DOmedia Bringing Buyers and Sellers Together
Gail Chiasson, North American Editor
It’s not always easy bringing buyers and sellers together, but DOmedia appears well on its way to solving that problem through a new planning tool, now in Beta, which will facilitate that situation.
Jeff Bell, chairman of DOmedia, told us during the Digital Signage Investor Conference in New York City last week, that the company has been building the largest database for alternative media and will soon also have the largest database for digital, as well.
DailyDOOH sat down for an exclusive interview with Bell, a former senior executive with Chrysler (vice-president of product strategy) and Microsoft (corporate vice-president of global marketing for the Interactive Entertainment Business) prior to joining NCT Ventures – an investor in DOmedia – and Andy Mansinne, DOmedia CEO, long-time marketer of wines and packaged goods (former vice-president marketing at Foster’s Wine Estates Americas and senior vice-president at Brown-Forman Wine).
“We were both formerly on the client side, and we saw opportunities in alternative and digital media,” said Bell. “With media so fragmented, and campaigns that might be local, regional, national or international, we looked at the best way to use technology to bring buyers and sellers together. We now have the most extensive database of traditional, digital and alternative media in the industry. We’ve invested as a conduit with software for buyers and sellers.”
DOmedia’s software offers buyers broad visibility and comparison on targeted media, while, for sellers, it offers complete user control of what, when, and under what terms media is made available. Things such as lead time, production specs, location, availability and pricing are clear, and one of the advantages is that it can reduce or eliminate non-value-add activities. (However, final negotiations still lie with the agency.)
“We’re investing heavily in acquiring industry research and data to provide the analytical supports buyers demand,” said Bell. “Our software saves 60%-to-80% of time in planning. We’re trying to reduce the pain points.”
To date, DOmedia has more than 700 media sellers and over 300 media buyers listed, with more than $500 million in monthly transactable inventory available through DOmedia. And it has been getting more than 6,000 inventory searches monthly.
DOmedia is currently operating only in the U.S, but it is in discussions internationally, and is building a database for each country. It will be out of Beta and open to all sometime in the first half of 2010.
Follow DailyDOOH