Mediaweek- Spotlight: SeeSaw Networks CEO Peter Bowen
This article originally was posted on July 28, 2008 at Mediaweek.
By Katy Bachman
In just two years, SeeSaw Networks CEO Peter Bowen and and his team have built a vast network of out-of-home video inventory that boasts 36 million weekly impressions—more than prime-time TV–at a fraction of a cost. To simplify and optimize buying, SeeSaw also manages SeeSawads.com, an online platform through which advertisers can customize digital network buys, by demo, geography, venue and more recently, lifestyle.
SeeSaw is one reason advertisers and agencies now take out of home seriously. Before SeeSaw there was no scale in the OOH video network business, which was made up of hundreds of companies across dozens of venues. Either out-of-home video companies needed to consolidate (the land grab hasn’t happened yet), or inventory had to be aggregated across companies. Bowen saw timely potential in the latter strategy, since more advertisers are looking for alternatives to traditional media.
“Based on my experience as a marketer and having seen the rise of cable and the Internet, we felt the same dynamic would occur in the out-of-home video space if it was easier to buy,” says Bowen, who spent 22 years at H.J. Heinz Co. The company even came up with some common metrics provided by each company, in order to aggregate inventory across networks.
“There’s that old adage that if it can’t be measured, it can’t be bought,” Bowen says.
Since SeeSaw introduced networking to the OOH video business, the company has grown from six to 36 affiliate companies representing 25 place-based categories in 22,000 venues, from casinos and bars to office buildings, airports and university campuses. Some of the companies affiliated with SeeSaw include the biggest players in the out-of-home video business such as Ripple, Ecast, The University Network, and PumpTop TV. By 2009, Bowen says the company’s goal is to add networks adding up to 100 million gross impressions.
SeeSaw actually got its start as two companies. Bowen and Jeff Dickey (a former executive with Premier Retail Networks) were looking to harness the fragmentation in the space by adopting a network model. At the same time, software and technology experts Monte Zweben, the former founder of Blue Martini Software and two other Blue Martini execs, Rocky Gunderson an Scott Hines, were going at the business from a different route, looking at how technology and intelligent software could be harnessed to ease the complicated planning and buying process.
Both teams were pitching to Sutter Hill Ventures in late 2005. “We quickly assessed the strengths of both teams combined would be a strong marketplace entry,” says Bowen. Sutter Hill sunk $10 million in SeeSaw, launching the company in November 2006.
For the first year, SeeSaw was very focused on developing the online optimizer platform. “The company has gone through a metamorphosis from a technology company. As we’ve grown, we focused on our outward presence, so now we’re more of a sales and marketing company of this space,” Bowen says.
According to Bowen, some six-figure campaigns have gone through the SeeSaw system. “We’re seeing a shift. Clearly some advertisers are testing the waters, but we’re also seeing the digital OOH space gain some momentum with major advertisers who are using this medium as a strategic opportunity,” says Bowen. Microsoft, for example, used SeeSaw’s lifestyle targeting to help it launch Zune. Bloomingdale’s, which initially tested the medium, ditched a traditional TV campaign for a geographically-targeted OOH video campaign to promote a new store opening in Los Angeles, using video networks within a 30-mile radius of the store’s location.
So far, there is no other company that does what SeeSaw does. “What we bring to bear on this business is a technology that is hard to duplicate. We also have a running start,” says Bowen. “As the medium starts to gain momentum, we’ll see it take off—just like cable and the Internet.”
