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We're going to switch gears now. We're going to talk about a topic that has been really impacting a very specific part of the market. We're going to talk about how streaming has been disrupting traditional business models in linear television, and we're going to look here at those advertising spending trends, because of course it's impacting how big tech companies approach
the space as well. Data that emerged justice month from Group M shows that the ad industry is estimated to have pulled in a trillion dollars in annual revenue for the first time, and tech companies are getting a huge chunk of it. We're going to bring in Mark Douglas, founder and CEO of Mountain, a tech company that specializes
in TV advertising software. Mark, I think about a lot of the discussions we've had with you all year, ones that have really surrounded political ad spending, Ones that have kind of talked here about the dominance of Amazon and Netflix getting into different types of streaming, different types of viewing that have helped them capture a little bit more of that ad spend. When you think forward to next year,
what's going to be the new story here. What is going to be the latest that we see in terms of what seems like a parabolic move in this industry.
Yeah, well, I think the big thing is that all of the major streaming networks are streaming first. Now that you could see that, Like in meetings I have with a lot of networks during the year, they went from what do they do about their linear business to their just entirely focused on streaming consider linear legacy business. And I think all of them see and why I say, well, I mean Disney obviously, Netflix, others see it as a real big growth opportunity for the first time and long
time for the industry. Because this industry has been so dependent on a small number of very large advertisments, and now that customer base is broadening very.
Rapidly, what will be the next catalyst for advertising? Obviously the election was huge one, but we need to know.
Well, I think ESPN really going all in on streaming that's happening in twenty twenty five.
I think that's a big deal.
Sports, any sports content tend to do really well. You see Netflix bringing WWE to Netflix, I think it's going to be a great moment. And that's only like a less than two weeks away, So you're just going to see a lot more sports content. I think Disney and others are really stepping up in terms that are going to step up in terms of the amount of content. But it ultimately is all about sports right now.
Just people. The advertisers just love sports content.
Okay, there's a specific ad I watched last night. I kind of lost my mind a little bit because I was like, Wow, wouldn't have thought that this was the audience for that market Monday night football. Okay, I'm watching it last night, Mark, and all of a sudden, did you see this advertisement? The SAP ad about technology, data centers, nuclear power and the CHROs and needing to be in the conversation? Yeah, you see that a professional audience is
being targeted through sports. Sports is kind of the vehicle for everything. It feels like when you look at some of these ads that are being brought to the platforms, what does that mean in terms of different companies trying to target different audiences. Do you think that that you'll see different types of ads going on to these major sporting events because they're becoming ever more important to reach people.
Yeah, So there's two things happening at the same time. One is you have some advertisers who are kind of still hooked on that big moment. You know, tomorrow you're going to have big moment two NFL games on Netflix, but they're kind of just still really attracted to reaching a lot of people at the same time, and sports is the scent one of the few opportunities to do that.
But then at the same.
Time, you have a lot of new, small and mid sized advertisers who coming into market for the first time, and they don't care about big events, they don't care about sports, they care about revenue for their business. They just want to reach that perfect person that's going to buy from them. And so both of those trends are
growing at the same time. And so obviously in this case, I'm doaling your candidate to buy SAP software, you know, unless you're a CFO of a company, so you know they're definitely going for that, like, let me reach as many people as I can. I think that's actually going to decline over time because the ability to target the right consumer is just getting better and better.
On streaming TV, well, why waste your dollars, right, I mean, if it's so expensive to get that kind of that ticket on Monday Sunday night football, Then why not go to other places? Why not go to Instagram for example, if you're trying to be more targeted in terms of where you're getting your viewers.
Yeah, I mean that that's part of this, Like the bifurcation is that these large advertisers that are led by cmos that I think are just used to that form of buying media. But go to the average e commerce site. You know, Maltain works with one Wheel, we work with hex Slad. They would never play sads like that. Their goal is to find that consumer is going to buy literally that week, and to reach them and put their
product in from the first time. And they're comparing streaming TV to Instagram and the way you're saying, whereas in this case, you know, SAP, Yeah, clearly was not.
So it's just.
Younger digital buyers versus more traditional media buyers just kind of attack the opportunity different ways.
Yeah, Mark, I mean, it's very easily break upable into the different demographics. So it's TikTok for you know, up to a certain age. Then it's maybe Instagram, then Facebook, and then you know the very oldest among us perhaps the actual newspapers and TV stations.
Yeah.
The one thing to keep in mind is more people watch TV a day than what then use social media. So about three point five billion people worldwide use social media daily for an hour, and five point five billion people a day watch TV and they.
Do it for three hours.
So, you know, feels like Instagram, Like social media is the new medium, but it's a small ad that you can swipe by really easily versus an ad on a you know, so on a six point five inch phone screen versus sixty five inches on your wall, and more people watching it and doing it for longer. So TV is not only starting holding its own, it's it's making a comeback in terms of providing both the reach, the targeting and the big screen with thirty seconds a time
to get your message across. As an advertiser, that's really appealing. It's very very appealing for advertisers to get that.
Are the middleman still as important as they were? Or is there the potential now for advertisers to go directly to the broadcast outlets?
Yeah?
So I mean that's literally what man does. We provide a self service solution, mainly gear to small mid sized businesses, but we increase they have larger brands using our platform, and so I wouldn't say the middleman is gone, because when you're spending big budgets, you want a lot of strategy around it. And that's what all the holding you know, advertising holding companies do what the group them who you
mentioned earlier, you know what they provide. But increasingly, I would say a majority of the newer advertisers coming in this market do it themselves that they're coming in and they're like, I'm used to doing this on Instagram, I'm used to doing this with Google, and I'm now going to be used to doing it on streaming TV. So you so again, the customers are kind of changing. At the same time, the industry is just.
Really briefly, mark any stadium is going to be renamed next year, Shanelli heard you yesterday talking about.
And Nissan Stadium sound stadium.
Yeah.
Who would be able to buy something like that or who would be in the you know the top names.
Well, I don't have a name off the top of my head, but I know a few years ago it's all about crypto, you know, naming stadiums about crypto.
I don't think we're going to see that trend. So there is a new name. It's probably gonna be a little more traditional, all.
Right, Mark, thank you so much. That is Mark Douglas, founder and CEO of Mountain, looking forward to speaking to you again in twenty twenty five.