Interview: Jason Kelly, CEO Sociomantic Labs

Sociomantic Labs ist eine Demand Side Platform (DSP), die Real Time Bidding-Lösungen für Werbetreibende und Agenturen aus dem E-Commerce-Bereich anbietet. Kürzlich überraschte das erst 2009 in Berlin gegründete RTB- und Targeting-Startup nun nicht nur mit seinem Launch in Nordamerika, sondern auch mit einer Internationalisierung an der Spitze. Jason Kelly ist bereits ein alter Hase im RTB-Geschäft, der ehemalige VP des amerikanischen Medienunternehmens Time Inc. und Chief Revenue Officer von Admeld war seit Jahresbeginn für die Intergration Admelds in den Google-Konzern zuständig. Ab sofort leitet er also  die Geschicke der ziemlich gehypten Berliner, die inzwischen in über 45 Märkten auf sechs Kontinenten aktiv sind.

Grund genug für uns, beim frisch gebackenen CEO einmal persönlich nachzufragen. Im Onlinemarketing.de-Interview spricht Kelly unter anderem über das technologische Waffenarsenal des jungen Unternehmens und verrät, was ihn als Amerikaner an dem deutschen Jungunternehmen sonst noch reizt.

Arne Behr: As a very young company, Sociomantic has grown in the EU and worldwide. With the recent announcement saying they have doubled up impressions volume on a quarterly basis for the past six quarters, my question is still: what’s the compelling thing of the German Startup for you?

Jason Kelly: First, it’s about the technology. Our platform is built for performance on a global scale and without both we wouldn’t have been able to grow as fast as we have into 45 markets. When we deliver the additional sales that advertisers are looking for at the right cost, and we do it on a continuous basis, they invest more into the platform – it’s as simple as that. Second, it’s about the people. Our team members have a lot of history in both performance marketing and eCommerce, so they’re able to speak the language of the customer and help them use our technology to reach and exceed their business goals.

As the first demand-side platform to develop RTB technologies specifically geared towards the needs of eCommerce advertisers, what’s the new and crucial product that is going to out rival all the competitors?

The most important development we have brought to eCommerce advertisers is bringing them real-time display optimization on „their terms“. Advertisers want sales, not just clicks, and our technology is built to bring them more sales within their cost-per-action goals, but also to take into account more long-term KPIs such as the customer lifetime value. They also really like the fact that we deliver all of this optimization in true real-time, with every metric they care about appearing in our interface just milliseconds after the action happens, and every optimization algorithm taking this stream of real-time data into account. Finally, transparent pricing is key to assuring our clients that we are mutually aligned for success.

What are your plans for the future, especially in North America, but also in the rest of the world?

In terms of expansion, we are striving to couple our technology with the best customer service, which means delivering local service whenever possible. This is why we have recently opened up our offices in New York, São Paulo, and Moscow (in addition to our existing offices all over Europe) to support customers in these markets, with more local operations to come in the next months. The challenge, of course, is finding the right people, so we spend a lot of time and energy making sure we find the best people for the job, whether that job is coding a real-time global infrastructure, or delivering the best consultation and services in the business.

What do you want to reach as a company in the next couple of years?

We want to build the best-performing real-time advertising platform powered by the most passionate team in the industry – and we want to do it on a global scale. In the long run, our goal is to help advertisers really harness the value of their own data by more closely connecting the worlds of customer relationship management and online marketing.