Monetizing Free Traffic That Refuses To Convert To Premium: SocialVibe CEO Jay Samit, Los Angeles (Part 7)

Sramana: What have been some of the significant milestones in terms of building the company?

Jay Samit: The key was getting advertisers to get understand that the key things to measure in a post-impressions world are the attention, engagement, and the rally. We have had campaigns like Toy Story where half of the people who saw the advertisement went on and shared it with their friends. That is a home run for the advertiser. The earn media goes through the roof. We don’t charge for that. That is the real epiphany in the industry.

As that has been learned, we have expanded it over and over again. We are probably the best venue for launching new television shows. We are the best at getting you and your friends to tune into something that is being shown right now. They can remind their friends who the guests are on shows. We do this for all of the major networks. We also get the same kind of response when it comes to getting people into movie theaters.

The harder-to-reach demographics have also been interesting. Women over 60 are an example of that. Households with incomes of over $100,000. We are able to reach so many people that we can find the perfect audience. We sell loss-less media buys where you are paying only for those people you want to reach.

Sramana: In terms of measuring the rally effect, do you have a mechanism to measure who shares what?

Jay Samit: Absolutely. It is completely transparent to the agency and, if they choose, to their client the brand manager.

Sramana: How do you do that? Are you discovering the Twitter handle?

Jay Samit: No, we keep it completely private. We do it because the unit itself is served by us. When you choose to share it on Facebook, we can see how many other people see it.

Sramana: Is this effect shifting the way advertisers are allocating their budgets?

Jay Samit: This year I think we will see TV budgets moving onto the Internet for the first time because of the acceptance of our model. That will be a big step for us.

Sramana: I run a program called 1M/1M. We have a free version of the program where we do strategy roundtables every week. Five entrepreneurs come in and pitch to me live in front of whoever is watching. We also have a curriculum program that is entirely behind the paywall. There are a bunch of services include business development, channel partners, investors, media relations, and private versions of the roundtables. The paid version is a $1,000 annual membership fee. Listening to you, it makes me think there is a potential way to bring this to a broader audience who may be able to get some of the functionality for free by watching ads.

Jay Samit: You probably have a bounce-off rate of people in the high 90s. You put up a high pricepoint because of the quality of what you are providing. If people do have a manner to get at some of that for free, they will jump at that chance. You can later up sell them for discrete pieces. Pandora has an annual model, but they also allow people one-day access for watching an advertisement.

Sramana: This has been a very interesting story. I look forward to following your company.

This segment is part 7 in the series : Monetizing Free Traffic That Refuses To Convert To Premium: SocialVibe CEO Jay Samit, Los Angeles
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