NEW YORK – Simulmedia, a targeted television advertising company, announced that it will shortly close a new $6 million round from existing investors Avalon Ventures, Union Square Ventures and Time Warner Investments, to help finance Simulmedia’s fast-growing targeted ad network. This is the company’s third institutional round of financing, which combined with a seed round, totals $27.25 million.
“It is highly gratifying to have your early stage investors stay with you as you grow,” says Dave Morgan, Simulmedia’s founder and CEO. “And grow we have. Over the past 9 months the company has gone from 20 to 40 employees and revenue has doubled every quarter.”
The Simulmedia Audience Network is the world’s first data-driven, targeted ad network for television. Its TV viewing prediction and analytics platform is powered by data from more than 17 million set-top boxes. The company uses its platform to more efficiently target ads reaching all 116 million US TV households including analog homes. To date, the company has successfully run over 200 campaigns for 11 different media agencies on behalf of 24 different TV advertisers in the entertainment, travel, and financial services categories. In each campaign, Simulmedia has delivered more target audience reach at an average cost lower than 75 percent of the other networks purchased by its advertisers.
“Twenty years ago, the average US household had access to 28 TV channels. Today, households have over 165 channels and have access to over 10,000 programs per month,” says Mr. Morgan. “The average household reach of a 30-second spot was 20 percent in the 1970s. Today, it’s less than 5 percent. Television advertising’s reach problem is the challenge we are built to help resolve.”
“Simulmedia’s impact on the $70 billion US TV ad market is an irresistible force meeting an immovable object,” says Rich Levandov, Managing Director, Avalon Ventures. “We like Simulmedia’s odds in this match-up. The team has done it before.”
In a recent campaign for a major national travel brand, Simulmedia was the second most efficient network and delivered broadcast network scale at cable efficiency. The campaign covered 13% of the advertiser’s target audience of 25-54 year-olds for only 9.4% of budget. Simulmedia delivered nearly 87% more reach than the network average. The company reached more unique 25-54 year-olds at a lower cost per person than two of the big broadcast networks.
“We really like our investment in Simulmedia–they are game changers for the TV industry. It’s the first company to bring web-like ad targeting to television and do it at scale, and the company is being rewarded with real revenue growth,” says Rachel Lam, Group Managing Director, Time Warner Investments. “We expect Simulmedia to be a very big company.”
Simulmedia, Inc. (www.simulmedia.com) is a New York City-based television ad targeting company and operates the Simulmedia Audience Network, the world’s first data-driven audience network for television. The company’s targeting platform leverages predictive technologies and anonymous viewing data from more than 30 million US TV viewers to help national advertisers and their agencies better reach their target audiences, and better measure the results. Simulmedia aggregates TV audiences through partnerships with TV system operators and national networks and reaches all 116 million US TV households. Over the past year, the company helped national marketers and their agencies target, deliver and measure more than 200 campaigns and see results which were 25-300% better than they were able to achieve with traditional TV ad scheduling and targeting methods.
Founded and led by Internet entrepreneur Dave Morgan, Simulmedia is backed by Avalon Ventures, Union Square Ventures and Time Warner Investments.
