The Emperor is not wearing

Flyon Wally — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 01:08:36 -0400

The Emperor is not wearing any clothes. Rumors of mismanagement abound. Listen to what the former spot runner employees, and some present employees are saying. Importantly template based self-service ads are a fad and cost more in the long run because of spotrunner's extra commissions and fees. The few clients that still use spot runner are getting wise to spotrunners high cost game. Their competitor CheapTVSpots beat spot runner on quality and price and beat them to market nationally and internationally and via their web video and mobile ad system. So, what's left of that market? Look, Microsoft sniffed around spot runner and likely got a nose full. Microsoft probably feels that they can start their own TV ad agency for $15MM - $20MM without the baggage. The shills and investors who hype spot runner on blogs are going to have more than a bit of egg on their face when the walls come a tumbling down. Then again, maybe I'm completely wrong, and the thick hype and spin will cause it to float. Oh, to be a fly on the wall at spot runner, or better yet, that Microsoft boardroom. ;-)

Spot Runner lays off 50 as it realigns its strategy

Venture Beat — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 12:40:40 -0400

Spot Runner, which lets advertisers place to local TV stations via an online service, has laid off 50 of its employees as it realigns its strategy.

The Los Angeles company says the layoffs amount to 10 percent of its employees and it plans to hire another 40, said Rosabel Tao, a spokeswoman. The news of such drastic changes is surprising, since the company has plenty of cash in the bank from a $51 million round announced in May.

“People have jumped to the conclusion that it’s because of the economy,” Tao said. “That’s not true.”

Earlier this year, Spot Runner started to reorganize itself along three business lines. The company started by selling TV ads for small businesses. It helped automate the media-buying process and created relationships with a variety of media companies.

The business works like this. A local business owner visits the Spot Runner site, selects a business category and chooses from a lot of generic, pre-taped video ads. Each comes with voice-over text that can be customized. Then it tells Spot Runner how much it wants to spend on TV air time and which media markets it wants the ads to run in. Earlier this year, the company bought GlobeShooter and gained access to 2,000 filmmakers who can create pre-fabricated commercials. Ad customers can customize those ads for as little as $500.

Now Spot Runner has added online search, radio and other local sales channels to its portfolio. It hired former Interpublic CEO Mark Rosenthal as head of media platforms and vice chairman. It also added Joanne Bradford, former head of MSN, as executive vice president to oversee national marketing services. Kurt Weinheimer runs local marketing services. With these new businesses, the company has to let go of some people where it has too many workers, such as local TV, and hire people in areas such as national account management, Tao said. Rosenthal’s new businesses haven’t launched yet.

The May round’s investors included media companies Daily Mail and General Trust (DMGT) and Grupo Televisa, along with investment institutions Legg Mason Capital Management and Groupe Arnault/LVMH. Existing investors also invested, bringing the total funding raised to date to $111 million.

At the time of the funding, Nick Grouf, CEO of Los Angeles-based Spot Runner, said the company would expand into online and offline media, both domestically and abroad. Spot Runner’s previous investors include Allen & Company, Battery Ventures, Capital Research and Management, CBS, Index Ventures, The Interpublic Group, Tudor Investment Corporation and WPP.

The startup just got some competition from search and online ad giant Google, which recently announced the general availability of its TV ad program. It also competes with Jivox.

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The Emperor is not wearing

Spot Runner lays off 50 as it realigns its strategy