How does new media make money?

Media Future Now's event: How does the new media make money?

The overall points I took away from this event were that businesses in the new media space are better off specializing in their core competency and concentrating their business model on it, rather than trying to be generalists. Starting a new business, it is important to reach out to the current networks that either speak to your niche or contain your targets (workplace giving at corporations, Hollywood). Plan for scale and think about the long term from day one -- this will benefit your own employees and make your business more attractive to investors.

Notes: How does new media make money?

Pete Synder, New Media Strategies

Mari Kuraishi, Global Giving Foundation

Mari

• $250 Billion in philanthropy per year just from US]
• Global Giving a project of The World Bank
• Getting started
• 2000 – end of .com boom
• Turned down angel money from IFC and HP
• Business model
• Take 10% of donations


• Tapping into existing networks that focused on giving
  
• Employee giving through work\
• Driving traffic
  
• Traditional media mentions
• Paid search
• Viral
• Partnerships with aligned sites: business development
• Contributions: bundled – batches are better for developing country distributions
  
• Average varies
• $130 - $150/trans
• Use multi-channel media to encourage offline givers to move online
• Uses online A/B testing within projects showing suggested donation amounts
• Many small donors online, few big check writers = 2/3rds money coming in online
• Target 90% of total funds online
• Competition: focuses on small international projects, provides only online presence for charitable projects. Doesn’t mind competing with larger interests where they provide better value added for donors.
• Most “competitors” are collaborative with more specific foci (works with Kiva)
• Planning
  
• Daily standup meetings
• Stats are projected on a “board” for quick look status
• Viral promotion
  
• Giving competition
• Winners recruited over 1,500 donors in their own networks
• What is the urgency
• Make the process easy
• Make the process rewarding
• Future
  
• Real-time feedback using mobile and video
• Tapping into people’s online identities
  
• Plug-in the giving opportunity into pre-existing social networks
• How does the giving process fulfill donors and complete their identity?

Pete

• Started NMS from his apartment in 1999
• Got money from 3 Fs
• Turned down VCs
• Profitable in the 3rd month
• Started with 1 employee, had 3 in first year
• Now has 96
• Investors forced Pete to plan for scale and end game from day 1
• Research clients before you pitch: Monitoring online communication about clients
• Hollywood was where the “progressive” marketing people were for initial market penetration with high dollar word of mouth online intelligence campaigns
• Competing clients
  
• No competing clients in the same space: different services for players in the same market
• Takes on D’s and R’s but not when they are fighting each other
• Competitors
  
• NMS is one of the few that actually combines the online monitoring and research with the action side of WOM and buzz marketing
• Many others do one or the other
• Smaller focus is a better business plan
• Planning
  
• 3 year plan
• Annual plan
• Quarterly plan
• 3 times a week, all managers gather for “huddle meetings”
  
• 7 minutes
• Standing up
• What’s going on
• What people need help with
• Gets everyone on same page
• Retention
  
• Not focused on eternal retention
• How to make NMS the best 3 years of an employee’s career?
• “We sell fear and opportunity”
  
• Something is being said about your brand, or
• You have something that needs attention/buzz
• Start with background on what people are saying online about target brand or person
• Viral
  
• Influence the influencers to generate buzz
• Facilitated 250,000 online conversations about Ironman movie
• Future
  
• Change the way brands communicate
• 35% of corps and brands are buy into the concept
• Refining the corporate culture
  
• Grow
• Keep small company feel