Following recent announcements from engagement advertising leader SocialVibe, we spoke to John Capano, newly appointed CMO, about his new role.
Otilia Otlacan: Congratulations on your recent appointment as CMO at SocialVibe! Why SocialVibe?
John Capano: I’d been hearing more and more about SocialVibe in the market, and last year I had the chance to work with them on a client engagement. I came away very impressed with the team, the network and their vision for the future of our business. As a marketing executive that has spent the better part of my career focused on helping clients’ realize value in the digital space, it was an exciting opportunity to join a team with a shared vision and a dedication to evolving how digital media engages consumers.
Otilia Otlacan: You’ve been with Wunderman, a top ranked digital agency for nearly 3 years. How do you feel about joining an ad tech start-up, what would your main challenges be, if any?
John Capano: Well, SocialVibe isn’t so much a start-up. We’re young but we’ve been around for over 5 years and we’re a leader in the space. There’s no other company that I’ve come across that does consumer engagement better than SocialVibe. So, coming from the world’s leading “consumer engagement agency” to what I consider to be the world’s leading consumer engagement media network wasn’t as much of a leap as you’d think. Another key point about why I joined SocialVibe, versus any other company in our space, was the fact that we developed and leverage our own platform, unlike many of the other networks that are just serving inventory on someone else’s platform. This has enabled us to deliver more value for the client because the platform is designed to be flexible and enable the type of creativity that cuts through the clutter and gets results.
Otilia Otlacan: SocialVibe works on a pay-per-engagement model that is still uncommon in many agencies. What do you see as a main hindrance in adopting this model on a larger scale?
John Capano: Ultimately, bringing any innovation to a mature market is a challenge. With SocialVibe, our challenge is to help agencies and brands better integrate us into their business models. Selling the concept and benefits of the engagement model and showing how much more efficient and effective it is in the digital space is easy. We have over 500 client engagement campaigns with global brands that show how well this type of marketing works. So, we’re focused on helping clients better integrate us at the planning and strategic level. There’s no arguing with the results. Our job is to help clients translate those results into terms and metrics that they are comfortable with. That said, any brand or agency who cares about results is going to want to have SocialVibe in their media plan.
Otilia Otlacan: Could you share with us what your priorities will be at SocialVibe?
John Capano: My priority at SocialVibe is relatively simple because the current team has done such a great job on the product and on delivering value to the brands and agencies. I’ll be helping the company to evangelize the value exchange model and to continue to deliver this model to more brands, agencies, and publishers as we continue our rapid growth in the marketplace.
Otilia Otlacan: Is there anything else you would like to tell us?
John Capano: I’d just reiterate how excited I am to join the world class team at SocialVibe. To be able to play a part in helping to evolve the marketplace toward more effective marketing and more measureable results is very exciting for me as a technologist and a marketer.
About John Capano
John Capano joins SocialVibe’s Los Angeles headquarters as its Chief Marketing Officer, bringing to the company a unique combination of marketing, brand-building and technology experience. Capano was most recently the Senior Vice President of Digital Strategy at Wunderman, one of the world’s top ranked digital and marketing services agencies, where he advised clients such as Toshiba, Southwest Airlines, and Invisalign on digital and social strategy. Before joining Wunderman, Capano was head of digital strategy for RiechesBaird, a business-to-business brand development agency, and he was the co-founder and managing partner of Mead, Coen & Pure, LLC, an entertainment and emerging technology consulting practice in Los Angeles helping clients like Pepsi, Visa, and General Motors leverage emerging technology and entertainment to solve marketing challenges.
About SocialVibe
SocialVibe is a digital advertising technology company that powers engagement advertising for some of the world’s top brands. In today’s online landscape where consumer attention is hard to capture, SocialVibe’s interactive engagement ads guarantee active attention to a brand’s message across premium sites, and its pay-for-performance model assures that advertisers only pay when a consumer engages with the ad. As the pioneer of the value exchange advertising approach for brands, SocialVibe enables advertisers to engage with consumers when they are most motivated to interact with a brand experience, such as while playing a game or seeking access to premium content. SocialVibe is based in Los Angeles, California with offices in New York, Chicago and London. For more information, visit www.socialvibe.com or check out twitter.com/socialvibe.
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