CEO Spotlight: Marc Kidd, Captivate Network, New York
This month we welcome Marc Kidd, CEO, Captivate Network, New York.
- You’ve spent much time in the TV and sports-related fields, but the digital signage industry knows little about you. Please tell us your background and how you got into this field.
After college, I joined Jim Host and Associates in Lexington, Kentucky. I started selling local advertising for the University of Kentucky football and basketball game-day programs. Host acquired the rights to the NCAA Final Four Radio Network and Final Four Program, added radio and television rights to top universities like Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama, Auburn, Florida State, and Texas. We created corporate sponsorship marketing programs for the NCAA, a number of major college conferences and universities and added grass roots events like Hoop it Up and Air it Out. From Host, I joined Winnercomm, a Tulsa, Oklahoma, content production company which provided programming to networks like ESPN, Fox Sports, NBC, Golf Channel, and CBS. In 2009, The Outdoor Channel acquired Winnercomm. I joined Captivate from there.
- What are the main things you learned in your 40 years experience that you can apply or are applying to the Captivate network?
Talented people empowered to create relevant content, working with great brands, can be a powerful force in the marketplace. For Captivate, that translates into working with top content providers and brands to create compelling programming that delights our affluent, time-pressed viewers in an impactful way.
- And what do you see as your personal strength now that you have been in your position for about a year?
Knowing what I don’t know, and using the talent we have among our employees, board, investors, and companies with whom we do business to develop solutions that meet the needs of our stakeholders.
- The sale of Captivate by Gannett Company to Generation Partners didn’t really take Gannett out of the picture since it’s still co-owner with General Partners. So what did the sale really offer Captivate? And how much say do the owners have in the day-to-day operation?
The investment thesis was that Captivate was not a core business to Gannett and would be better off as a stand alone company with a focused management and a diverse board to guide its growth. Today, we have the benefit of Gannett’s continued involvement on a board of committed, talented individuals who have experience and are passionate about helping Captivate grow.
- And what did the purchase of Office Media Network (formerly known as Wall Street Journal Office Network) offer Captivate Network? In what percentage of buildings did the two companies overlap?
There is very little overlap between the two companies’ footprints. For us, OMN offered a chance to consolidate the office media market in the US, adding approximately 750 buildings and increasing our overall impressions delivery by more than 60%.Today, the combined network reaches more than 10.3 million unique viewers each month, and delivers more than 56 million impressions for a typical advertiser’s four-week campaign. In addition, we added talented employees, a different screen format to extend across the real estate landscape, and Lake Capital to our board.
- Who are you going to buy next?
We are very focused on integrating OMN into Captivate. But we are always interested in opportunities that add value for our shareholders and can strengthen the company.
- Have many of the buildings that have Captivate now added the Office Network, and vice versa. Can you please give us some figures?
Our acquisition of OMN may result in some buildings supplementing Captivate’s existing elevator screens with the larger lobby screens, but our primary intent is instead to offer a solution to buildings for which our elevator screen solution is not a fit. For example, OMN had a real strength in suburban office buildings that tend to have fewer floors than Captivate’s typical downtown, high-rise office building. Bringing OMN into Captivate allows us to better serve real estate customers across North America, with more flexibility and options that can be easily customized to serve their needs, while obviously allowing for more rapid expansion of the overall Captivate Network.
- Captivate claims to reach 700.000 upscale professionals. Are these the combined figures for Captivate and Office Media Network? From where do these figures originate (ie What measurement service)? Do you use any other measurement tools?
Our combined network actually reaches more than 10.3 million unique viewers each month. These numbers come from Nielsen’s measurement of the combined network, which provides us with a broadly accepted, industry-standard measurement currency. We also use syndicated research tools like MRI and Nielsen’s IMS.Most importantly, Captivate maintains our ‘Office Pulse’ research panel of more than 6,000 people who work in our buildings. These business professionals provide regular feedback about our programming and the advertiser programs that run on the network, giving us ongoing and timely insights into the issues and trends that impact our audience – data that we find extremely valuable in serving the needs of our advertising and real estate customers.
- I notice on the web that the Office Media Network still refers to being composed of WSJON and WSJON Events. Does this mean that Captivate also gets more news now from Wall Street Journal? Is there some kind of a license agreement for both networks, or? Please explain.
We are working with The Wall Street Journal to develop them into our ‘preferred business news” partner across both the elevator and lobby networks under the Captivate brand. We will continue to work with our real estate partners across our footprint to develop events, activities and compelling programming that meets the needs of our advertisers and viewers.
- Your content is geared to news that people would want at various times of the day. How often does your content change, on average, and is the same content on the elevator screens as on the lobby screens? How many screens in total do you have in each?
Currently the content on our elevator screens is a curated mix of news and information managed by a professional editorial team. With access to more than 100 content sources, Captivate’s editors select the stories of most interest and relevance to business professionals, and edit them into brief synopses that support Captivate’s unique viewing environment and editorial voice. The mix of story types – primarily business, news, sports and lifestyle – does indeed change throughout the day and by day of week. We report from 7am to 7pm, with the day divided into three dayparts, allowing us to reflect the news as it develops and as viewers go about their day. Stories are updated regularly across all hours, with ability to also report on breaking news as it happens.
The lobby screens currently operate differently, with business news stories that are updated throughout the day by The Wall Street Journal editorial team and streamed to the screens via RSS feed. In the coming months, we expect to see more cross-pollination of content across screens, with Wall Street Journal content starting to appear on the elevator screens and Captivate’s curated news mix beginning to supplement the WSJ business news on the lobby screens.
Across North America, we currently have more than 10,000 elevator screens and more than 1,100 lobby screens.
- Captivate refers to its audience in buildings as professionals and decision makers, yet I know that a large percentage of the people using the elevators are office staff at all levels. How do you qualify the different audiences? When you research your audience, do you include them all or just senior executives?
Yes, like any professional office environment, people in our buildings run the gamut from CEOs to office staff. While much of our business is helping advertisers reach business decision makers, many of our advertisers recognize that regardless of title, Captivate’s viewers have a household income that is twice the national average, and they’re significantly more likely to be responsible for their household’s purchasing decisions as well.That said, for advertisers trying to reach business professionals and decision makers, we can deliver them more efficiently than most other media, not just because there is a higher concentration of them in our buildings but because they actively engage with Captivate. Our Nielsen audience measurement covers all viewers and provides a detailed understanding of the demographics of our audience, including industry, job type and level of seniority, along with how they view our screens and for how long.We provide this information to clients to illustrate our ability to efficiently deliver their target consumer, both in the absolute, and compared to other media options. We also ensure that our Office Pulse research panel represents the broad audience in our buildings, with respondents running the range from senior C-suite executives to junior office staff.
- Are there plans for expansion beyond North America? If so, when and where? If not, why not?
We see tremendous opportunity within North America and plan to focus most of our growth efforts within our current territories for the near future. The Captivate programming service adds significant value to commercial real estate properties, improves the tenant experience, and makes the workday more enjoyable, which leads to happier tenants and a more desirable building for potential leasing.We are actively pursuing more distribution in the USA and Canada and will continue to aggressively add more buildings and more markets to our network footprint. That said, we are open to opportunities to expand internationally, as long as it adds positively to Captivate’s business.”
- Are Generation Partners or Captivate interested in making more acquisitions or mergers?
With the integration of The Wall Street Journal Office Network nearly completed, we feel like we have established a strong leadership position in the digital place-based sector. With this will certainly come potential opportunities to lead further consolidation, and we are open to exploring these opportunities as they arise.
- Have you plans to add any new technology in the near future? And do you involve social media with your screens in any way? If so, please give examples.
Captivate was founded more than 15 years ago by three very smart, forward-thinking engineers, who built a technology-driven solution that is robust and scalable. In the year that I have been with Captivate, I have been particularly impressed by the resourcefulness and creativity of our Engineering team. We continually evaluate new technology and plan to invest to ensure that our network delivers the solutions that support the needs of our advertising and real estate clients.
Regarding social media, our editorial team regularly features tweets from thought leaders and influencers in the worlds of business, management and education. We also provide opportunities for viewers to contribute content, like our popular ‘View From Your Office’ photo series that allows viewers to share what they see when they look outside their office window. We also have a highly engaged audience that provides regular feedback via social media channels, including our Twitter feed.
- Where do you envision Captivate by the end of 2015?A larger version of what we are today: a profitable, fast-growing, industry-leading innovator that delivers highly valuable solutions to advertisers and the commercial real estate industry, led by an extremely talented group of individuals who care deeply about the company, our employees and our customers. And a very fun, always-evolving place that challenges us to think creatively each and every day.
Categories: CEO SPOTLIGHT
