Audience platform for affluent influencers, profitable in Q4 2010, attracts top sales veterans from Time Inc. and Yahoo! as heads of major markets, and doubles sales force to keep pace with 500% ad growth
NEW YORK– Martini Media (www.martinimediainc.com), the audience platform for advertisers seeking the $100K+ audience (Affluentials) across digital media, today announced a sales force expansion that increases its presence across major U.S. markets. The move adds offices in five markets—Boston, Chicago, Detroit, Los Angeles and Texas—bringing the total to seven offices (including San Francisco and New York City); and it puts two of the more accomplished salespeople in digital advertising in charge of key territories.
“Cynthia and Kim are two of the most accomplished sales leaders bridging the gap between traditional and Internet advertising. By having them lead sales efforts in the markets where major clients live, we’ll be better able to create customized content programs that go way beyond the norm for display advertising”
“We’re going to grow revenue 20 times in the next three years,” said Skip Brand, CEO of Martini Media. “The right leadership in sales is a critical step.”
As part of the expansion:
- Kim Notario joins Martini as VP/Midwest Sales out of Detroit. Notario was ad director for Kelley Blue Book (KBB), the auto industry standard. She also led the Yahoo! auto sales division as top performer and received company honors three times, and was ad director for the formative years of Engage.
- Cynthia Serrano joins Martini as VP/Eastern Sales out of New York. Serrano was digital sales director for Essence Communications online, a division of Time Inc. A former media planner with Ogilvy and FCB, she also ran her own ad agency out of Orlando, FL, and sold for CNET in that network’s heyday.
“We’re building a powerhouse team to pioneer the branded response market,” said Adam Chandler, Chief Revenue Officer of Martini (http://martinimediainc.com/about.html). “Cynthia and Kim are two of the most accomplished sales leaders bridging the gap between traditional and Internet advertising. By having them lead sales efforts in the markets where major clients live, we’ll be better able to create customized content programs that go way beyond the norm for display advertising.”
This is the latest in an influx of sales talent for the fast-growing company. Martini has been on a tear in the past year, more than doubling in audience (to 65 million unique visitors/month) and quintupling in advertising. In September, the company brought in Chandler, then head of PointRoll sales (http://bit.ly/9jAuqm); Chandler had previously created national display businesses for Yahoo! (including off-network partner sales) and led the Yahoo!-NBC’s joint venture for multicultural advertising.
Post-Chandler, sales have quintupled, bringing the year-to-year pace to 500% growth. Last month, Martini announced the development (http://bit.ly/eE2jk8) of a proprietary technology for branded response led by new Board member Usama Fayyad, co-founder of Audience Science and creator of Yahoo! Research Labs.
About Martini Media
Martini Media is the digital media platform for reaching American consumers with household incomes over $100,000: 25% of the Internet population with 70% of the spending power. Martini operates a publisher network of 1,000 lifestyle and business sites where this audience is most engaged. For publishers, Martini provides revenue support across banner, video, mobile, email, social, local, and data solutions. For more than 300 premium, luxury, and B2B advertisers, Martini leverages proprietary audience data and provides a variety of custom programs and rich media solutions to meet both direct response and branding needs. Martini was founded in late 2008 and is funded by Venrock, Reed Elsevier Ventures and Granite Ventures, along with a number of prominent angel investors. For more information, visit www.martinimediainc.com.
Source: Business Wire / PDF