Vox Media has very quickly become a huge force in online media. The owner of websites like SB Nation and the Verge is seeking to create a whole new generation of premium properties online as a way to attract big advertisers. One way it’s doing that is by extending its home-grown technology to brand marketers.
“We know that globally there’s a $250 billion global advertising opportunity, of which 70 percent is built on brand building and purchase intent — the top of the funnel, to use the marketing jargon,” Bankoff said. “But you look at the web, which is a $25 billion slice of that pie, and 80 percent of that is direct-response. It’s search, which is great, but it’s bottom-of-the-funnel stuff.”
Bankoff sees a big market opportunity there that hasn’t been captured, which is to go after high-value brand advertising on the web. That’s because it’s not clear where ad dollars will go as consumer attention moves from traditional publishing and TV to digital media. At least, how those dollars will be translated online.
“We believe there’s a big opportunity there, but someone has to go after it,” Bankoff told me.
That someone could be Vox Media, which is a bit of a media and technology company. Vox has built its own technology — its own CMS, its own live blogging platform, etc. And now, in its effort to attract brand advertisers, it’s making some of that technology available to others. Vox Creative is a platform that allows brand advertisers to build campaigns natively on the company’s technology.
Check out the video above to see how Bankoff thinks Vox Creative and the rest of its product initiatives will help to make Vox an attractive space for brand advertisers.