that is working to stop this. They are based in Washington, DC, and they promote “national and multilateral policies, safeguards, and agreements aimed at curtailing the cross-border flow of illegal money.”
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There are generally two ways to market to people. You can build your own audience, or you can rent somebody else’s audience. That’s why a lot of companies are built around building audiences to rent to other businesses. FierceMarkets is a perfect example. They are a Washington, DC based company that specializes in business-to-business media, publications, and marketing. The end goal is to “connect companies with the right audience and ensure each campaign generates the highest possible return on investment.”
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When I was a little kid, I’d visit construction sites with my dad, the architect. I absolutely loved it, but at some point I lost interest in the construction industry. For me building things online seemed more interesting than building homes and offices. If you disagree, you might want to check out Hanley Wood. They are based in Washington, DC, and they are “the premier media, event, information and strategic marketing services company serving the residential and commercial design and construction industries.” For nearly 40 years they have been the go to source for “builders, remodelers, residential and commercial architects, multifamily and public-works executives, and materials dealers and distributors.”
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I’ve always thought that it was weird that big companies use one agency for advertising on tv, another for PR, another for interactive, and probably three more for other types of marketing. We’re seeing more and more “integrated” agencies, but what that means depends on the agency. Tierney is a Philadelphia, PA based agency that does advertising, PR, media, interactive, crisis management, and branding. Their tagline is “Divisions, yes. Divided, no.” They’ve been doing it this way for a long time, so it’s not like they slapped a bunch of independent pieces together and called it integrated.
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I’m pretty sure that I said this like two weeks ago, but when it comes to advertising, creative and placement are both very important. A terrible ad can sometimes be effective with the right media buys, and a fantastic ad can be effective with almost no placement. However, if you put the two together, you get outsized results. Horizon Media is “the largest independent media services agency in the world.” That “independent” part is important because so many media agencies today are held by large holding companies. New York, NY based Horizon Media’s tagline is “business is personal.” I think that says a lot about how they stand out from other agencies.
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We usually think of advertising geniuses as the people who come up with the creative, but the media side (where you show the ad) is often just as or even more important. Everyone has noticed a disastrous ad placement, but how many of us take note when a marketing message appears in the right place at the right time? The people at Crossmedia certainly do. They are a New York, NY based (with offices in LA, Philly, and Germany) “independent channel-driven agency delivering communications planning, media services and international account management.” They offer a variety of services that are built with “an equal mix of business, media and agency performance.”
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Local marketing has been all the rage for the past few years. All kinds of startups have popped up to help small business owners use technology to reach more customers. It’s easy to forget that local marketing doesn’t only happen online. Radio and live events are two marketing channels that have been complemented instead of replaced by technology. That’s good news for Townsquare Media, since they’re a Greenwich, CT based “local media and entertainment company that owns and operates radio, digital and live event properties in 66 small to mid-sized markets across the country.” The last part of that sentence is important because it means that they have jobs all across the country. Townsquare Media owns more than 300 radio stations, and that makes them the third largest owner of radio stations in the U.S.
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At this point you’ve spent a lot of your life in a classroom. Do you think you’d be better off if you spent more or less? I lean towards saying less, but only if I would have put that time to good use. I tend to think that a lot of today’s kids are overworked when it comes to school, but that’s probably because I went to a very competitive private school. There’s a lot of research that shows that more time in school leads to better outcomes, and The National Center on Time & Learning is a Boston, MA non-profit that “is dedicated to expanding learning time to improve student achievement and enable a well-rounded education.” Even though it pains me to say it, The National Center on Time & Learning probably has it right.
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If you use Facebook, it’s almost a guarantee that you’ve seen a friend post a story from Upworthy. The company’s goal is to get their content to go viral, and they’re really good at it. The difference between them and companies like CollegeHumor and Spartz Media is that Upworthy tries to focus on stuff that is both awesome and meaningful. Let’s be honest; most viral content is silly and mindless. Viewing it often makes you feel stupider (especially when you consider the way it’s displayed with ads and slideshows engineered to pillage every bit of attention they can get from you). Upworthy (which isn’t really based in any single location) calls itself “a mission-driven media company.” The goal is “to encourage that debate by curating great pieces of content that represent different sides.”
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I may be a dog person (this is my puppy Garçon), but I love big cats. They are the ultimate land-based predators, which is why I hope to one day see a mountain lion in the wild (from the safety of a car though). The problem with big cats is that there is one predator higher up in the food chain: us. Whether it’s protecting livestock, killing them for their fur, or infringing on their habitat, humans have had a severely negative impact on populations of big cats across the world. It’s time to make up for an ugly past, and that’s why Panthera exists. They are a New York, NY based non-profit that “is the world’s leading conservation organization devoted exclusively to the protection of wild cats.” Panthera got its started in 2006, and since then has been working to protect 37 species of wild cats.
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I’m fascinated by Japan. I’ve never been there, but my wife and I are planning a trip there for our honeymoon. There’s an intensity to the culture that I absolutely love, but there are also some things I just don’t get. Pepsi flavored Cheetos is one, and anime is another. In case you didn’t know, anime is the Japanese word for animation. But here in the U.S. it’s typically used to describe “a Japanese-disseminated animation style often characterized by colorful graphics, vibrant characters and fantastic themes” (at least that’s what Wikipedia says). While anime isn’t for me, A LOT of people love it–and most of them are adults. Crunchyroll is a San Francisco, CA and Tokyo, Japan based company that caters to this audience by offering “the leading global video service for Japanese Anime and Asian media.”
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I think that live sports is just about the only thing keeping broadcast television alive. I’m waiting for the day when DVRs aren’t even necessary because everything is always on-demand. Unfortunately, it’s still going to be a while because the media behemoths have a lot to lose and a strong enough market position to put up a huge fight. We’ll get there eventually, but it will happen faster if upstarts like Bedrocket Media Ventures start to see a little success. They are a New York, NY based company that “is leading a revolution in creating networks and programming that people love, delivered through the cloud.” While they may be trying to beat the establishment, they’re getting a little help in the form of $15 million of venture capital investment.
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We all know someone with hypertension (aka high blood pressure)–nearly a third of people over the age of 20 in the United States have it. It’s a seriously health issue, but it’s common and relatively easily treated. Pulmonary hypertension sounds like it would be a similar malady, and in some ways it is, but it’s also much rarer and far more serious. Because it’s currently an incurable condition that can be extremely deadly, you’d think that it gets a lot of attention from the medical establishment. However, because only about 1,000 new cases are diagnosed every year, it doesn’t. Pulmonary Hypertension Association is trying to change that. They are a Silver Spring, MD based non-profit that is working to “to find ways to prevent and cure pulmonary hypertension, and to provide hope for the pulmonary hypertension community through support, education, research, advocacy and awareness.”
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Lately it seems like we’ve looking at companies with previously trendy business models. We did the subscription gift box (Glossybox), the flash sale site (Rue La La), and now we’re doing the daily e-mail (obviously my favorite model). What usually happens when a business model gets hot is that a ton of copycats come along and quickly oversaturate the market. Most of them eventually fail, and people see that as evidence that the original business model was unsustainable. It’s really just that most people who copy other business aren’t very good at running businesses. PureWow is a lot like DailyCandy or even Thrillist (they even have the same backers), but they’ve chosen a distinctly different market. The New York, NY based company realized that most women-focused online content was made for the under 30 crowd, so they decided to change that.
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Marketing is all about attention. It used to be that marketers would try to interrupt you while you were paying attention to something else (like a tv show or baseball game), but that’s changing as most of us get better at ignoring distractions. Brands are realizing that if they want attention, they have to earn it, and that’s why they’re turning to social. And if they need help with that, they may want to turn to an appropriately named full-service media agency called Attention. Attention is based in New York, NY and Los Angeles, CA that “drives measurable business results by integrating social behavior across the customer journey.” Even they’re willing to admit that it’s not just about the attention.
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About 10 years ago I walked into a random McDonald’s in upstate New York and was shocked to see that the menus were on flat screen TVs. I’d never seen that before, and this was the last place I would have expected to see it (I’m pretty sure this was a test McDonald’s or something). Today digital displays are cheap and everywhere, as they provide an easy way to communicate messages that might change over time or require interactivity. At least it’s supposed to be easy, but technology often gets in the way of itself. Industry Weapon is a Pittsburgh, PA based company that offers a platform called CommandCenterHD that makes controlling digital media simple by centralizing and organizing it.
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I have a favorite Yankees blog, and I occasionally participate in a Cornell Hockey forum. I follow a few athletes on Twitter, and sometimes get into sports debates on Facebook. I’d imagine that I’m a pretty typical sports fan in terms of my social media and web use–my attention is fragmented across a lot of different sites. LockerDome is a St. Louis, MO based startup that offers a social media platform to help “professional athletes, brands, media personalities, and other sports properties” reach their fans wherever they’re consuming content online. The idea is that LockerDome acts “as a social hub [for athletes and brands] to amplify their overall social media strategy.”
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I didn’t watch the Oscars last night. (I can’t stand award shows, and I rarely go to see movies in the theaters.) But I hear that advertisers are treating the event like the Super Bowl for women. Entertainment is a massive industry that only keeps growing, and what I find most interesting about it is how much attention begets attention. Argo probably wouldn’t have won Best Picture without Ben Affleck’s name attached to it, and nobody would read stories about a drug addicted mess if her name wasn’t Lindsay Lohan. That’s how Hollywood works, and that’s why marketing and advertising are so important. Trailer Park is a Hollywood, CA based “entertainment marketing agency” that serves “a broad spectrum of clients, including theatrical, television, home entertainment, videogames, publishing, music, brands and more.” They work with huge names and know how to keep the attention flowing.
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