The CEO of Lotame may not fit into Hasselhoff's Speedo but his passion for measuring time spent in a Cost per Mom world is unparalleled. John Swords catches up with Andy Monfried who talks about new advertising metrics and his preferred choice of cheese head in his best Al Pacino voice.
Swords: Andy, it’s great to meet you.
Monfried: Nice to you meet you, John
Swords: Your company is pronounced LOT-of-me?
Monfried: No, it’s LO-ta-me.
Swords: I sort of like LOT-of-me better. It could be the leading ad targeting system for large people.
Monfried: That’s an excellent idea. I’ll bring up the idea for a name change to the board.
Swords: Legend has it that you are a big dude, something like 10 feet tall?
Monfried: Well, not 10 feet tall, I’m 6’4”.
Swords: Did you know David Hasselhoff is also 6’4”? I’ve often wondered if people of the same height hang out together. Are you friends with him?
Monfried: No, I actually don’t know the Hoff.
Swords: Do you wear a Speedo?
[Alarm sounds]
Monfried: Uh.
[Alarm sounds]
Monfried: I need to call you back. We need to evacuate.
Swords: No problem.
...
Monfried: Sorry about that. Didn't the same thing happen with Joe in your last interview?
Swords: It’s becoming a common theme for the series. Let's pick up things with -- what does Lotame stand for?
Monfried: Locate, target and message. Locate who you want to target, target them, and then have the right messaging to that user inside of social media.
Swords: In your best Al Pacino impression, tell me exactly what Lotame does.
Monfried: Whoo ah! … I saw a tremendous oversupply of ad inventory that users were creating through page impressions on social media sites…
Swords: You know, you sound more like DeNiro than Pacino, but continue.
Monfried: Well Lotame is taking this oversupply of social media, applying kick-ass technology to the social sites and then allowing brand advertisers to really customize and target users instead of inventory.
Swords: How do you mean “target users instead of inventory”?
Monfried: We like to say advertisers are buying a profile and a person …instead of an impression.
Swords: Buying people? Do you operate offshore?
Monfried: No we’re headquartered in Elkridge, Maryland.
Swords: Did you know that Jonathan Ward from "Charles in Charge" was born there?
Monfried: I had no idea.
Swords: I may have to call you “buddy” during this interview.
Monfried: Feel free.
Swords: I recently read an article where you talked about new metrics for buying people. How is buying people a new thing?
Monfried: Yes, so the new metric is targeting people based on engagement.
Swords: Give me an example.
Monfried: Let’s say you want all women…
Swords: Yes!!
Monfried: …who have commented on mommy issues, or being a mother, or daycare. That is, you're targeting a woman who influenced or created content. We’re talking about buying that woman or that profile, based on time rather than based on an impression.
Swords: So Cost Per Mom is the new CPM. How is it time based?
Monfried: We will expose her to a brand for 30 seconds or one minute over the course of a month or so.
Swords: I saw on your website that you have a technology called the “Time Spent Tracker” which looks fine except for the red marks all over the graphics. Very John Madden of you. Won’t that be distracting to users?
Monfried: That's exactly what we intended. We want advertising to be 110% distracting. So, that's the intention.
Swords: That’s really intrusive.
Monfried: John, you do know those lines are just for explaining how the system works, right?
Swords: Let’s change the subject. Are there dangers when you target influencers such as producing a negative response?
Monfried: Sure. When we target influencers, we look at the sentiment of each comment and we only serve ads to those with a positive attitude.
Swords: You know, I’ve never personally seen a campaign from your system.
Monfried: Well you would never get an ad from us because you are an obscene person. I can just tell by this interview.
Swords: Are Undertone and Audience Science your main competitors?
Monfried: Yeah, they're on our radar. I wouldn't say we directly compete with them, because they all have their own kind of spin on things.
Swords: So, when you were younger, did your parents think you would grow up to be a pirate?
Monfried: Uh, no.
Swords: Before Lotame, you were a founder of advertising.com.
Monfried: Not a founder, but just in an early core group of people. I leave that to two gentlemen named John and Scott Ferber who founded the company.
Swords: At your physical size, did you ever threaten to kick the shit out of anybody for sales?
Monfried: No, but I hug the crap out of everyone I meet. I squeeze them until the IOs come out of their pocket.
Swords: I bet your HR department loves you.
Monfried: I know it's a no-no in business, but I don't care. If you do business with me, you get a big hug.
Swords: Do you pick customers up off the ground?
Monfried: If it's a big order, yes. Seven figure IOs get a lift off the ground; six figure IOs just get a bear hug.
Swords: If I were to tell you I could get you any kind of cheese head, what type of cheese would it be?
Monfried: Muenster.
Swords: Good choice.