New venture outsourcing blog

I was introduced to the CEO of Analog Analytics, Ken Kalb, through a mutual friend, Neil Senturia, late last year.  Ken had a great idea for a new company - he wanted to bring the improved accountability & optimization of online analytics to offline advertising.  What was even better, is that he already knew how to do it!

The value proposition is simple:

• Build and deliver a better ad with greater returns
• Measure the ad performance in real time
• Measure the mix of media spend to improve overall advertising returns

How it works

1. The advertiser creates a call-to-action in their ad to text a short-code or call a toll-free number.  For example: “Text COFFEE to 123456 and receive a free cup!”
2. Consumers who hear or see the ad (depending on whether it’s radio, TV, newspaper, magazine, etc.) respond by calling the toll free number or sending the SMS message.
3. Analog Analytics tracks, sorts, and presents the information to the advertiser in real time through an analytics dashboard (think something like Google Analytics).

Do people respond to SMS ads?

According to a September 2007 m:metrics report, the response rates to SMS ads in Europe are between 6%-9% depending on the country.  The response rates in the US are higher, 12%, but our penetration is only 17% vs. 35%-75% in Europe.  This shows that while the US market is still developing, even with significantly higher penetration rates, the response rates are still probably going to be at least 6%.

The people

One of the great things about working with startups is the people you get to interact with.  In addition to Ken, we’ve been working very closely with Tom Buscher and Scott Willson.  Tom worked with Ken at a previous company doing telephone stuff, so he knew just how to get the backend infrastructure up & running in no time flat.  Scott is a “Coder, bike racer, husband, father” who has a great command of both user interfaces and Rails.  Both guys are really smart and it’s been great working with them; we’ve learned a lot from them both.

The future

The product looks great and it’s continuing to get better and better every day.  We’re very excited about being able to help the Analog Analytics team implement the first version of the software behind this fantastic new company.  If you do a lot of advertising, you should definitely check out what they’re up to, look at their report samples, & let them know you’re interested in increasing your return on ad spend!

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