In today’s post, we speak to Eric Frankel, the CEO/Founder of AdGreetz. AdGreetz is cloud-based SaaS platform empowering brands to deploy personalized video/ads/messages on 18 channels.
Key Stat
AdGreetz currently serves 80+ Fortune 500 companies with 20 channels deployment on Email, Twitter, Apps, SMS/MMS, Beacon, Facebook, Tinder, Facebook Messenger, YouTube, OTT/Television, Website, Instagram, Snapchat, Print, Display, Jumbotron, Outdoor, On Pack, POP, Premium Video. We are currently seeing 100% year-on-year growth for the past 3 years. We are based in Los Angeles with offices in NYC and London. AdGreetz currently has 20+ employees.
Monthly Revenue
Our average monthly revenue is approximately $200K and growing. We’ve doubled our revenue every year since 2015, finishing last year with over $2M dollars. We project doubling that number again in 2018.
Give us some backstory – What inspired your company
I saw a dire need. Since it was invented, 6,000 years ago, advertising has focused on awareness. The future of advertising is a combination of awareness and personalization to create activation.
With the availability of brand, social, third-party, cookies, publisher, contextual, user-generated and geo/browser data, brands need to use every resource available to personally connect with customers. It’s not enough to tell customers that their product exists – they need to create hyper-relevant, data-driven messages or ads with specific calls to action.
How did you validate the idea?
By signing 40+ Fortune 100 companies and increasing engagement and activation exponentially, we took our platform from idea to proven success.
During the launch phase, did you maintain a full-time job? (or even currently)
I jumped right into AdGreetz, leaving my job as President of Warner Bros. Domestic Cable Distribution. It was scary to jump into such a new, uncertain project. I’ve never wavered from my complete optimism, though. I can spot innovation that will shake entire industries and there’s no doubt that personalization is changing advertising as we know it. If these past years have shown anything, it’s that AdGreetz is leading the marketing industry into a new era of hyper-relevant advertising.
Can you describe your business model and how you feel it works?
Brands pay us to empower them to take their advertising from one-size-fits-all, which doesn’t really fit anyone, to millions of unique versions that reach and activate potential customers. We offer a full-service platform for companies to develop advertising campaigns that personally connect with customers and call them to action.
Did you do any email marketing/outreach?
On an average week, we write about 50 emails to new prospects and we send about 150 follow-up emails to companies who we’ve previously written to. We can barely keep up with demand. We do about 15 – 24 custom per week presentations to show companies their existing marketing and how the AdGreetz platform can revolutionize their advertising efforts.
Once you developed a user base, how have you maintained it?
Based on the success of a partnership, many brands commit to year-long plus collaborations.
What software/platforms/tools have you utilized since launch? Which have worked/not worked?
Prezi has been a dynamic tool for prospective client presentations.
How did you fund your startup and how does it make money?
We raised $10.5M from our CEO and key industry executives. As AdGreetz breaks even and generates a profit, we continue to reinvest in the company to continue our “first-mover” and leadership position.
To date, what have been your biggest challenges as a company? What have you done to overcome them?
AdGreetz’ biggest challenge is convincing brands to lead the pack and test how smart, hyper-relevant, data-driven, personalized ads can build stronger relationships with customers and increase engagement, activation and revenue.
What are your plans for growth?
Continue to raise awareness for AdGreetz unique capabilities, increase our sales team and offices worldwide.
What would you do differently, If you had to do it all over again?
Try to raise more money from the get-go to reduce financial stress in early years.
Any advice to give
A successful start-up needs a strong idea/product, the correct leadership/team and the financial ability to survive during the early and difficult times.
Lastly, if anyone reading this wants to know more about your company… where do we send them
I encourage all your readers to visit Adgreetz.com to discover how engaging personalized video can truly be.
